Home: The Annexation Of Hawaii: A Collection Of Document
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HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 215 Mr. H. F. GLADE. The Queen has done an unlawful thing in ignoring the consti- tution which she had sworn to uphold. We most decidedly protest against such revolutionary proceeding, and we should do all we possibly can to prevent her from repeating actions which result in disorder and riot. We now have a promise from the Queen that proceedings as we experienced on Saturday shall not occur again; but we should have such assurances and guaranties for this promise that will really satisfy us and convince us of the faith and earnestness of the promise given, of which we now have no assurance. What such guaranties and assurances ought to be I can not at this moment say or recommend. This should be referred to the committee of safety for their careful consideration. I second the motion. Mr. Young, in addressing the meeting, spoke as follows: Mr. Chairman and fellow-citizens: In June, 1887, I stood on this same platform and addressed an audience almost as large as the one now before me. At that time we had met to consider a resolution that looked toward a new constitution, which pro- posed constitution was considered the most effectual method of removing some fla- grant abuses in governmental affairs, practiced by the King and his cabinets. The constitution was promulgated. To-day we have met to consider the action of Her Majesty in attempting to set aside the constitution we all worked so hard to have promulgated, in the lost interests of the sovereign and the people at large, as well as for the redemption of the credit of the Kingdom abroad. It has long been re- ported that at some favorable opportunity the Queen would spring a new constitu- tion upon the people and place matters even more in the hands of the sovereign than they were before the revolution of 1887. Some did not believe the rumors, but the actions of the Queen in the last few days have convinced the most skeptical that the rumors were well founded and that she had been pregnant with this unborn constitution for a long time; but it could not be born till under the propitious star. In trying to promulgate this long-promised constitution the Queen has therefore premeditately committed a breach of faith with one portion of her subjects in order to satisfy the clamors of a faction of natives urged by the influence of a mischievous element of foreigners who mean no good to the Queen or the people, but simply for the purpose of providing avenues for carrying out more perfectly the smuggling of opium and diverting the contents of the treasury into their own pockets. A by- authority circular has now been handed around setting forth that the Queen and her cabinet had decided not to press the promulgation of a new constitution; but can we depend on this promise of Her Majesty? Is this promise any more binding upon her than the oath she took before Almighty God to support and maintain the present constitution? Has not the Queen resorted to very questionable methods in an un- derhanded way to remove what, to the people, was one of the most acceptable cabi- nets ever commissioned by any sovereign in this Kingdom, in order that four other ministers might be appointed that would carry put her behest, treasonable or other- wise, as might be most conveniently within their scope? I say, have we any reasonable assurance that the Queen and her ministers have abandoned finally the new constitution promulgation scheme ? [Roars of "No" from the audience.] My fellow citizens, while the Queen and her cabinet continue to trifle with and play fast and loose with the affairs of state there can be no feeling of security for foreign families residing within these domains. There can be no business prosperity here at home, and our credit abroad must; be of the flimsiest and most uncertain nature. And you, business men, who are toiling honestly for your bread and butter, will have to put up with thin bread and much thinner butter if this farcical work is continued. In order that matters may be set to rights again, and that honest, stable, and honorable government may be maintained in Hawaii, I support the resolution and trust that it will be passed unanimously by this meeting. Mr. C. BOLTE. Since the resolution which was read here has been written things have changed. On Saturday the Queen promised the native people that she would give them a new constitution under all circumstances; she did not say exactly when, but as soon as possible. This morning a proclamation was issued, in which she says that her attempt to promulgate a new constitution last Saturday was made under stress of her native subjects, but that she will not do it again. An attempt to change the fundamental law of the land is a very serious matter, a matter that requires a good deal of consideration, and I am well convinced that this matter has been weighed and considered for more than a day by the Queen, and that there was no acting on the spur of the moment under the stress of her native subjects about it. It was her well premeditated conclusion that she would change the constitution so as to suit herself, on the day of prorogation of the legislature. Many people knew this several days ago, but there have been so many rumors about all sorts of things that not very much attention was paid to it; it was expected that she might change her mind before that day would come. But she did not change her mind as soon as that; she told the native people that she was ready to give them a new constitution right then and there, but that she could not do it because her ministers would not