Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-07-23
VOICES OF THE PRESS.
Three Men and a Newspaper.

tNeW York Mail and Express
Ii is not to he wondered AT that the
Kenncbec journal is enthusiastic over
the annexation Of Hawaii. 1t is at
last an accomplished fact" rcj0ices
the Journal, "a glorious reality, a
magnificent triumph for true Ameri-
canism The people of our country
through their representatives have
given their opinion of Clereland's foul
policy Of infamy. The flag ne hauled
down will he raised again TO stay.
Tho Republican party has never done
a greater work than this. All hail the
new Territory of Hawaii
The keunebec journal may well
cherish an honest pride in the accom-
plShment of annexation. by a most
remarkable coincidence three men
whose names have been intimately
and inseparably associated with the
annexation policy We're at one time
writing simultaneously for the jour
nal They We're Luther Severance,
James q. Blaine and John l.. Stevens.
Mr.. Severance was one of the foun-
ders of the Journal. in 1925. and its
editor until 1850. He then went 10
Congress. and in 1852 was appointed
Ivy President Taylor commissioner to
the Sandwich Islands. He became an
ardent advocate Of annexation. and
the kennchec Journal was the medium
through which his ideas We're promul-
gated Mr.. Blaine became the editor
and part owner in 1854, and the first
paper issued under his editorship con-
tanned brilliant argument in favor of
the annexation of the Sandwich ISL
ands Besides Mr.. Severance, Mr.
Blaine included among his neighbors
or correspondents Hon. Elisha Allen.
of Maine, speaker Of the Hawaiian
House of Representatives., and Rev.
Daniel Dole, of KennehcC, father Of
President Dole. He thus acquired an
intimate knowledge of the resources
character and aspirations of the island
kingdom which fixed both his personal
and political interest, and a genera
ton later. as secretary Of state, he
made annexation in 1925 possible by
declaring to the nations Of the earth
that the annexation of the island to
the United States were their mani
fest destiny" and in effect notifying
| the powers to keep their hands off.
In 1858 annexation seemed to he close
at hand. Mr. Severance and the jour
nal We're spreading the policy through
the country. The administration was
favorable to it. Before this time
next year" Severance wrote. I'VE
shall probably be under the Stars and
Stripes but the Hawaiians who
| had themselves abolished slavery
| took alarm at the passage of the COM
promise resolutions passed by Con-
gress, and feared that they might all
! be made slaves under the Kansas Ne
braska bill and the 'squatter sover-
eighty" legislation. The project.
| therefore, was for the time abandoned,
| though kept in mind by every secre-
| tary of state down to Blaine and Sher-
| man.
In 1865 Mr.. Blaine. through politi-
cal article sent him for publication,
became acquainted with Rev. John H..
Stevens, and shortly they became joint
| editors and owners of the Journal.
| Stevens, too, was an enthusiast on the
subject of annexing the Sandwich
! Islands, and only his newspaper con-
nection kept him from going there as
a missionary. Thirty-four years later,
| by Mr.. Blaine'S procurement. Stevens
was sent to Honolulu as United States
Minister and in 1892 raised the Stars
| and Stripes over the islands, only to be
hauled down by Cleveland and Blount.
| All three of these indicators of the
annexation policy passed to their rest
before the achievement of that policy
for which they labored so faithfully,
| but the newspaper which they
| built up is still published from the old
| stand, and there is no paper in the
| land so mean as to withhold its SYM
| pathy from the Kennebec Journal in
its righteous eXultation over the an
! neXation of the Hawaiian Islands.