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3855
plausibility.   He comes here in the pay of private interests to 
obtain special rights and privileges, always under pretense of the 
public good, but always at the expense of the general community; 
otherwise he would not be here.   We want some one here who 
represents all the people of the Territory.   [Applause. ]   We want 
some one here who has a representative character determined by the 
people themselves, who choose and send him, and to whom he must 
answer. The gentleman who has just spoken [Mr. HILL] feared that we 
would have a disreputable or incompetent representative of an 
inferior class - the Kanakas.   Why, sir, we had here constantly for 
many years a representative of the Kanaka kings and queens of the 
purely Kanaka government.   Every old member here will recall 
with esteem the character of the ministers from Hawaii. Mr. Allen, 
who for many years sat on this floor representing with distinction a 
district of the State of Maine, went to those islands and afterwards 
came back here as minister, representing the Kanaka people and 
his royal master, a Kanaka.   He was diligent, honest, zealous, a fit 
representative of the population of the Hawaiian Islands.   He was 
followed by Mr. Carter, whom many of us knew well, a 
distinguished, a most honorable and excellent man; then Mr. Mott 
Smith.   All these had the privilege of this floor.   Then there was Mr. 
Thurston more recently, whom a great many of yon knew personally; 
and Mr. Hatch, one of the ablest members of the bar, who was 
recognized here for his integrity and ability; and Mr. Hastings, 
whose sudden and tragic death at the White House many of us 
remember - these delegates were often on this floor, but without 
the right of speech.   They were chosen, some of them by the 
government under white domination, some of them by the Kanaka 
native government; but all were fit men. There was also a Hawaiian 
lobby here from time to time, but always for special selfish objects.  
Every member knows by experience what a lobby is, and what the 
aim of a lobby agent is. Whether he is a distinguished gentleman, an 
ex-governor, an ex-judge, or a poor hireling picked up here in 
Washington, he is essentially a lobby agent, paid to look after a 
special interest. And representing this House on the commission, I 
believed we ought to have here upon this floor a man whom we could 
question, from whom we could derive direct information, who would 
have a representative character, a Delegate who would be 
responsible to the House and to a constituency.   [Applause.] Mr. 
BREWER.   May I interrupt the gentleman? Mr. HITT.   I will 
only take one moment as to the other subject which the gentleman 
raised. The CHAIRMAN.   The time of the gentleman from 
Illinois has expired. Mr. KNOX.   I move that the time of the 
gentleman from Illinois be extended. Mr. HILL.   I ask that the time 
of the gentleman from Illinois he extended to allow him to 
complete his remarks. The CHAIRMAN.   The request is made by 
several gentlemen that the time of the gentleman from Illinois be 
extended to conclude his remarks.   Is there objection? There was no 
objection. Mr. HILL.   Now, may I ask the gentleman a question? 
Mr. HITT.   Certainly. Mr. HILL.   Every person whose name the 
gentleman has mentioned was appointed, not elected - every 
representative of that country. Now, I want to ask the gentleman if 
he does not believe that a commissioner appointed by Hawaii to the 
United States, to represent their business interests, appointed by the 
governor of Hawaii, who is himself appointed by the President of 
the United States, would be more likely, under that system of 
appointment, and that that would be a better guaranty of getting a 
good representative than you could have by a general vote of the 
people of the Hawaiian Islands? Mr. HITT.   The difference would 
simply be that in the one case we would have the Delegate here in our 
presence whom we could interrogate, and in the other a 
commissioner going about the Departments, corridors, and 
committee rooms, with no voice on this floor, reduced to the likeness 
of an official lobbyist. Mr. HILL.   I should like to ask just one 
more question, and then I will not trouble the gentleman any 
further.   He has had a very large experience in diplomatic affairs.   
He is familiar with all the insular systems of the world.   Does he 
know of a single insular government in the world, either in the 
system of Great Britain, France, Germany, or any other European 
power, that has a representative in the parliament of any of those 
countries? Mr. HITT.   The answer to that is ours is essentially a 
popular, republican, representative government, and a republic 
does not need always to take lessons from monarchies in the 
application of our own system,    [Applause.] Mr. BREWER.   I 
want to ask the gentleman if he is willing that the people of Puerto 
Rico shall hare a Delegate here in this House?

Mr. HITT.   I will answer questions about Puerto Rico or 
Kamchatka and any other country when they are before the 
House.   [Applause.]   I do not want to be diverted to politics. The 
gentleman's question is political.   I am talking now about the 
business that is immediately before the House. I sympathize with 
much that the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. HILL] has said in 
apprehension of doing something to-day that would involve 
statehood hereafter for Hawaii.   The gentleman referred to what I 
said on this floor years ago about Hawaiian statehood - that I was 
averse to the prospect and thought well of the proposition to make it 
a county of California. I am sorry to add to what I said then that 
upon inquiry I found in California that there would be unanimous 
opposition in that State to the incorporation of Hawaii, with its 
population of an Asiatic character; and in the Hawaiian Islands 
there was not a soul who ever expressed approval to me of the 
suggestion made here of its becoming a county of California. Mr. 
HILL.   May I ask the gentleman - do I understand that he wishes a 
population which the State of California was unwilling to accept as 
a county to have from us representation as a full-fledged Territory 
in our Congress? Mr. HITT.   Well, that is argumentative.   I merely 
stated what the, sentiment was in California.   We know the 
Chinaphobia that prevails in California, and it determined this 
question among Californians apparently at once.  Gentlemen on the 
floor who represent California can contradict or confirm me. Now, 
nothing that we might say to-day against Hawaiian statehood, no 
resolution or enactment or eloquent speech, can prevent this very 
Congress to-morrow or another Congress two years hence or a 
hundred years hence from undoing anything and everything that we 
now do. We can not prevent another Congress from doing foolish or 
wise things.   They can admit it as a State if they will.   We can, 
after passing this bill to-day and in it passing the gentleman's 
proposition pledging impliedly that there shall be no statehood for 
Hawaii, to-morrow pass an enabling act.   We can not bind our 
successors. We have no such faculty, no such approach to 
omnipotence, no command of the future.   We legislate for to-day.   I 
would gladly do anything I could to carry out the view expressed by 
the gentleman from Connecticut as to that part of his proposition, 
for I think it is at least harmless; but as to the Delegate, we want 
him right here on this floor.    [Applause.] Mr. WILLIAMS of 
Mississippi.   Mr. Chairman, if the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. 
HILL] thinks that he can call from me, by his references this morning, 
words or tone apologetic in their character, the gentleman from 
Connecticut is mistaken. The laws of the United States provide that 
every organised Territory of the United States shall have a Delegate 
upon this floor. Mr. HILL.   I wish the gentleman would show that to 
me in the Constitution. Mr. WILLIAMS of Mississippi.   I believe 
the gentleman has complied with the Mississippi and Connecticut 
requisition for voting, and he can read for himself.   [Laughter.] Mr. 
HILL.   That provision is not in the Constitution. Mr. WILLIAMS 
of Mississippi.   There is no doubt about the fact that every 
Territory organized as a Territory of the United States is entitled to 
a Delegate upon this floor, and that that Delegate is, under the laws 
of the United States - I will amend my statement that far, if I said 
Constitution, I meant laws - entitled to the same salary and the 
same mileage as a member of Congress and entitled to every 
privilege of a member of Congress, except that of voting, on this 
floor. Now, Mr. Chairman, I stood here in my place and made the 
first Democratic speech in either House in opposition to the ad-
mission of Hawaii as a part of the United States, and I stated at 
that time the grounds of my opposition.   I said, when discussing the 
admission of that country, that we must do one of two things: We 
must either permit it to take its part and parcel with us as an equal 
Territory of the United States, with the constitutional privilege of 
becoming, when Congress saw fit, a State of the United States, or 
else we must leave it outside of the United States. I then stated upon 
this floor that when we were called upon to face Hawaiian 
problems, we should be called upon to face a colored race problem in 
Hawaii, and that when we were called upon to face it, we were 
going out of our way several thousand miles to hunt a new 
problem to add to other problems of that character that we already 
had and that were already too much for our management.   Does the 
gentleman imagine that we of the South take any pride in the fact 
that we have been compelled to restrict suffrage in order to preserve 
civilization? Mr. HILL.   I do not.   I am amazed at the fact, 
however, that you will vote, in insular possessions of the United 
States, to do the same thing over again. Mr. WILLIAMS of 
Mississippi.   Mr. Chairman, the same necessity exists.   I stated in 
the Hawaiian debate that whenever I was faced with that problem 
that, if I were the only Democrat in the United States to do so, I 
would stand for white supremacy

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