The Portland daily press., 1898-08-09
HAWAIIAN CITIZENSHIP.
A Problem That the Annexation Commits
sioners will Have to Solve.

In half the troubles of hawaii. and 1t
has had it's share since Capt Cook mas
queraded in tho feathers of God Lono,
there has been one catchword, the rallying
cry of the element of the population
making toward something better, making
successfully toward constitutional mon
archy, toward provisional government,
toward republic, toward being part of
the American State sisterhood. 1t has
been the cry of citizenship.
The beachoomber, the runaway whaler
of the early days, did not care for citizen
ship. So long as he had his share, or
could grab his share, of the tn ings which
tent to be called subject of savage
monarch in feather cloak. But others
settled who were less easily satisfied, men
who came from America as missionaries
of civilization, who brought the church,
the school and the store, and set them
side by side in every hamlet of unre.
claimed savagery. They had something
to lose, some respect to maintain; they
could not rest happy as subjects of any
sort, having been born citizens, least of
all could they be subjects of any Kameha-
meha, drunk or sober, but most c ON
monty drunk. Still less could they con-
tent themselves with a neutral state in
which The savage and the beachcomb Der
could legislate foolishly or wickedly, just
as within might dictate.
Through their discomfort was developed
system of denizenship. The better class
remained citizens of the United States in
the foreign land. By becoming denizens
of Hawaii, they acquired the right to a
voice in its affairs without casting off
their rights as Americans. Denizens
could vote, could hold office. The real
cause of the oyerturning Of Liliuoaklanii
was her attempt to take away the rights
OF the denizens, to force them to u
choice, either to renounoe their cherished
American citizenship or to leave them
with no voice in affairs and helpless.
Now, the conditions being reversed, the
Hawaiians themselves will become inter
ested in discovering their civil status.
So far as the law stood on the day be-
fore annexation was accomplished, the
Hawaiian could not become citizen of
the United States, because he was not
eligible under the Constitution-hisr race
barred him out. This was the decision of
the supreme Court of Utah while it was
still O territory. A male Hawaiian of
full age, satisfying all the conditions OF
sufficient residence and necessary famil-
iarity with the principles of the Govern
ment applied for papers of naturaliza-
tion. He was rejected by the lower court
to which he made his application and
ON appeal the dec sion was uphe Id by the
Supreme Court. That decision has to
stand unless overturned by the Supreme
Court of the United States.
His race barred him in this particular.
The Constitution provides that citizen
ship may be attained by white persons
and those of African birth or descent: no
others. The two courts held that the
Hawaiian was not in any sense an Afri-
| can, also not in any sense white person.
| The court did not undertake to settle
just what race the Hawaiian did belong
| to. But it firmly settled on one thing,
that this Hawaiian, and by legal conse-
quence every other Hawaiian, could not
become citizen of the United States. In
| that question the Hawaiians, annexed
but not oitizenable, will demand to be
heard This is thing the commissioners
on ann exation will have to figure out to
some satisfactory solution. On one side
| Constitution and courts of law against
civil rights; on the other, some $1,000 cit
zens of Hawaii by birth and race now
suddenly become citizens of no where.