Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1897-12-16
A Problem of government Involved.

volve serious anG complicated problem
of government. For this reason, he
writes, many Republican Congressman
are still "on the fence" with respect to
the project. They would like to have
the United States control" Hawaii I;
but they cannot think of having state.
hood in the American Union accorded
possibility. In short they want some
thing that our constitutional System
has made no provision for, and that is
an annexation or alliance which will
not confer either now or at any future
date the political rights now enjoyed by
the States of the Union. The accessions
Of territory in the past, proud as Ameri.
cans are of these have put severe
strain unon the principal of the equality
Of the States in the Senate The three
remaining territories, Arizona, New
Mexico and Oklahoma, are not being
very cordially welcomed into the sister
hood of States by the substantial
classes of the country. And while their
Of time, conservative students believe
that the free coinage of States should
stop with our present boundaries and
sven the prospect that Alaska may some
time be crying out for Statehood is not
pleasant.
But what assurance, the correspon-
dent askes, have we that IL Hawaii il
annexed it will never become State
Of the Union? 1t is not 9afe 10 leave to
the ''powers that will be- tho decision
when she is prepared; for when party
feeling runs high, majority, alarmed
at the prospect of vanishing power,
might reach forth to save itself by
grasping Hawaii, and giving her an
electoral vote, and. once admitted,
there could be no undoing the mistake.
Nevada has never been fit for A merican
Statehood. Idaho and Montana are
hardly better, and so who can say that
unfitness will be sufficient to keep
Hawaii out of Statehood provided she
once becomes part of the soil of the
chief American republic?
The proposal to make Hawaii a
county OF California is believed to be
impracticable. If this were done,
something heretofore unheard OF in the
way of county government would have
to be devised, and the electoral truubles
in such case would be merely trans
ferred from the Union itself TO one of
the States. How would the Californ-
ians in close gubernatorial or legisls.
tive contest like to have the voters on
islands thousands of miles away over.
rule a majority OF the people of the
rest of the Stats? 1t ia not regarded as
wise to make any stipulation that the
islands shall remain permanently as q
territory" Besides being one of the
worst systems in the world, our terri
torial government has always been re-
garded as an anomaly which time N lust
sweep away. Hence the cautious Con
gressmen are saying, Hawaii ought
never TO be Stats-we have too many
OF that kind now; she ought not to re-
main territory, IS that ia only tenn
porary expedient anywhere; she cannot
well become a part of any present State
aud so what arc wo going TO do with
her?''
Tho correspondent concludes that the
situation affords a great opportunity fol
originality in statesmanship. In an as.
piring young Congressman who has
carefully studied constitutional SYSTEMS
would only devise colonial plan which
would meet the neeus Of such conmuni.
ties as Hawaii, and at the sams time
be fully in accord with our funda-
mental political theories, he would
awake to find himself famous. Every
body is looking for some such plan, and
saying that commission should bs sci
to work to devise it, but ia there any
guarantee that such a commission
would be successful iu its search
Hawaii is thought to be but fore.
runner OF Cuba, and perhaps Other
scattered parts of the Western Hem
isphere. 1t would be but natural that
the weak and poorly governed little
States of Spanish America should rush
towards the United States, with oul
door once opened. Circumstances have
brought these Pacific islands within
American reach little earlier than the
rest; but once admit these, and there
is no knowing where the colonial ex-
tension appetite may end. II Hawaii il
to be annexed, than il ia of enormous
Importance that some plan should be
discovered for its government. This il
the puzzle which makes it impossible
for goodly number OF the more care
fIl lawmakers to say whether they
arc really for or against annexation as
the case now stands.
This careful and interesting reyjew
shows tho difficulties that stand in the
way of annexation, and adds con.
vincingly to the arguments against the
scheme. The allusion to "the poorly.
governed little States of South A merica,
rushing to be annexed is also timely
and pertinent. The memory of Grants
attempt to annex San Domingo has moi
died out, and it is on record that in
opposition to even the proposition Of
sending commission to investigate San
Domingo. Senator Morrill, of Vermont
at that time said:
And now it ia proposed to initiate a
step here that shall bind us 10 sur.
render and abandon all of these docu-
ments in the Library OF Congress, the
fruit of vast research for years. to an
impromntu commission that shall no