Hawaii Holomua, Volume III, Number 10, 4 March 1893 — REPUBLIC OR EMPIRE? [ARTICLE]

REPUBLIC OR EMPIRE?

Tbe issue raised on tbe annexation of the Hawaiian lslands is distinctly *n issue between a repnhlīean and an imperi»l form of goveromeot. It ifl the same qoestion now that it was when Grant, io tbe aeniih of his power, attempted to force tbe aoneaaiion of San Domingo. Grant failed and this attempt willalao fnil, but Grant’s atterapt developed the fact tbat a very consider»ble portioo of the populatk>n of this country are at beart Imperi»liflt«, ready to «urrender control to the Plutocracy at home the better to extend tbe eonfine« of the country threugh the conque«t of weaker neighbors, Undoubtedly the httempt now being mado ie even more dangerou« than the attempt made under Grant. The annexation policy has heen preached for several yeare in New .York papere, and there ean be no doubt tbat plane were fully matured before Queen Liliuokalani was made a prisoner and the iglands seized by the gang. As long ago as the 24th of last November the Kennehee “Journal,” the paper edited by Stevens, the Harrison Minister st Honoiulu, bad an editorial on the advantages hkely to accrue from seizing them; and the San Francisco dispatcbes of yesterday show that Spreckels bas just completed a deal by whieh he has “frozen out” his smali stockholders as a preparation for the ! *annexatioli policy,” through whieh he has already boorned the stock enormous!y on tbe strengtb of the expectation, that he will get his plantatious into the United States, so that his sugar will eome in for the McKinley bouuty. 0f eoune, if we wiah to seize these islands and to enslave their people we ean do it. We ean take them firet and then go on to take Mexico, Canada and Central Ameriea. It will cost at least several bundred thousand Iives to adopt the Imperial policy. That, however, might be no sucb great matter were it the worst, but ihe resolt«ofthe figbting will be far wone ihan ihe fighting itself. We have a million penaionen now. We wili have five milliona if we allow the Imperialiste to drag us with in the direction in whieh they are carried by tbe stopidity of their selfishoesa and the bUnduess of their desire to make thems*lves maaters of thoae who are too weak to resist eueeeae* fully. Hawaii now will meao Ganada and Mexico next, and with Impenaliam onee inaogurated, the Pretorian elemeoi, made powerful by the aaoeudancy of the foroc we wiU ūae against our weaker neighbon, wiU oompletely mastekthe oouutry and wt op ita own cn*tures as tyrsnte o ver the people. lt will not ooet a very gn*t «fibrt at preeeot tq rob * fcw thoma»d PoIynesiaoa We ean eal with Hams when ||Koee. Meiioo •ranika