The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-03-04
History and Common Sense.

Tomorrow the Senate Committee on For.
eign Relations will meet to consider the
prospects of the annexation treaty.
1t is highly probable that votes are lack
ing In the Senate for the annexation of
Hawaii by treaty. The friends of the
treaty may be one vote short, or two votes
short, or five votes short of the necessary
two.thirds majority. If that were not the
case, the treaty would have been brought
to O vote already, and it would have been
ratified.
1t may be that the obstructionists of an
%nexation by treaty are immovable in their
attitude of obstruction, so that the present
prospect of ultimate ratification is not suf-
f~iciently good to justify further delay and
effort in that direction.
II that is SO, there Is not the slightest
doubt as to the proper course for the Senate
Committee on Foreign Relations to adopt.
The treaty should be dropped like a useless
and worthless tool, and the joint resolu.
tion annexing Hawaii should be pressed to
a vote in the Senate and in the House.
1t is believed in some quarters, we under.
stand, that the abandonment of the treaty
would be q blow to the cause Of annexation
and q damper upon the enthusiasm of the
advocates of this measure of national ex-
tension and self-protection; that the failure
of the treaty would presage the failure Of
the joint resolution.
Not at all. In the first place, the people
of the United States who want Hawaii un-
der our flag care nothing about the tech
nicalities of the process. Treaty or joint
resolution, it is all the same to them, pro-
vided the union is effected.
In the second place, the failure of the
treaty is historically IN emphatic augury
of the success of the joint resolution. The
precedent is in the case of the annexation
of Texas.
On June 8, 1914, the senate of the United
States failed to ratify the annexation treaty
which President TYLER had negotiated with
the Republic of Texas. That annexation
treaty was not merely abandoned; it actu-
ally came to a vote in executive session
and was rejected. Thereupon a joint reso-
luton annexing Texas was introduced in
Congress. 1t passed the HOUSE on Jan. %,
1s45, by a vote of 1913 to 100. 1t passed
the Senate ON Feb. 81 by a vote of 81 to %.
1t was approved by the President on March
1, 1s45; and before the year was over
Texas was a part of the Union.
The annexation of Texas led to war with
Mexico, and the war with Mexico led to
the honorable acquisition of New Mexico
and California. The annexation of Hawaii
will not lead to war with anybody.
1t is q curious circumstance that one of
the anti-annexationists and anti-expansion-
lists of fifty years ago, the Hon. CALEB B.
SMITH of Indiana, in a speech against the
Mexican war policy of the Polk Admins
%tration, warned Congress and the country
that one of the consequences of that
struggle would be the addition of Cal
ifornia to our national territory. lie
called a halt for that reason, namely, that
the nation was plunging along in blind
folly upon a road which must inevitably
lead to the acquisition of California. 81
ask gentlemen to mark the result" said
CALEB SMITH of I~ndiana-the precursor of
HENRY u. JOHNSON of I~ndiana-"a n see
II it does not justify the prediction 1 make"
SMITHS awful warning was no more needed
than JoHNsoN's will be. The result did
Justify SMITHS prediction. We did acquire
California, but most citizens of the United
States are now pretty well reconciled to
that catastrophe.
Drop the treaty, II there is no hope of its
ratification. Put the joint resolution for
the annexation of Hawaii at the front.