Hawaii Holomua, Volume I, Number 69, 8 December 1893 — The Franchise. [ARTICLE]

The Franchise.

We are greatly surprised at the absence in this discussion of all allusion to the virtues of universal suffrage. The Tribune this morning has some mention of a certain "free and intelligent people" in Hawaii, whom this wicked administration is forcing to submit to "a corrupt, idolatrous, and barbarous despotism." But it does not say of what this "free and intelligent people" consists. It cannot be possible that it consists of the 637 white Americans resident in the capital in a total registereod vote of 13,593,* and that the term excludes the bulk of the population simply because they are nativeborn and colored. If this should prove true, we should all die of shame. Where would it leave the colored citizens of the Southern States, and the federal election bill, and the wicked Democrats, and the "great work of reconstruction," and the Union League Club? What would "the Committee on Political Reform" of that institution say? Why, the very dogs in the Tribune office would arise and howl over such a view. We take it for granted that the Tribune means by "the free and intelligent people" the native-born citizens of Hawaii, without distinction of race or color, and that it it is under the impression, formed through misleading reports, that they are furiously opposed to the Queen's government and would overthrow it but for Secretray Gresham and Mr. Blount. When it learns the true state of the case, it will come round, and will denounce the the predjuice against color just as we do, and demand an equal voice in the government for the colored Hawaiians for the colored Amer-icans.--N. Y. Post. *These figures are taken from President Harrison's message submitting the annexation treaty.