Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1901-02-04
CHARGE TO THE Jury
Continued from page H.

counties and towns and municipaliti,
, within the Territory of Hawaii an
e psevide for the government thereof
Il The language of the Act cannot /
mistaken. Not only may the Legi,
lature provide municipal governmer
for cities, but for towns as we'll so ths
the people of every village and haml,
, may become a municipal corpuratio
, II they desire and the Legislature $
ordains.
= congress has not only conferrp
upon us this power. but no doubt ey
pected and intended that the people O
: these Islands when congregated In set
Elements would promptly enter upol
their privileges and estates as free an,
self governing communities. No PEG
pie imbued with the spirit of libert,
and high sense OF civic duty has eve,
failed to do so.
Our greatest writer on America,
/ Constitutional law. Judge Cooley In
speaking of municipal government
says: In America the first settlers a.
II instinctively. adopted It in theii
frame Of government and no other has
ever supplanted It, or even found advo.
Gates.
Judge Humphreys then quoted OK.
tensively from Judge Cooley. showing
the decentralization of power to be the
American idea of government.
Judge Cooley did not over reach tho
mark Of history when he stated that
municipal government has existed in
England from the earliest ages for the
fact that Englishmen have been ouali-
fled for the enjoyment of political free
dom is mainly due to those ancient To-
cal institutions by which they have
been trained to self government. The
AFFAIRS of the people have been admins
tered. not only in Parliament. but in
the vestry. the town council. the board
meeting and the Court OF Quarter Ses-
sions.
THUS we see that our American H.
berty has an ancestry, a pedigree. his
tory. Our ancestors brought to the
American continent all that they
deemed valuable in the political insti-
tutions Of England. discarding what
they believed 10 be Objectionable.
One of the first acts of the Legisla-
ture Of Connecticut in 1889 was the In
corporation of all towns in the colony.
The establishment OF municipal cor
porations as local republics was the |
original policy throughout New En-
gland, and 1t had. said Chancellor Kent. |
q Com. 275, n. al a benign and dura-
bic effect upon the institutions and
moral and social character of the peo-
ple.'
Judge Dillon who occupies a posi-
ton on the apex of authority on the
subject OF municipal corporations. says
that with all Of its drawbacks the AM
erican system Of popular municipal Or
and administration, is be-
yond controversy, the fairest'to the in
diSidual citizen. and, on the whole. the
most satisfactory in its operations and
results of any that has yet been de-
vised'
Amy other conclusion would be euui-
valent to admitting that the people are
incapable of enlightened self govern
ment; that holders Of property ought
alone to be respected. and alone to be
with political and municipal
rights: That the few should govern the
many, and that our representative sys-
tenn. the flower of modern civilization.
based upon the right of every man to
voice In the local and general govern
ment. Is failure.
ITO show how thoroughly. strongly
and deeply the idea of local self gov
eminent Is imbedded in the minds of the
American people and our foremost
statesmen. ! need only quote President
letter to the Secretary of
War in reference to the instructions
which the latter was directed to give
10 the commissioners to the Philippine
Islands. The President said: Without
hampering them by too specific in
structions, they should in general be
Rnjoined to devote their attention in
the first instance to the establishment
Of municipal governments. in which the
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