like circumstances, for the reason that they failed to recognize what I believe to be a fact, that a form of government and a form of religion is a necessary adjunct of the social compact, and that every race, be it civilized or barbarous, has the best form of religion and the best form of government it is capable in the aggregate of maintaining; and if you undertake to give a religion of a higher civilization to a barbarous race you must accompany it with that civilization and a full understanding of it, which is impossible. Therefore, while those people adopted outwardly the forms of our religion, they were unable to comprehend its meaning or appreciate our civilization, while they imbibed our vices and faded away. I have now shown the utterly worthless character of the native population and the worse than worthless character of contract labor; and I have undertaken to show by the testimony of leading Congregationalists in this country that the dominant invaders who now rule those islands are also incapable of enjoying a republican government, and are only capable of maintaining a despotism. I will read from a California paper, the Call, of San Francisco, on the 17th of this month: CONFESSION BY TORTURE-HOW THE HAWAIIAN GOVERNMENT ELICITED TREASON TESTIMONY. SAN FRANCISCO, February 17. The Call prints the following from Honolulu: "The success of the Government of Hawaii in conducting its treason cases was due to the incriminating evidence given by Capt. William Davies, of the steamer Taimanolo. Davies was arrested on the morning of January 5. He is an American citizen and refused any information, and while protesting his innocence demanded an interview with the United States minister. This was refused. Davies was then given to understand that if a complete confession was not forthcoming he would be strung up by the thumbs. But he did not flinch, and his legs were bound below the knees and his thumbs were lashed with a whipcord to iron bolts in the stone wall of the prison yard so that the unfortunate man's toes just touched the ground. Davies was stripped to the waist, while Marshal Hitchcock, Attorney-General Smith, and Surgeon Cooper, with a stenographer, awaited the statement which they believed would be forthcoming. Davies did not weaken. Sweat oozed from every pore. The tendons of the victim's limbs stood out like strands of rope, blood vessels knotted on his arms and legs, swelling as if ready to burst with congested blood, restrained in its course by his abnormal position, until at last he fainted. Dr. Cooper used salts of ammonia to revive the captain. As soon as he revived two negro convicts suspended him again by the thumbs. This inhuman operation was begun at noon, and it was 6 o'clock in the evening before Davies, more dead than alive, made the statement that respited him from the inhuman barbarity of his persecutors. "Another case of torture was brought to light in the military inquiry. A young native was handcuffed at the wrists. Then he was placed in a tank of ice-cold water. He was kept there until circulation of the blood in his extremities had almost ceased, and Dr. Cooper declared that action of the heart was almost suspended. He was then taken from the tank and, after being restored from his condition of semiconsciousness, the torture was again administered until he confessed." And these are the people who talk about having set up a "sister Republic" in the Southern Pacific. Then, with a population utterly worthless, what advantage are we going to gain by annexing those people? Oh, Senators say that our trade relations are large with the Hawaiian Islands, that more American ships go there than of any other nationality, and that more of their commerce comes to our ports than goes to any other part of the world. Remarkable, is it not, that this should be the fact when we impose a duty upon the products from every other country and admit them from the Sandwich Islands free. Now, what kind of a constitution did they adopt? It provides for an oligarchy. It provides that the Government shall consist of Mr. Dole as President-he is named in the constitution-who shall hold his office until the year 1900, a Senate of 15 members and a House of Representatives of 15 members, and the Senate and House sitting together shall elect Mr. Dole's successor President after the year 1900, but that no successor can be elected unless he gets a majority of the Senate; and if no successor is elected, Dole continues to hold. 2. Speech in the Senate July 6, 1898. ARTICLE 23.-First President. Sanford Ballard Dole is hereby declared to be the President of the Republic of Hawaii, to hold office until and including the 31st day of December, 1900, and thereafter until a successor shall have been duly elected and qualified. ARTICLE 24.-Election of President. SEC. I. On the third Wednesday of September, 1900, and on the third Wednesday of September in every sixth year thereafter, the Legislature shall meet to elect a President for a term of six years, to begin with the 1st day of January of the year following. SEC. 2. For the purposes of such election the Senate and House of Representatives shall sit together. The election shall be by ballot, and the person receiving a majority vote of all the elective members to which the Legislature is entitled, which majority shall include a majority of all the senators, shall be President for the succeeding term, or for the unexpired portion of such term in case no person shall have been elected prior to the first day of such term. SEC. 3. If the Legislature shall fail to elect a President before the Ist day of January following the date when the Legislature is required to meet for such election, the President whose term has then expired or the minister who is acting as President shall continue to be or act as President until his successor is elected and qualified; but such failure to elect shall in no case discharge the Legislature from their duty to immediately proceed with such election. Then they provide that no one can be a senator without the most rigid property qualification, possessing property worth several thousand dollars. ARTICLE 56.-Qualifications of senators. In order to be eligible to election as a senator, a person shall- Have attained the age of thirty years; Be able understandingly to speak, read, and write the English or Hawaiian language; Have resided in the Hawaiian Islands not less than three years; Be the owner, in his own right, of property in the Republic of the value of not less than $3,000 over and above all incumbrances; or have been in the receipt of a money income of not less than $1,200 during the year immediately preceding the date of the election, for the proof of which he may be required to produce original accounts of the receipt of such income. And no person can vote for a senator unless he is worth $3,000 in personal property or $1,500 of real estate, according to the last assessment for taxation, or has an income of $600 a year. ARTICLE 76.-Qualifications of voters for senators. In order to be eligible to vote for senators a person must possess all the qualifications and be subject to all the conditions required by this constitution of voters for representatives, and, in addition thereto, he shall own and be possessed in his own right of real property in the Republic of the value of not less than $1,500 over and above all incumbrances, and upon which legal taxes shall have been paid on that valuation for the year next preceding the one in which such person offers to register; or personal property of the value of not less than $3,000 over and above all incumbrances; or shall have actually received a money income of not less than $600 during the year next preceding the 1st day of April next preceding the date of each registration; for the proof of which he may be required to produce original accounts of the receipt of such income. They shut out, then, everybody in the Hawaiian Islands from the right of suffrage except the sugar planters. They made a qualification of voting for senators that would disfranchise 12,000,000 of the voters of the United States. I think many more. I think it would disfranchise 13,000,000 out of our 14,000,000 voters if we had the same provision. They have a property qualification which allows no one to vote for senators unless he is engaged in the chief industry of the island which has been built up by remitted duties. See how ingenious it all was. They created a council of state, five of whom were to be selected by the President, five by the Senate, and five by the House of Representatives; and this very constitution provides that a majority of the council can do business. Then it provides that they can sit and make laws and make appropriations when the Legislature is not in session, and that their laws and their acts and their appropriations shall hold good until the last day of the session of the Legislature. Then we have what? A Senate and a President, who are the Government, and anybody can vote for a member of the House of Representatives who was born in Hawaii, or is a naturalized citizen and has taken an oath to favor annexation to the United States. But the House of Representatives amounts to nothing. It cuts no figure whatsoever, because the Government council, one-third of whom are appointed by the President and one-third by the Senate, can do business when the Legislature is not in session, and the House has no voice in the selection of a President, because nobody can be elected unless he gets eight votes in the Senate. So the Senate elected by the sugar planters could elect Dole's successor, or Dole could continue on forever, and the people of Hawaii have no voice in the Government whatever. They put into the constitution a provision for a union, commercial or political, with the United States. Did that come from the people? They had no voice in it. As I have shown, the constitution was not indorsed by the people or submitted to the people. After this self-constituted convention had adopted that constitution, they declared it the constitution of the Republic of Hawaii, and never submitted it to a vote at all, and it never has been submitted. And yet from this gang of sugar-raising conspirators we propose to take title to those islands. There is no black page on the history of England in the robbery and plunder of the nations of the world as infamous as our own will be if we take title to those islands under such circumstances. We must submit this question to a vote of the people of those islands if we would escape dishonor. Although there were 13,583 registered voters in 1890, and in 1894 4,477, in 1896, under the Republic of Hawaii, at the first election under this constitution, there were but 3,196 actual voters, and in 1897, under the same Republic, there were but 2,687 voters for representatives. The fact of the matter is that the people have gradually become disgusted with that Government. They have found that they have no voice in it, and they have ceased to take an interest in it. They know it is maintained by the armed force of the United States, and they are uneasy. If you would submit the question whether those islands |