Hawaii Holomua, Volume II, Number 7, 9 January 1894 — LIBERTY TO VOTE. [ARTICLE]

LIBERTY TO VOTE.

Pussy has Burned Her Paws at Last. We remember where tbat ophememl twinkler, the ,Stjir, started, it devoted day b\* day a mess of tho pultaceous pahulum in ils editorial section to a vain etfort at trying to bribe the Ha\vaiians into joining the Annexatiqn Club and supporting W. Smith’scandidacy for aseat iu the Advisory Couucil by pledging them a vote ia case of annexation. And it did this in face of the fact that tbe five Commissioners to Washingtou had carefully provided in their proposed treatv that thore shou!d be no voting iu this country. The Advertiser with more consistency and less hypocrisy. if with greater tyranny, ' denounced the ide» of giving Ha\vaiiiaus a vote, and as late as its weekly issue of November i 1 l-Uh scouted the idea of 1 giving in for a moment to “the ; mere crnde democratic idea that i man as such has the right I to vote and laid down its belief as follows: "lu a time of emergency like the preseut, facing vital issues, j it appeais io us to be pore chitdishness to tulk of intrnsting the ; decisiou of Hawaii’s destiny to | the weak. 4he ignorant, and the snperstitioos. It most be decided by sueh meu as we look to • to decide all great and important I adkirs. The ship must be sailed I among these tt*efs and in *this tem|>est bv the competenioffieers, 1 and nut by the ignor,mt and| frightened passengers. Thismay not bo democratic, but it ia eom-1 mon mn *• |

Tbe Hawaiian perfectly onder&tood the sitaation and choe« n:ther to believe tho moro open tvrant tban the roore plansible j bvpocritical d«c«ivflr. I»ow j cōmes the “Star” and onee more j endeavors to begoile and bnll- i dozethe—to him anwary—Hawai- ! ian with the following aeheme of voting if j nexation does not eome off: “bnt iuduenced by such a body as ■. tiie present Advi8oryConncil, they (the Hawaiians) would be able to ! s&cnre many advantages and eon - cessions of benefit to them and of no harm to the business or religions welfare of Hawuii advantages that might not be tbought of or labored for if ; white men were alone in the, conncils of State. H hat many desire to see are two honses; the iower open to tbe sutfrage of all who eau read and write the i English langaage; the npper j representing the party whieh won the revolution and is mainly concerned in and responsible for the matcrial welfure of the [ Islands; and if necessary the j addition of a legislative stutus to the executive eouneii, so that tbe two bighest out of wbat would really be three houses could iuitiate legislatiou wbich the lower house, as a tnere means of mischief. coercion as halldoziug shoaU refuse to set afoot. ? ’ Just fancy; the Advisory Couneil, in whieh neighbor Smith is endeavoring to force a so »t, is to remain perraanent and selfelective. Tbe Hawaiian. witb every English speaking and writing foreigner in the gronp is to have a vote for a house whieh could not apparently intiate legislation and also as far as we ean make out from tbe Iast sentence (whieh is obcure to say the least of it) they j couldn’t even reject if the Ex- j ecutive and Advisory Conncils chose to say so. What a picture! “Liberty , what deeds are done in tby name!” Think of it. A revolution aided by foreign forces the ostensible object of whieh was to dethrone a Queen, who it was alleged had proposed to make a new constitution by whieh she acquired the right to nominate for life twenty ; members (presumably residents \ of Iong stauding and high esteem in the community) ont of a house of 48, the remainder elected by the people. And now in her ! plaee is to be set up 18 perpetual kings who chose their own successors and who are unahle to be deposed, dismissed or interfered with by the people, and who are to have the right of iuitiating, vetoing, controlling and carrying out all legislation. And, by the very terms of his own paper and the resolutions of the Annexation Club and the American League, may be made up of strangers of less than a year’s residence in the eommunity with no other qualifications than a record of unrest and upsetting and a vocabulary of vituperation. And this is what the patriots of Jan. 17th, laid down their lives for and “are ready to do it again” to qaote their owu scribe. The colossal eheek of the insiguificant gun-backed minorit} T never displayed itself to such an avalanche of coutempt as must follow tbis latest eihihiiion of self-seeking and tyrannical aggrandisement as is now diaplayed by tbat self-mnltiplying coterie whieh rejoices in the styles and titles of execntive committee of the Aunexation Clob, executive committee of the American League, ditto ditto, Schntzcn Verein, Officers’ Couneil of the Citizens Guard, ditto ditto Sharpshooters, etc., ©tc. But «re pause from further criticising the scheme asthe “Star” has the grace tO say as foIlows: .“These are inerely suggestions of plans whieh. at their best are £raught with difficulty aud whieh are by no meana yet decided upon in any quarter/ It will bo unwise for the nativea to be led into oppasing them by a contest for equal )egislative or administrative control for that wonld be ; preferring the bird ia tbe sky i whiehno arrow ean bring down i to a binl in tbe hand.” Bat noie the veiled threat < i whieh conc!ndes tbe annoonoe-1 1 meni: 4 ‘It will be unwiM for ihe!;

natives, etc.. etc. ’ In othe * words if yon don t give xn we II make vou. This is liberty, this isfreēdom. As Sqneers says in Nicholas Nickleby “Here ia i richoess.‘‘ But tbe cream of the matter j i is to eome. On the following j roorning the Advertiser eame ootwith a little article on the ; I proposition to separate the M n stcr of Foreigu Affairs from | the Presideucy and incidentally j remarted: “lt is uew believed, bowever, that tbe plaee ean be filled in a satisfactory manner. and this removes the last obstaclo in tbe way of effecting the change. Let it be made at onee.” 1 The Star man at onee smelled ; a rat. Ha! says he! The Adi vertiser has got into its deadly work and I am ont in tbe eoU. Beshrew me! hat ean I do/ ; Hat an idea! (aside Ideas ; are scarce with me now. I have ; squandered too many ou Cleve- | ; Iand, Gresham. Blount, and little Mills) I will raise the cry of “Close Corporation,” , Family compacts, etc. And thus I gain me point and seo | to it that Walter G. Smith | onee more dous the legislativo garb and gets his fingers in the flesh pots of Egypt. I will shout no missionary rule. I have them on the hip. Thus soliloquizing he hasted himsel£ to the headquarters of the Annexation Club and inter- i viewed one of the Executive Cornmittee —himself—and theuce to the Irish American Leagueand in- j terviewed a member of its Execu- i tive Committee —again himself — j and then hied away to the head- ■ quarters where lieber Yater- i land’s fest steht and treu over the | Poliee Statiou and the other per | quisites and onee raore interI viewed birnself as a member of ' the Esecutive Committee and i then having fouud “to his sur-| prise, that their wishes had not j beeu and were not being consul- : i tcd,’’ passed sorrowfully away ; and returned to his scissors and pastepot aud penned the following: “We quite agree with our esteemed contemporary that the plaee ean be fllled in a satisfactory raanuer,but if it is implied by | this that all obstacles to a ehoiee i are now removed or that they may be removed by an appeal to tlre Councils to ratifv a purely j private prefertince, we must beg to ditt’er. In the platform of the Annexation Club, framed, adopted and sent to the Government a few weeks ago appeared this significant plauk: Resolved , that the Annexation Club views witb 'alurm the presence in tbe Advisory Oouneil of one or more men who" are not in sympathy with the annexation movement and respectfally urges in case of future additious to that body or to ihe Executive Oouneil, tbat nominalion to it raay precede elections for a length of time sufficient for an investigation to be made as to the political views and antecedents of the eandidate. The Government, in a letter to the Clnb, pledged itself to the course of action indicated, and it is now the recognized system of procednre. We hope that it will not be departed from, because it means that the party wants a ehanee to express its views about any proposed changes of State and because that right is so maeh cherished that any effort to thwart it would have a deplorahle effect upou the political unity of the annexation ranks. Henee, to say the ministerial post shouU be filled “at onoe” and without further eonsultation is to iuvito dissent.” That is to say the right he deoies to the Hawaiian ,whether ! property owner, professional man, meehanie, tradesman, or laborer, whose only home is on the islands, and who has exercised freely the right to vote for half-a-century to theresu!ting prosperity of the nation. heasserts forhim seif and the other Johnny-cotDe-latelies who form the bolk ol the Annexation Clnb and who have no stake in the conntry whioh they eannoi pnll up and take away wiih them to-morrow if they have gelt euough to pay their passage-money. And thls is l:berty! This is tbo scream of ihe American £ig!e aa interpretedbyW. 6. Smith! This is »hat we have to expect nnder the

preseot "stabie and goo<l goreromentr’ We \rould rospectfuliy remind onr friends of tho Annexatiou Club and tbe ‘ Star notwitbstanding tbe “Advertiser’s” meek back-down this moruing tbat for years in this countr>' that element whieh is represented by the Royalist part\*. the Nalional Reform party, the Aleha Aina League and tlie Hni Kaiaiain*. have been steadily fighting to loosen the octopns-Iike grip of the family eompaei and missionary gang at the back of the Advertiser from tbe ship of State, and that owing to their success in that direction tbe revolution of Jan. 17th was inangu rated to restore the missionary leeeh to its pristine job of sucking the l:fe-blood of the nation: and that its preseui snccess, and power are only due to its having invoked the sacred name of America, and its power, to delude its uuthinkiiig fol!owers iuto the belief that this country should be American in uame, cnstoms, and Iibertv. Yet how soon have they shown the cIovou hoof of mam mon-grasping tyranny. To you and yonr followers tbey have said: Take the speeiul poliee, takethe militar\* salaries, take the government clerkships nnd the custom house perquisites, but vx will run things as of yore. The cream shall be ours —the skimmilk yours. Your paws shall draw the chestnut out of tho fire. We shall eat the nut.