The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-07-03
A BIRTHDAY,

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a nation. All nations have their ma
tiOnal holiday but there are few or none
which actually celebrate their birth.
The French celebrate the Fall of the
Bastile but that is the celebration of
the fan of a system; not the birth of
nation. The Portuguese celebrate their
overthrow Of the Spanish power, but
that was only a, return to a former po-
litical state. England celebrates st.
Georges Day; Scotland, st. Andrews
Ireland, st. Patrick's, and Wales, st.
David's, but these are the patron saints
of the various sections of the Kingdom,
and are equivalent, to the Names Day of
the Russian, and are very different
from the birthday In monarchies the
natal day of the sovereign is the chief
national holiday as rule. Certainly,
the United States, unique in many
things, a leader In many things. is a
leader here. 1t has a distinct birthday.
1t is certainly a day to be proud of;
a day on which to dwell on many
thoughts that make us proud of our
past. What grand group is that which
is headed by Washington, Adams, JET
ferson, each in turn to be President,
and each in turn to leave an indelible
mark upon the history of his country.
There are those who would not have
the Declaration of Independence read
at the annual celebration. But why?
Surely there is nothing to criticize in
1t, 1t is manly, straightforward doc
ument and says what it means in man
ly, straightforward words. And they
were words that the signers were ready
to give their lives for. The original
document is in the State Department
at Washington, a precious relic, but the
ink has faded out and it is impossible
TO decipher the names This is due 10
~the fact that permission was given to
make a fac simile reproduction, and the
chemicals used injured the document.
Then it is a day to consider the enor-
nous growth of the country. Think
of the little strip along the Atlantic
seaboard, and extending back not much
further than the Alleghanies, while
westward there lay an enormous and
almost painless region claimed in part
by France, in part by Spain, and inhab-
tied, except in a few isolated spots, by
bloodthirsty savages, and scarcely less
cruel wild beasts.
And then tomorrow, only one hundred
and twenty-five years later, we can
look upon that whole enormous and al
most patbless region as one vast smiling
champaign. A country yielding it's in
crease to the efforts of the sturdy agri-
culturist; producing raw material for
the manufacturer and mechanic, and
fOOdstuffs for the whole world. And the
miner has come along and tapped the
rugged mountain side bringing forth
rich stores of gold, of silver, of copper,
of iron and of coal All this in a cen
fury and a quarter of growth.
The vast possessions of France and
Spain, which on the day when the Dec
laration of Independence was signed,
far exceeded in area and in prospective |
wealth the little strip of the thirteen |
colonies. Yet the thirteen colonies alb
sorbed the immense area, civilized it,
swept away the Indian and his cruel
ties, cleared out the wild beasts and
felled the painless forest. When one
contemplates these facts, they strike
the mind as being a marvellous achieve
ment. No nation has done so much In
so short a time.
Had the western lands belonged to
France and Spain during the same per-
iod, what would have been their his
tory? California would still have been
the sleepy California that it was in 1S4S.
San Francisco would be a pile of sand
hills and a few scattered houses and
warehouses. New Orleans might have
been the gay city that it still is, but
there would be nothing like the wealth
and property it can now show
And had California and the west
coast remained in the lethargic state
which obtained during the first seventy
five years of American independence,
where would Hawaii have been? Would .
it have advanced by leaps and bounds
as 1t has done.during the last fiftyyears.
Assuredly not. Hawaii would have oc-
cuped a position somewhat analogous
to Tahiti. A sleepy, unprogressive,
lotos eating sort of spot, with a tainted
morality and love for strong waters.
1t would have been a fit appendage for
the equally lotos eating California.
All this conquest of the forces of ma
ture, the laying out Of enormous towns
on spots where the bear and buffalo
used to wander and the Indian shout
his warcry and wave his blood stained
scalp, this spread of millions of people
into millions of homes comes not only
from the energy of the race, for the adj
horde of workers belonged to
many races, but to the inherent advan-
tages of the political system, founded
by the fathers of the republic, whose ,
inception we tomorrow celebrate. h
AS the hardy pioneer advanced he
took with him the principles of freedom. ,