Home: The Annexation Of Hawaii: A Collection Of Document
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370 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. Minister Macfarlane. The cabinet is prepared to go on tonight, and moved to take a recess till 7 o'clock. Rep. Ashford wanted to go ahead now. Carried till 7 o'clock. EVENING SESSION. The house reassembled at 7:03 p. m. Rep. White. The second clause relating to the American minister should be stricken out. As for the marshal, he had proved himself in many respects a very efficient officer. As for opium, some was brought in only a few days ago, in the vessel S. N. Castle in containers marked C. &. C. Just as much was smuggled during the Thurston administration. The resolution might pass, but the reasons assigned for it had very little weight. Some of the members had very little patience. The work of the session was by no means complete. This resolution should be postponed until after the passage of the appropriation bill. A popular vote would keep the cabinet in their seats by a large majority. One of the things which won the hearts of the natives for the cabinet was their saying they did not favor annexation. Hep. R. W. Wilcox said he did not want to shut off the member from Lahaina, but he had already used up his extension. The house wanted to hear the ministers. He had withdrawn his motion of the previous question in order to allow the minister of finance to speak, hut the latter did not seem disposed to speak. Minister Macfarlane said he had been waiting patiently to hear why the cabinet should be voted out, but no foreign member had spoken except Noble Thurston, That was his reason for his delay. He wished to hear from the foreign members why this cabinet did not enjoy their confidence. Two weeks ago the ministry had been sustained. Since then a general election had been held and the ministry over- whelmingly indorsed, no other issue being raised. He had little to say, but would refer to some of the statements made by members. The ministry was not being voted out because the allegations of the resolution were true. They were known by the introducer to be unqualifiedly false. The cabinet was voted out for the same reason as two weeks ago, because they would not have them under any consideration. One of the charges in the resolution complained of a lack of financial policy. It was well known that for the past two weeks the ministry had been incessantly busy working on the appropriation bill in order to be able to formulate and lay before the house a policy, hoping to keep the expenses within the revenue, but at every step they had boon thwarted by the men whose sole idea was to rule the country or to ruin it. Only three days since he had informed the house that he would ask the house to refer section 1 of the appropriation bill to the printing committee, so that he could present it to the house with retrenchments from one end of it to the other, and he would have been able to present it in such a shape that it would have been perfectly acceptable to the house and country. It was also well known that Her Majesty had instructed him to commence with her privy purse. To-day was the day set for him to begin. But instead he meets a cut and dried resolution calling on the cabinet to go out of office. They wanted no policy, no retrenchment - nothing but the dismis- sal of the cabinet. Such a policy was damnable, and it would be so viewed that he believed that not one of these men would be returned to this house. It had been stated by some of the members that the cabinet had sat here doing nothing. No in- telligent man could make such a charge. Not one minute had been wasted; $167,000 had been cut out of the appropriation bill, and he had on his desk six or seven bills, all revenue measures. Under such circumstances it was not just nor true to say that no financial policy was forthcoming. Those measures would have added largely to the revenue. His successor would perhaps do better; but when they said the cabinet had no policy they said what was not true. They wanted no policy from this cabinet. They wanted nothing but their scalps. If he had been idle, he had been idle to the further extent of putting the assessor's office in order and simplifying it. As to the charge that the cabinet was inimical to the United States, that was an unqualified false- hood, trumped up to rouse feeling. When had he ever placed himself before the community in such a light that such a charge could be marie. It was not true. The noble for Maui had referred to his alleged animosity and had mentioned the resolu- tion introduced three months ago. It had seemed to him at that time that the words of his excellency the American minister contained an improper reference to the affairs of this country. The American minister had disclaimed, and be believed the disclaimer to be true. That had not changed his feeling. He was an American citizen not from the accident of birth, but because he preferred to be a citizen of America rather than of any other country in God's world. If those objections were urged against the cabinet because he was a member of it, why had the noble from Maui urged him to accept a position in the cabinet two mouths ago? These charges were specious, groundless, untrue, and dastardly; and those who made them know