Hawaii Holomua, Volume II, Number 2, 3 January 1894 — The Hawaiian “Republic." [ARTICLE]

The Hawaiian “Republic."

The spread eagle brigade of ! Repablicans. if not splitting the heavens. are splitting their throats over the propositiou of i the Administration to do aimple I justice to Hawaii. * i They made the sarae outcry ! when the United States tlag was withdrawn from the Government j buildings al Honolnlu, and if it | had been hanled down from the Government buildings at Waahi ington they eouhl not have been more vociferous. They never ; condesceuded to consider the ' question whether a wrong had ; been done not only to a weak 1 power but to the Hag ilself when j j that symbol of American sovereignty was raised in Honoluln. i : Their position, so far as a par- ; tisan with only a voice aud a ' bazoo ean be said to have a i positiou, is that tl»e man with a i United States tlag in his hand 1 ean do no wrong. lt is now the sarae crowd and j the same cry agaiust the reparai tion of the wrong whieh was done ‘ by the Minister of the United I States backed by the troops of i the United States, to the people of Hawaii in the ovorthrow of their Government and the estab- | lishraent of a Provisional Gov ernment, M provided for the sole purpose of appropriating the propertv of the Hawaiians. These patriots are not concerning themselves about the question of right or wrong involved in the | action of Minister Stevens. They j are siraply tilling the air with : horri6ed denunciati")ns of the I “traitors to the republic,’ who ;! would pull down a sister repub- | lie tp restore a monarchy. 1 ; Qf course it is useless to argue with them. lt always was use less to argue with that class ōf pntriots who use the American ' Aag as a covering to eoneeal stolen goods and who swear by the American eagle as long as they ean pluek it for ihe purpose E of feathering their owu nests. Ii is useless to remiud them that * the question of repnblicanism or 1 royalty has nothing whatever to do with the case; that whether 1 the governrnent whieh onr re1 j presentatives overthrew and I j whieh we ougbt to restore was a * raonarchy or a republic, has no i bearing in the least ou the issue. i It is enough for them to rant that : we propose to aet aside a repnb- : lie for a monarchv. while they 1 eall upon the heaveus to fa!l in j couse<iuence. ; Bnt even lookiug at the matter p: from this wholly irrelevant point [ i of view, what gronnd have tbese j bazooters for republicanisu up- , { ou whieh tosta»"«d? Where is the j republic whieh we are abont to . I set aside ; If the Provisioual Government i j of Hawaii is a republic then we ’ t have never Iearned the tneaning j of tbat word in this coantiy. It » was “organized ’ by perhaps a ’ score of people who. first having II assnred themselves of tbe support l : of the Amenean guns, usurped power, appointed themselves as rulers and then, with the recog-

nitioa of the United States Min- [ ister, intimidate<J the legitimate , eoTernment into &bdicstiou. It • did uot eome into existence through the Totes of the people, | or ereu of part of the people. It doee not eoniiiwe in exislence tbroogh tbeir suffrage. It refuses to recognixe r popalar roice in the gOTernment whieh it | seeks to mainiain. It is an obli- | garchy. absolateiy and repudiates the first and tital pnneiple of a i republic. And yet this is the *‘repnblic whieh the United States must ' hold sacred We eall attention to this feature of the Hawaiian case. not because we propose to argue it on that lino o» hope to reason with *ny of the rtag flaunters. but simplv to point out tbe ineonsistency of their rhodomonbule Of course onr Goverument will be controlletl by tbe consideration of its owu duty aud not of the character of any Hawaiian Government, present or past. If the Dole oligarchv were in fact the purest of republics, that i wonld in no way relieve the Uni- ! ted States of the duty of repairiug the wrong it did in deposing the precetling Government. That reparation made, we shall stand aside, and it will remain with the people of Hawaii to determine what form of Governmeut tbey will have in futnre, whether monaroby, repnblic, oligarchy, or uo Governmeut at all, as modeled npon Louisville’s Board of Aldermeu. That is altogether their business, and uot ouin. — j Louiwille Courirr ./oumal.