The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1898-06-18
The First Step That Costs.
From the Baltimore Sun, June 10.


1T is the first step which costs. The
Congress of the United States is on the eve
of taking such step. 1t is insisted, urged
upon the House of Representatives by all the
imperialists, anneXaticnists, revolutlonists or
whatever name you may call them-the
"whoop -her-up letter o-Galagher par
ty in Congress- who are now pressing the
resolution for the seizure of the Hawaiian
Islands upon the attention of the House. The
advocates of the Newlands resolution and OF
General Grosvenor's special resolution to
bring the question Of annexation before the
House include all the hungry politicians who
find their demands for Office for themselves
or their constituents blocked by the cIvIl-Ser-
vice rules or by the exhaustion OF the supply
of government places under existing laws.
They are eager for an extentIon OF empire
which shall produce innumerable new places
in distant colonies and dependencies, to
which no civil-service rules will be allowed
to apply, They include all the host of gam
blers and spectators who are looking for
personal profit and private opportunities for
gain in the acquisition of new and distant
territories, inhabited by half-cvilized peoples,
involving the expenditure of enormous
amounts of government money, to say moth
ing of the chances for private investment by
those who have the inside track.
General Grosvenor, who is leading the
forces in the House seeking to compel the
passage of the Newlands resolution, is alike
distinguished by his opposition to clvll-ser
vice reform. and by his famous declaration
that this is Republican war. We do not
understand that the Ohio General objects to
Democrats shedding their blood or spending
their money to defeat the SpaniardS. But
the spoils of victory-the fruits-pecuniary.
as we'll as political, of successful WARFARE Tor
Republicans primarily.
The forcible annexation of Hawaii is the
thin edge Of the wedge which is to rend The
fabric of Republican government framed by
Washington. Jefferson and Madison and adj
ministered by jackson, Lincoln and Cleve-
land and to open the way for an American
empire, with possessions encircling the globe,
and upon which the sun never set. No JUS
tiication is required. 1t is the simple rule,
the good old plan
That they shall seize who have the power,
And they shall keep who can.
Hawal is weaker than the United States,
no bigger than IL mouse in the clutch of Il
tiger. The passage of Il resolution simply
Will sweep Hawaii from the list of indepen-
dent nations and make her Il mere depend
ency of the United States. We are not at
war with Hawaii. Not at ALL but her very
eral Grosyenor, furnishes the most pressing
argument in favor of our ''gobbling Hawaii
up We have coal at Hawaii. Our ships
bound for Manila must needs stop there for
provisions and supplies. BY affording our
ships of war these facilities, which she is too
feeble to refuse, even if so inclined, Hawaii
GorfeiS her neutrality. We must seize the
islands to protect them-from whom? From
Spain, the only power which can complain
of such breach of neutrality, and which has
not single ship of war in the Pacific, and
no likelihood of having one there until this
present war is ended? If we cannot protect
Hawaii against Spain for her supposed breach
of neutrality in our favor, how much better
able will we be to protect Hawaii as pos
session Of our own?
The whole suggestion that the seizure of
Hawaii is required as a military necessity be-
cause of our present war with Spain Is SIM
ply diotic. We annex the islands in perpet-
uity because we are engaged in a war which
some of the loudest-mouthed advocates of
annexation in Congress are in the habit of
telling us will not last six months
We call il ''seizurei What else is it? 1t
is not to be by virtue of any treaty OF annex
alton, even a treaty negotiated with the firm
of Dole 4 Co., who profess TO be the proprl-
etors of Hawaii and the absolute arblterS OF
the fate of the lives, the property, the bodies
and the souls of its inhabitants. simple
joint resolution of the two houses of Con-
gress, approved by the President, is to do the
whole business and seal the fate Of these hun
dred thousand and more of dusky souls, or at
least bodies. in these distant islands of the
Pacific. What becomes of the American
doctrine that all government ought of right
to be derived from and rest upon the free
consent of the governed?
But that doctrine would interfere with our
permanent occupation and acquisition of the
Philippines, of the Caroline Islands, of Porto
Rico, of Cuba itself. 1t would be fatal to the
whole scheme of the Republican party for the
foundation of a gigantic colonial empire, the
revenues and the patronage of which are to
keep that party in power forever 1t is COM
forting to note that the little fragment of the
Democratic party left in the House have
taken alarm at the prospect, and that with
the possible help of the Reed Republicans
they mean to meet and resist the first step to-
wards imperialism at the threshold