The Senate unanimously confirmed the President's nomination making George Dewey a rear admiral in the United States navy. Congress made the place for him, and the President promoted him.
He bears on his shoulders two stars and an anchor instead of two anchors and a star. His pay has been increased from $5,000 a year to $6,000 a year, while at sea and until he retires. He was presented with a sword, and medals were struck for his men. His elevation in rank, his increase in pay, are gratifying tributes to his greatness. But there is a rank to which the President could not elevate him, a position that Congress could not create, for he created it himself. In the hearts of the people Admiral Dewey is the Hero of Manila, holding a place prouder than a king's, a place in the love and admiration and gratitude of a great nation.
Greater than Farragut, greater than Hull, greater than Hawke or Blake or Nelson, Dewey is the greatest of fleet commanders, the grandest of the heroes of the sea. It will be recorded of him that he was faithful to duty, true to his flag, magnanimous to his enemies and modest in the hour of triumph.
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.