The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-12-08
Continued from page II

1SSSlOlldl OplAlOA O3s Lie SOAli&y NV"
eminent Act as whole or in any of it's
chapters or sections. Such questions
should be reserved for the courts, and
should be treated through ordinary le-
gal proceedings.
But I am here to express my en-
dorsement, as citizen, of the prin-
ciple of local self-government in rela-
ton to the Territory. of Hawaii. There
have been recent manifestations of an
intention to ask Congress to invade
that principle and to permit the virtual
transfer of the highest functions of To-
cal government from the Hawaiian
people to the mainland. To them am
unalterably opposed. Not merely a
just appreciation of our constitutional
system, but regard for the consistency
and the honor of my country, appear
to me to require this emphatic 1declar-
alton. Until it repeats or revolutionizes
the Organic Act, Congress should keep
it's hands off local and political legis-
lation for the Hawaiian Islands, and
any substantial change in the form OF
our local government, in my opinion,
whether or no legally admissible, would
!, be a gross breach Of good faith.
The history of Hawaii for the past
| eight or ten years regard as demon
strative of this position California be-
/ came a State, under the Compromise
Measures of 1850, without undergoing
! Territorial preparation. Its population
at that time, if I recollect accurately,
/ did not exceed the population of Ha-
| wall at the date of annexation. 1t had
adopted a State Constitution. But, in
all other elements of stable govern
ment, except one, in 1898, Hawaii was
/ better prepared for state autonomy
/ than California in 1850. That one ele-
ment was the fact that the people in
Guided 10000 or 100000 Asiatics. 1t is
! manifest that, for this reason alone,
Hawaii could not have been admitted
as a State. In every other respect,
however, these Islands were and We're
| treated as possessed of the qualifica-
F! tions essential to admission into the
! Union.
| For more than two generations, the
| Christian religion had been adopted in
4 these Islands. Education was provid-
| ed for by law, and had been practically
| successful. The monarchy and the re-
public had been established govern
| fnents, with three departments, exec
utive, judicial and Legislative; and had
been received by foreign powers into
| the family of nations. Its system of
| law was of American and British ex-
| traction, and, except as to certain
! features that did not correspond with
| our Federal Constitution and in other
| matters peculiar to the Islands and af-
| fecting land titles and other prop
| erty, was in harmony with American
| institutions and with American civil
| ization.
/ It is impracticable, now and here.
| deliberately to enter into details, but a
few references will show how thorough
| ly these facts We're understood and act
| ed upon by the Executive and by Con-
| gress.
| The Joint Resolution by Congress,
approved by President Mckinley July
| 18th, 1898, took over the Hawaiian ISL
| ands from 1.-The Government of the Re-
public of Hawaii"
| In the exercise of his authority I'M
| der this resolution, the President di-
rected that, subject to his right of re-
moval, "all civil judicial and military
powers in question should be exercised
by the officers of the Republic of Ha-
wall as it existed just prior to the
| transfer of sovereignty"
| The President further declared that
| the municipal legislation of Hawaii"
except that relating to preexisting
treaties or inconsistent with the Fed
| eral Constitution or the Joint Resolu-
| ton, should remain in force" until
| changed by Congress.
In an opinion, dated September Goth,
1898, in reference to claims that arose
i, Of fyaa
Attorney General of the United States,
John w. Griggs, said:
"It is only necessary to indicate by
reference to our own system of govern
ment the notion of sovereign States
and responsible Territorial administra-
tons making their own laws through
representative assemblies, entering into
contracts, possessing separate revenues
and treasury, liable for their engage
ments and obligations, and exercising
through the whole domain of local
autonomy the powers of distinct gov
eminent"
And, in controverting the right of the
Federal Government to pay these
claims, he added: There is nothing
in the Hawaiian Resolution of Annex
alton which gives the negative to this
theory. On the contrary, the power to
continue the existing government and
its continuation in fact are an assump-
ton of the views here stated
And he supplemented his clear argu-
ment. by this language:
cit is beyond question that claim
on foreign behalf against a State or
Territory of the Union would be pre-
sented through, rather than to, the State
Department.; that is, it would be pre-
scented to the local and not to the Fed
eral Government, and would be final
ly adjusted and recognized or denied by
the former
In the Organic Act, approved April
30th, 1900, and which, except as to ap-
preparations that it Immediately con-
firmed. took effect June 14th, 1900, the
previous views of the Government
were distinctly and fully endorsed.
Section l, identified the phrase the
laws of Hawaii with the constitution
and laws of the Renuhlip of Hawaii !