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Hawaii Organic Act: Congressional debates on Hawaii Organic Act

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3770
There was no objection.
Mr. HILL. Now I renew my request that the amendments 
which I send to the Clerk's desk may be considered as pending, to 
come up at the proper time, in case the reading of the bill is not 
finished in committee. 
The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from Connecticut asks unan-
imous consent that the amendments which the Clerk will now 
report be considered as pending.
The Clerk read as follows:
Strike out, on page 89. from and including line 20 to and including line 8, on 
page 90, and insert the following:
"TERRITORIAL COMMISSIONER.
"The governor may nominate and, by and with the advice and consent of 
the senate of the said Territory of Hawaii, appoint a commissioner of said 
Territory, to reside at the capital of the United States, and to represent the 
interests of said Territory of Hawaii in its relations with the United States. 
Said commissioner shall, when appointed, be a citizen and bona fide resident of 
said Territory; his term of office shall be two years; his salary shall be 
$5,000 per annum. which, with his actual, necessary traveling expenses in 
coming from said Territory and returning thereto, shall be paid by the United 
States."
Insert on page 97, at the end of section 102, the following: "SEC. 103. Nothing 
in this act shall be construed, taken, or held to imply a pledge or promise that 
the Territory of Hawaii will at any future time be admitted as a State or 
attached to any State." Renumber section 103 of the bill as section 104.
The CHAIRMAN. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Connecticut?
Mr. RICHARDSON. Mr. Chairman, I can not understand what 
would be the effect, in a parliamentary way, of consenting now 
that amendments which the gentleman says he will offer to a 
section may be considered as pending. Suppose the section is 
never read. Would the gentleman insist that these amendments 
should be pending? I make the point of order against them, and 
shall not consent to their being admitted; but I want to state why I 
do it, because I can not see how they could be considered as 
pending in the House by any agreement made in the committee. It 
seems to me that such an agreement as this ought not to be made. 
I have no objection to their being read for information, but I shall 
object to any consent being given for any agreement that they 
shall be considered as pending.
The CHAIRMAN.   Objection is made.
Mr. KNOX. Mr, Chairman, I yield the remainder of my time, or 
the remainder of the time allotted to this side, to the gentleman 
from Michigan [Mr. HAMILTON].
Mr. HAMILTON. Mr. Chairman, the islands of Hawaii are of 
volcanic origin and lie 2,100 miles out in the Pacific southwest 
from San Francisco. From Honolulu to Yokohama is 3.445 miles, and 
from Honolulu to Hongkong is 4.961 miles. From Unalaska, the 
nearest port on the north, to Tahiti, the nearest port to the south, is 
4,400 miles.
By reason of the vast waste of water that surrounds them and 
by reason of the limited coaling and steaming capacity of even 
the strongest vessels, these islands command the North Pacific as 
Gibraltar commands the Mediterranean, and strategically they 
have no rival in the world.
In annexing them we have annexed the only insular vantage 
ground from which a hostile fleet might have made descent upon 
our western coast and to which it could have returned. By annexation, 
therefore, we have posted these islands like sentinels in the midst of 
the Pacific to guard our western coast.
Commercially they lie at the crossroads of the sea. The lines of 
ocean traffic intersect there, and in the future a tremendous and 
increasing commerce will enter and leave Pearl Harbor when it 
shall have become the meeting place and transfer depot of the 
ships of Russia, China. Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and the 
American ships of the Atlantic and the Pacific, joined by the Nica-
ragua Canal in the carrying trade of a nation whose never-resting 
physical and mental energy must have constant and increasing 
market for its output.
The commercial and strategic importance of these islands is far
out of proportion to their size. They number seven inhabited 
islands and a dozen rocky or sandy shoals and reefs, with a total 
area of about 6,740 square miles and a population of 110,000 souls.
From Hawaii, the largest of the group, they trend northwesterly. 
Hawaii has 2,500,000 acres, and its principal town is Hilo. . Maui is 
next in size and location to Hawaii.
Oahu is third in size, but largest in population. On the southern 
side of Oahu is Honolulu, the capital city of the Hawaiian Islands, 
with a population of 30,000. A little to the east of Honolulu city and 
harbor is Pearl Harbor, with a water surface of about 10 square miles 
and a depth ranging from 20 to 90 feet.
Kaui is fourth in size and population.
On the north side of the island of Molokai is the leper settle-
ment, where about 1,200 lepers are fed, clothed, and cared for at 
governmental expense. Attended by a few monks and nuns of the 
Order of St. Francis, they live out their days there, cut off from 
the rest of the world by impassable mountains and by the sea.
Sugar growing is the principal industry of the Hawaiian Islands 
and is carried on principally by corporations with capital stock 
ranging from $200,000 to $4,000,000, although sugar growing by 
small farmers on the cooperative plan, with a central mill for a 
group of farms, has been commenced.
Sugar can only be grown profitably by artesian irrigation, re-
quiring heavy outlay for outfit and machinery. A large part of the 
volcanic soil is adapted to coffee, but coffee, although a common 
product, is not as yet an important commercial industry. Rice 
growing is exclusively in the hands of Chinese. The islands are rich 
in farming and grazing lands. The general conformation of the 
islands, they being of volcanic origin, is a general downward 
slope from an elevated central part to the sea. Climate, 
temperature, and products vary on the mountain sides according 
to altitude, cattle being raised on the highlands, coffee lower 
down, then sugar, then taro, and rice down by the sea.
HISTORICAL.
It is believed that the islands began to be inhabited about fourteen 
hundred years ago. Civilization was introduced by Captain Cook's 
discovery in 1778. The islands were brought under the sway of 
Kamehameha about the beginning of this century. He died in 
1819, but the islands continued under the Kamehameha dynasty 
down to the death of Kamehameha V in 1872. He was followed by 
David Lunalilo for about a year; he by David Kalakaua for about 
seventeen years, and he by his sister, Liliuokalani. The monarchy 
was overthrown January 17, 1893. The constitution of the republic 
was promulgated July 4, 1894. A joint resolution of the Congress 
of the United States for annexation was approved July 7, 1898.
The transfer of sovereignty was formally made at Honolulu 
August 13, 1898, and kings' crowns, kings' councils, and feudalism 
went out of business in Hawaii forever, and the islands which 
American missionaries had redeemed, which were already American 
in institutions, laws, and sympathies, were merged into the great 
body of the American Republic for all time.
TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT.
By this bill we provide that the Hawaiian Islands shall here-
after be known as "The Territory of Hawaii," and that a Terri-
torial government, with its capital at Honolulu, is hereby estab-
lished.
At the outset we are met by the question of citizenship, and we 
have declared in section 4 of this bill "that all persons who were 
citizens of the republic of Hawaii on August 12, 1898, are hereby 
declared to be citizens of the United States."
By the constitution of the republic of Hawaii "all persons born 
or naturalized in the Hawaiian Islands and subject to the juris-
diction of the republic are citizens thereof."
The government which we have framed for the republic of Hawaii 
may be easily divided into the three coordinate branches - the 
executive, the legislative, and the judicial.
      THE EXECUTIVE.
Under the head of the executive we provide for a governor to be 
appointed by the President for a term of four years or until his 
successor shall be appointed and qualified; that he shall be 35 
years old and a citizen of Hawaii; that he shall have a salary of 
$5,000 per annum, $500 for incidentals, and $3,000 for a private sec-
retary.
Among his powers and duties it is provided that he shall be 
commander in chief of militia: that he may grant pardons or re-
prieves for offenses against the Territory and against the United 
States, pending decision by the President.
When necessary he may call upon military or naval forces of 
the United States in Hawaii or summon the posse comitatus or 
call oat the militia. He may suspend the writ of habeas corpus or 
place the Territory under martial law. He is given the veto 
power and the power of removal when not otherwise provided.

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