The sovereignty of the United States has been peacefully accepted by all its inhabitants, and after a hundred years of turmoil and uncertainty the islands are reposing in prosperity and stability, disturbed only by the political excitement incident to a democratic system of government.

It has not been possible, within the compass of this volume, to narrate in detail the events attending the transfer of Hawaii to the United States or to review the merits of the controversy on that subject. The citation of official documents given will enable the student to pursue his investigation at will.

The annexation of Hawaii to the United States was the necessary result of the policy announced by Secretary Webster in 1842, and steadily pursued by each succeeding administration. This result was foreseen by European statesmen such as Lord Palmerston, and by intelligent observers of the geographical situation of the islands in relation to the commerce of the Pacific. The reasons for it were doubly increased by the acquisition of the Philippine Islands. Hawaii then became more than an outpost of the territory of the American Union on the western coast of the continent. It was a link in the chain of its possessions in the Pacific. It would have been the excess of political unwisdom to allow this group of islands to fall into the hands of Great Britain or Japan, either of which powers stood ready to occupy them.

The native inhabitants had proved themselves incapable of maintaining a respectable and responsible government, and lacked the energy or the will to

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improve the advantages which Providence had given them in a fertile soil. They were fast dying out as a race, and their places were being occupied by sturdy laborers from China and Japan. There was presented to the American residents the same problem which confronted their forefathers two centuries before in their contact with the aborigines of the Atlantic coast.

A government was established in Hawaii which had all the elements of a de jure and de facto sovereignty, and had vigorously maintained itself for four years. It sought for incorporation into the American Union. Under all the circumstances the President and Congress of the United States would have been recreant to their trust if they had failed to take advantage of the opportunity.

XII

THE SAMOAN COMPLICATION

A REVIEW of the diplomatic relations of the United States in the Pacific Ocean would hardly be complete without some reference to the Samoan Islands, although their situation south of the equator places them in great measure beyond the sphere of American activity in that ocean. Besides, their recent history brings into prominence the policy of the United States respecting the native governments of the groups of islands in Polynesia, and furnishes an example of the effects of an alliance or joint engagement with other powers.

The first permanent intercourse of the inhabitants of the Samoan group with foreigners was with missionaries. A few years after the establishment of the American missions in Hawaii, the London Missionary Society an organization which has done much useful work in Polynesia — sent missionaries to Samoa, and they have continued to labor there with considerable success up to the present time. The general testimony is that their influence on the inhabitants has been salutary. Mr. Tripp, the United States commissioner sent in 1899 to investigate the condition of affairs, reported to the Secretary of State that "these people are far from being savages. They are splendid specimens of physical manhood, and all are well informed about matters

of general information. They are nearly all Christians, and are very devout in their attachment to their church and religion.. Thanks to the missionaries the great bulk of the natives and nearly all the chiefs can read and write and are adopting the habits of civilization with great alacrity." In recent years the Catholics have established missions, and have gathered a considerable number of adherents.

Foreign traders arrived soon after the missionaries, but it was several years before they permanently settled in the islands. The first to establish themselves were the Germans, and they were followed by British and Americans. The intercourse of this class has had a most deleterious effect upon the natives. They interfered with the government, stirred up strife, and set the people at variance with each other through their support of rival chiefs. They circumvented or disregarded the prohibitions which the missionaries had induced the native rulers to enact against the importation of firearms and liquors. The injurious effect of this importation was brought to the attention of the British government, and Parliament enacted laws making the traffic unlawful for British subjects in the islands still under native rule. Hence the guilty parties in this nefarious commerce were mostly the Germans and Americans.

The first time the attention of the United States was officially called to these islands was in 1872. Commander Meade, in the naval steamer Narragansett, on a cruise in the South Pacific, entered the harbor of Pago Pago in Tutuila, and found the islands in a state of

great disorder and fearful of foreign domination. At the solicitation of the great chief of the island of Tutuila he entered into an agreement with the latter whereby the harbor of Pago Pago said to be the best in the South Seas - was ceded to the United States as a naval station, and the commander for his government assumed a protectorate over the dominions of the chief. Although the act was done without authority, President Grant sent the agreement to the Senate for its consideration, stating that the acquisition of the harbor would be of great advantage, but that a modification as to the proposed protectorate ought to be made before the agreement should be approved. The Senate, however, took no action upon it.

Doubtless influenced by the Meade agreement, Secretary Fish in 1873 sent a special agent- A. B. Steinberger- -to Samoa to report upon its condition, especially with a view to the increase of commercial relations. Steinberger returned to the United States and submitted his report, and was again sent to the islands, bearing kindly messages and presents from the President to its chiefs. In his instructions he was told that he could not give the chiefs any assurance of a protectorate, as it was "adverse to the usual traditions of the government." With this second visit Steinberger's connection with the government of the United States ceased, but he had so ingratiated himself with the rulers as to be made their adviser, and for a few years was the controlling spirit of the island government. He, however, incurred the disfavor of the British and American consuls, because of too great an intimacy