The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-09-07
EMPTY sHIBBOLETnS.

80 The consent Oh Tic SONSiASo as ~
appears in the Declaration of indie
pendence is a catch-phrase which our
colonial forefatherss never construed
strictly. which they violated whenever
il was to their interest to do so and
which has never been respected by the
American people in their dealings with
weaker races on their own soil. Though
the Democratic party may now call it
the statement of fundamental Ameri-
can principle, it is one that party itself
has often ignored and fouted, some
times to the disadvantage and often to
the immense gain and benefit of the
nation.
The men who wrote the phrases in
the second paragraph of the Declara-
ton of Independence were after votes
and as politicians they had fine dis
elimination in the philosophy of hum
bug. They held as self-evident truth
that all men are created equal. They
knew better than that, for men are no
more equal at birth than are dogs and
horses. Some are intelligent, others
are dull; some are so equipped that
they can get along in the world, others
cumber the ground; some are born
statesmen, poets, soldiers, philosophers;
7
drawers of water and as such take their
appointed place in the world; they are
not even equal before the law, for the
bright man may hoodwink the jury
/ and the judge and though guilty, es-
cape; while the dull man, unable to
make good his innocence may go to
i jail. Blooded men, like blooded horses
are born; and the right kind of pedigree
| hr1r,
! with cattle.
I The further phrase of which we first
began to write, Governments derive
their just power from the consent Of
the governed" was signed by ffty-six
men, twenty-four of whom held negro
slaves, the remainder tolerating the in
stitution of slavery. They governed
these blacks without asking consent;
they also governed the Indians on the
same despotic principle. One of the
signers was Thomas Jefferson, a slave
holder and an expansionist. While
PresidentSef the United States he drove
Napoleon into selling the Louisiana
empire to this country by threatening,
if he did not do so, to make an offensive
and defensive alliance with Great Brit
ain. When the purchase was made JEFF
ferson proceeded to impose local gov
eminent on the French population OF
, Louisiana without seeking even a
, shadow of consent. Some of his fellow
signers had done the same thing or had
, profited by the same measure, in the
, case of the Dutch of New Amsterdam
In some New England States the dis
, senting worshipper was disfranchised
, Going down through the history o.
the United States to the present time
we find the governing phrase modified
so as to mean that a government de-
rives it's just powers from those whC
! are qualified to govern. The Demo
Z cratic party now insists on that prin
: clple in the South as it did at the star
: in California and Arizona; the Repub
I lican party insists upon it in Cuba
: Porto Rico and the philippines; almos
q | the whole world besides insist upon it
= In other words the great truth tina
p all men are not born equal is bein;
I recognized by those who once unthink
ingly avoided il. 1t is established b,
I instructive consent that those who's
h rule is for the advantage of civilization
r have the right to rule and that an ig
4 norant and retrograding people ough
: to be governed by their superiors unit
!: they develop the ability and aspira
: tions fitting them for self-governmen,
q There are children of the nations a
L well as of the families; and childrel
g must be trained and disciplined befor
o they can be safely left to shift 70
G themselves. We are well aware of Ma
!. caulay's figure of the swimmer; bu
s he alters it and makes it a very diff
" ferent one in Hle succeeding pages O
his essay.