The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-23
sNEERING AT FIRST PRINCIPLES.

SNEERlNG AT FIRST PRINCIPLES.
In 1876 the Republican partys nation
al convention pointed With pride" to
Its preservation Of the several govern
ments Of the states "to the hundredth
anniversary Of the nations BIRTH"
maintaining them as "embodiments Of
the great truths spoken at it's cradle.
that for the attainment Of these ends
governments have been instituted
among men. deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed I'm
til these truths are cheerfully obeyed.
or. if need be, vigorously enforced, the
work of the Republican party is I'M
finished" In 1884 anCther national cen
vention of that party declared that "tha
porpetUity of our institutions rests
upon the maintenance of a free
ballot, an honest count and correct
return"
In 1897 the same party, by its nation
al administration, is attempting to Sc
cure the ratification Of a treaty annex
ing TO this country a people and their
land, not only wholly without 1.-The con-
Gent of the governed" but against their
protest When Grant tried to secure
the annexation Of San Domingo the
proposition was first submitted to
vote of the citizens of that republic.
and, although the vote was practically
unanimous in favor of annexation. a
Republican senate refused its consent
to the treaty. We now have the prob
ability that this senate will ratify a
treaty made with the government of
Hawaii, a government not deriving its
just powers from the consent of the
governed" but resting on usurpation
instigated and supported by represen-
tatives Of the United States, and upon
usurpers and so conditioned as to ex-
clude from participation all but their
aGherents. In the election for men,
bers OF the Hawaiian legislature none
could vote who did not take an oath Of
allegiance to the provisional govern
ment created under the auspices of our
minister and the guns Of the Boston"
Hawaii lis voluntarily offered to u.s."
says contemporary, by government
thus created in defiance of the funda-
mental principle of this republic, a
principle solemnly reaffirmed by the
Republican national convention of 1876
and upon the recognition of and obedf-
cree to which another convention of the
same party in 1884 declared that "the
perpetuity of our institutions depend"
Nor are the people thus forced into
acceptance of a government to which
they do not assent, against which they
protest the ignorant and degraded
semi-savages they were depicted by the
press of this same party when Presi-
dent Cleveland interposed to prevent
the contamination of this same scheme
in 1898. 1t suited the purpose of the
arreXationists then to so depict them,
but we have the assurance Of so ardent
an annexer as is Loren A. Thurston,
formerly minister from Hawaii to the
United States, given to meet the OBJ
lection that "the people of Hawaii are
not up to the American standard" that
millions of Americans are not up to
the Hawaiian standard" He said
''there is less illiteracy in Hawaii than
in Massachusetts; that English is
taught in all the public schools and is
the language of the country; that the
laws, customs and business relations
are all American, and that no territory
was ever annexed that is so thoroughly
Americanized as is Hawaii today"
Then the basic principle Of our gov
eminent applies with all its original
force to Hawaii, and it becomes funda-
mental that, before the natives of Ha-
wall are taken under our government
their consent should be first obtained
by "a free ballot, an honest count and
a correct return" Thurston assures
us that they have the intelligence to
know what form of government they
want. They surpass Massachusetts in
literacy. They are capable of choosing
their form of government. And still in
spite of the organic principles, twice
reafilrmed by their conventions, Repub-
Iican administrations and their organs