CHAPTER XLIX.
HAWAII, AND OUR ANNEXATION POLICY.
Location of the Islands—Their Population—Honolulu, the Capital and the Metropolis—Political History—The Traditional Policy of the United States—Former Propositions for Annexation— Congressional Discussion—The Vote in the House of Representatives—The Hawaiian Commission.
A work of this character would be incomplete without mention of the Hawaiian Islands, and their intimate political and commercial connection with our own country. For many years prior to the commencement of the war with Spain there had been a growing sentiment in favor of their annexation to the United States, and events in Washington during the first month of that conflict showed conclusively that a large majority of the members of both houses of Congress were strongly in favor of the measure.
The Hawaiians are a group of eight inhabited and four uninhabited islands lying in the North Pacific Ocean, distant from San Francisco about 2,100 miles, from Sidney 4,500 miles, and from Hongkong 4,800 miles. They are the most important in the Polynesian group, and were discovered by Captain Cook in 1788. Their combined area is 6,640 square miles, and their population is about 85,000. The islands are to a great extent mountainous and volcanic, but the soil is highly productive. Sugar, rice, and tropical fruits grow in abundance, and over ninety per cent of the trade is with the United States.
FORTUNES EASILY MADE.
The world knows comparatively nothing about the great fortunes that have been amassed in Hawaii in the last thirty years. The children of the Yankee missionaries who sailed from Boston and Gloucester around the Horn to carry the gospel to the Sandwich islands in the '30s and '40s are the richest and most aristocratic people in Honolulu. For mere songs the sons of missionaries obtained great tracts of marvelously fertile soil for sugar planting in the valleys of the island, and with their natural enterprise and inventive spirit they developed the greatest sugar cane plantations in the world.
When the United States gave a treaty to the Hawaiian kingdom putting Hawaiian raw sugar on the free tariff list, the profits of the sugar planters went up with a bound. For twenty-five years the dividends of several of the Yankee companies operating sugar plantations and mills on the islands ranged from 18 to 30 per cent a year. The Hawaiian Commercial Sugar Company paid 25 per cent dividends annually from 1870 to 1882. The world has never known productiveness so rich as that of the valleys of Maui and Hawaii for sugar cane. The seed had only to be planted and the rains fell and nature did the rest. One tract of 12,000 acres of land on Maui was given to a young American, who married a bewitching Kanaka girl, by her father, who was delighted to have a pale-faced son-in-law. It was worth about $200 at the time. The tract subsequently became a part of a great sugar plantation. It was bought by Claus Spreckels for $175,000 and is worth much more than that now. The Spreckles, Alexander, Bishop, Smith and Akers accumulated millions in one generation of sugar cultivation in the Hawaiian islands.
HUNDREDS OF VOLCANOES.
The volcanoes of Hawaii are a class by themselves. They are not only the tallest, but the biggest and strangest in the whole world. Considering that they reach from the bottom of the Pacific ocean (18,000 feet deep here) to over 15,000 feet above sea level, they really stand 33,000 feet high from their suboceanic base to their peaks. The active craters on the islands number 300, but the dead craters, the ancient chimneys of subterranean lava beds, are numbered by the thousands. The islands are of lavic formation. Evidences of extinct volcanoes are so common that one seldom notices them after a few weeks on the islands. Ancient lava is present everywhere. The natives know all its virtues, and, while some ancient deposits of lava are used as a fertilizer for soils, other lava beds are blasted for building material and for macadamizing roads. Titanic volcanic action is apparent on every side. Every headland is an extinct volcano. Every island has its special eruption, which, beginning at the unfathomable bottom of the sea, has slowly built up a foundation and then a superstructure of lava. On the island of Hawaii and on Molokai are huge cracks several thousands of feet deep and many yards wide which were formed by the bursting upward of lava beds ages and ages ago. The marks of the titanic force are plainly visible.
Mark Twain is authority for saying that the two great active volcanoes, Mauna Loa and Kilauea, on the island of Hawaii, are the most interesting in the world. Certainly they are the most unique. Mauna Loa is 14,000 feet above sea level. Every six or seven years there is an eruption from its sides and several times the flow of lava has threatened the ruin of the town of Hilo, thirty miles away. The crater on Mauna Loa is three miles in diameter and 600 feet deep. Over the crater hangs an illuminated vapor which may be seen at night over 200 miles distant. When Mauna Loa is in violent eruption a fountain of molten lava spouts every minute over 250 feet in the air, bursting into 10,000 brilliantly colored balls, like a monstrous Roman candle pyrotechnic.
Then there is Kilauea—a shorter and flatter volcanic mountain sixteen miles distant. It has the greatest crater known—one nine miles across and from 300 to 800 feet deep. And such a crater! In it is a literal lake of molten lava all the time. At times the lava is over 100 feet deep and at other times it is 200 feet, according to the pressure on it deep in the bowels of the earth. Signs of volcanic activity are present all the time throughout the depth of the molten mass in the form of steam, cracks, jets of sulphurous smoke and blowing cones. The crater itself is constantly rent and shaken by earthquakes. Nearly all tourists go to see the marvelous eruptions on Mauna Loa and Kilauea. Hotels have been built on the mountain sides for the accommodation of sightseers, and there are plenty of guides about the craters.
Oahu has many places of interest outside of Honolulu. One may visit the sugar plantations, rice farms, and may go to Pearl harbor or the Punchbowl. The latter is an extinct volcano rising a few hundred feet above the town. Another resort is the Pali, the highest point in the pass through the range of mountains that divides Oahu. It is the fashion, and a very good fashion it is, to see the Pali and praise its charms. It is the Yosemite of Hawaii. The view from this height sweeps the whole island from north to south. In the direction of the capital the land slopes to a level two miles from the sea and then spreads flatly to the shore. The hillsides are not, as a rule, in a state of cultivation, although the soil is fertile. The land is now cumbered with wild guava, which bears fruit as big as the lemon, and with the lantana, the seeds of which are scattered broadcast by an imported bird called the minah. On the lower ground small farmers, mostly orientals, make their homes, and there are several cane plantations.
Honolulu, the capital and chief city, has a population of about 25,000, and presents more of the appearance of a civilized place than any other town in Polynesia. Although consisting largely of one-story wooden houses, mingled with grass huts half smothered by foliage, its streets are laid out in the American style, and are straight, neat and tidy. Water-works supply the town from a neighboring valley, and electric lights, telephones, street car lines, and other modern improvements are not lacking.
The arrangement of the streets in Honolulu reminds many Americans of those in Boston or the older part of New York. All the streets are narrow, but well kept, and, with a few exceptions, they meander here and there at will. A dozen thoroughfares are crescent shaped and twist and turn when one least expects. All the streets are smooth and hard under a dressing of thousands of wagon loads of shells and lava pounded down and crushed by an immense steam roller brought from San Francisco.
THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE ISLANDS DECLARED.
In 1843 the independence of the Hawaiian Islands was formally guaranteed by the English and French governments, and for a number of years they were under a constitutional monarchy. On the death of King Kalakaua in 1891, his sister, the Princess Liliuokalani, succeeded to the throne, and soon proved herself to be an erratic and self-willed ruler. She remained constantly at variance with her legislature and advisers, and in January, 1893, attempted to promulgate a new constitution, depriving foreigners of the right of franchise, and abrogating the existing House of Nobles, at the same time giving herself power of appointing a new House. This was resisted by the foreign element of the community, who at once appointed a committee of safety, consisting of thirteen members, who called a mass meeting of their class, at which about 1,500 persons were present. The meeting unanimously adopted resolutions condemning the action of the Queen, and authorizing a committee to take into further consideration whatever was necessary to protect the public safety.
The committee issued a proclamation to the Hawaiian people, formed itself into a provisional government, took possession of the national property, and sent commissioners to the United States inviting this republic to annex the islands. The United States did not respond, but continued the old relation of friendly guarantor.
A constitutional convention held session from May 20 to July 3, 1894, and on July 4 the constitution was proclaimed, the new government calling itself the "Republic of Hawaii."
In refusing to grant this appeal for annexation, the officials at the head of the United States government at that time were of the opinion that such action would be in direct opposition to our traditional policy, and the same argument has since been advanced by the opponents of the plan.
We were thus brought face to face with the question, "What is American policy?" Many statesmen of recent years have declared that our great growth and increasing importance among nations imposed obligations which should force us to take greater part in the affairs of the world. Following the lead of European statecraft, they also asserted that we should adopt this policy to encourage and protect our expanding commercial interests. Not only were we facing problems the war directly presented, but other nations seemed to think that we were about to cast aside the advice of Washington concerning entangling alliances, and establish the relation of an ally with Great Britain.
Edward Everett foresaw the extension of the republican idea, and declared that "in the discharge of the duty devolved upon us by Providence, we have to carry the republican independence, which our fathers achieved, with all the organized institutions of an enlightened community—institutions of religion, law, education, charity, art and all the thousand graces of the highest culture— beyond the Missouri, beyond the Sierra Nevada; perhaps in time around the circuit of the Antilles, perhaps to the archipelagoes of the central Pacific."
The treaty of 1783 with Great Britain defined the western boundary of the United States as the Mississippi river, down to the Florida line on the 31st parallel of north latitude. The original colonies comprised less than half of this area, the rest being organized several years later as the Northwest Territory. In 1803 the United States purchased from Napoleon for $15,000,000 the province of Louisiana, over 1,000,000 square miles in area, including Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, the Indian Territory, most of Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, the two Dakotas, Montana, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and most of Wyoming. With this cession came absolute ownership and control of the Mississippi.
By the treaty of February 12, 1819, with Spain, Florida was next acquired, and Spain abandoned all claims upon the territory between the Rocky mountains and the Pacific, embraced in the Louisiana purchase. Texas was annexed in 1845. Under the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, in 1848, which ended the Mexican war, California, Nevada, parts of Colorado and Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona became a part of the United States. The Gadsden purchase of 1853 acquired the portion of this territory south of the Gila river. Fourteen years later the territory of Alaska was purchased from Russia.
Territorial acquisition has been the policy of successive periods of American politics. Hitherto annexation has been confined to contiguous territory, except in the case of Alaska, separated only by narrow stretches of sea and land. But in the case of the Hawaiian Islands an entirely different problem confronted us.
HAWAIIAN ANNEXATION IN HISTORY.
The question of annexation of the Hawaiian Islands has been before the American people in some form for nearly fifty years. In 1851 a deed of provisional cession of the islands to the United States was executed by King Kamehameha Ill., and delivered to the United States Minister at Honolulu—the act being subsequently ratified by joint resolution of the two Houses of the Hawaiian Legislature. In 1854 a formal treaty of annexation was negotiated between King Kamehameha and the Hon. David L. Gregg, in the capacity of commissioner, and acting under special instructions of Secretary Marcy, then Secretary of State under President Pierce. The King died, however, before the engrossed copy of the treaty had been signed, which prevented the completion of the act. But for this there is every reason to believe that annexation would have been an accomplished fact at that time, as the administration of President Pierce was thoroughly committed to it. The policy then distinctly enunciated was not to have the islands come in as a State but as a Territory.
President Grant was a zealous advocate of annexation, and in 1874 a reciprocity treaty with the islands was entered into by Secretary Fish, under which the Hawaiian government bound itself not to "lease or otherwise dispose of or create any lien upon any port, harbor, or other territory … or grant any special privilege or right of use therein to any other government," nor enter into any reciprocity treaty with any other government. Thirteen years later (1887), under the administration of President Cleveland, there was a renewal of this treaty, to which was added a clause giving to the United States authority for the exclusive use of Pearl River (or harbor) as a coaling and repair station for its vessels, with permission to improve the same. Article IV of this treaty bound the respective governments to admit certain specified articles free of duty and contained the following provision:
"It is agreed, on the part of his Hawaiian Majesty, that so long as this treaty shall remain in force he will not lease or otherwise dispose of or create any lien upon any port, harbor, or other territory in his dominions, or grant any special privilege or rights of use therein, to any other power, state, or government, nor make any treaty by which any other nation shall obtain the same privileges, relative to the admission of any articles free of duty, hereby secured to the United States."
This treaty was to remain in force seven years (until 1894), but, after that date, was declared to be terminable by either party after twelve months' notice to that effect.
There have been two treaties relating to annexation before Congress within the last five years, the first negotiated by Secretary of State John W. Foster during the administration of President Harrison in 1893, the other by Secretary Sherman under the McKinley administration on the 16th day of June, 1897. The first was withdrawn by President Cleveland after his accession to the Presidency. Both were ratified by the Hawaiian Legislature in accordance with a provision of the constitution of the republic, and that body, by unanimous vote of both Houses, on May 27, 1896, declared:
"That the Legislature of the republic of Hawaii continues to be, as heretofore, firmly and steadfastly in favor of the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands to the United States of America, and in advocating such policy it feels assured that it is expressing not only its own sentiments but those of the voters of this republic."
The necessity for a closer relation of the two republics than that provided for by a commercial treaty, terminable at the pleasure of either, has been recognized by nearly every President and Secretary of State from John Tyler down to President McKinley, by none more strongly than by Daniel Webster in 1851 and by Secretary Marcy in 1854, while like views have been favored by Secretaries Seward, Fish, Bayard, Foster, and Sherman since.
The strategic value of the islands in case of war and their commercial value at all times are so bound up together that it is impossible to separate them. The former has been testified to by such eminent military and naval authorities as General J. M. Schofield and General Alexander of the United States army and Captain A. T. Mahan, Admiral Belknap, Admiral Dupont, and George W. Mellville, Engineer in Chief of the United States navy, and many others. Their commercial value is demonstrated by the fact that their trade with the United States for the fiscal year, ending June, 1897 (amounting to $18,385,000), exceeded that with either of the following States and confederations: Argentina, Central America, Spain, Switzerland, Venezuela, Russia, or Denmark; was more than twice that with Colombia or Sweden and Norway; nearly three times that with Chile; four times that with Uruguay; nearly four times that with Portugal; nearly seven times that with Turkey; ten times greater than that with Peru, and greater than that of Greece, Peru, Turkey, Portugal, and Sweden and Norway combined.
VOTE FOR ANNEXATION.
By a vote of 209 to 91 the House of Representatives on the afternoon of June 15 adopted the Newlands resolutions, providing for the annexation of Hawaii. The debate, which was continued without interruption for three days, was one of the most notable of Congress, the proposed annexation being considered of great commercial and strategic importance by its advocates, and being looked upon by its opponents as involving a radical departure from the long-established policy of the country and likely to be followed by the inauguration of a pronounced policy of colonization, the abandonment of the Monroe doctrine and participation in international wrangles. More than half a hundred members participated in the debate.
Notable speeches were made by Messrs, Berry, Smith and Hepburn for, and by Messrs. Johnson and Williams against the pending measure. Few members were upon the floor until late in the afternoon and the galleries had few occupants. As the hour of voting drew near, however, members began taking their places and there were few more than a score of absentees when the first roll call was taken. The announcement of the vote upon the passage of the resolutions was cheered upon the floor and applauded generally by the spectators.
The resolutions adopted in a preamble relate the offer of the Hawaiian republic to cede all of its sovereignty and absolute title to the government and crown lands, and then by resolution accept the cession and declare the islands annexed. The resolutions provide for a commission of five, at least two of whom shall be resident Hawaiians, to recommend to Congress such legislation as they may deem advisable. The public debt of Hawaii, not to exceed $4,000,000, is assumed, Chinese immigration is prohibited, all treaties with other powers are declared null, and it is provided that until Congress shall provide for the government of the islands all civil, judicial and military powers now exercised by the officers of the existing government shall be exercised in such manner as the President shall direct, and he is given power to appoint persons to put in effect a provisional government for the islands.
Mr. Fitzgerald spoke against the Newlands resolutions. In the course of his speech he emphasized the failure of the majority of Hawaiians to express their desire relative to annexation. He insisted that every people had the right to the government of their choice. Speaking further, Mr. Fitzgerald opposed annexation on the ground that an injurious labor element would be brought into competition with American laborers.
Supporting the resolution Mr. Berry devoted much of his time to showing that annexation was in line with democratic policy. He reviewed the territorial additions to the original states to show that practically all had been made by democrats.
Mr. Berry digressed to speak of the Philippine situation, and while not advocating the retention of the islands he declared the United States should brook no interference upon the part of Germany. He said America should resent any intervention with all her arms and warships. Mr. Berry's remarks in this connection were applauded generously.
William Alden Smith, member of the committee on foreign affairs, advocating annexation, said:
"Annexation is not new to us. In my humble opinion the whole North American continent and every island in the gulf and the Caribbean sea and such islands in the Pacific as may be deemed desirable are worthy of our ambition. Not that we are earth hungry, but, as a measure of national protection and advantage, it is the duty of the American people to lay peaceful conquest wherever opportunity may be offered.
"It has been argued that our constitution makes no provision for a colonial system, but if President Monroe had been merely a lawyer, if he had contented himself by looking for precedent which he was unable to find, if he had consulted the jurisprudence of his time and planned his action along academic lines the greatest doctrine ever announced to the civilized world, which now bears his name, though in unwritten law, but in the inspiration, the hope, the security of every American heart, would have found no voice potent enough and courageous enough to have encircled the western hemisphere with his peaceful edict.
"Precedent, sir, may do for a rule of law upon which a fixed and definite superstructure must be built, but it is the duty of statesmanship to cease looking at great public questions with a microscope and sweep the world's horizon with a telescope from a commanding height."
Mr. Johnson then was recognized for a speech in opposition. He laid down the three propositions that annexation was unnecessary as a war measure in the present conflict with Spain; that annexation was unnecessary to prevent the islands from falling into the hands of some other power to be used against us, and that the proposition to annex was inherently wrong and was the opening wedge upon an undesirable and disastrous policy of colonization.
Advancing to the danger of annexation being the first step in colonization, he said gentlemen could not deny that the holding of the Philippines was contemplated already. What was more deplorable and significant, he said, was the expressed fear of the President lest Spain should sue for peace before we could secure Puerto Rico. Mr. Johnson said men were already speaking disparagingly of the Cubans and their capacity for government, and it was useless to attempt to hide the truth that American eyes of avarice were already turned to Cuba, although but two months since action was taken to free and establish that island as independent.
REPLY BY MR. DOLLIVER.
Mr. Dolliver, speaking in support of the resolutions, complimented the speech of the Indiana member, but suggested its success as an applause-getter would be greater than as a maker of votes.
"I cannot understand," declared Mr. Dolliver, "how a man who distrusts everything of his own country can fail utterly to suspect anything upon the part of other great powers of the world." Concluding, Mr. Dolliver refuted the charge that annexationists had any hidden motives looking to colonial expansion. As to the future of the Philippines, Cuba and Puerto Rico, he declared that he knew nothing, but he had faith that in the providence of God the American people would be guided aright and these questions would be met and disposed of properly when occasion should arise.
Mr. Cummings, in a ten-minute speech, supported annexation and indulged in severe denunciation of former President Cleveland for his effort to re-establish the monarchy in Hawaii and the hauling down of the American flag by Commissioner Blount.
Mr. Hepburn was recognized to conclude in support of the resolutions. He believed the people of the country were familiar with the issue involved, and the time was opportune for a vote and final action. Answering the claim that annexation would mean launching upon colonization, he disavowed any such understanding. He said he hoped to see every Spanish possession fall into the possession of this country in order to contribute to the enemy's injury, and that being accomplished the question of their disposition would arise and be met when the war should end.
The House resolution extending the sovereignty of the United States over Hawaii was adopted in the Senate by a vote of forty-two to twenty-one, and President McKinley's signature added that country to our possessions. The President appointed as commissioners to visit the islands and draw up for the guidance of Congress a system of laws for their government, the following gentlemen: Senator Shelby M. Cullom, of Illinois; Senator John T. Morgan, of Alabama; Representative Robert R. Hitt, of Illinois; President Sanford B. Dole, of Hawaii; Justice W. F. Frear, of Hawaii.