1894.]

THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.

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that the poor man, the weak man, the ignorant man, shall be recognised, in fact as well as in name, in the body politic. There are new milestones to be set up on heights which are yet to be gained. Let us see to it that our future is worthy of our past and of all the promise of this auspicious day, and that it shall grow therefrom as the tree from the sapling; that freedom shall never come to mean licence in the vocabulary of the Republic; and that the spirit of traffic shall never invade the council chamber or the halls of legislation. And now, in behalf of the men who have carried this cause along, and who have stood ready to defend it with their lives; in behalf of the women who have given it their prayers and their husbands and sons, for the benefit and protection of all the people of this country, of whatsoever race or name; and in gratitude to God whose hand has led us, -I, Sandford B. Dole, President of the Provisional Government of the Hawaiian Islands, by virtue of the charge to me given by the Executive and Advisory Councils of the Provisional Government and by Act dated July 3rd, 1894, proclaim the Republic of Hawaii as sovereign authority over and throughout the Hawaiian Islands from this time forth. And I do declare the Constitution framed and adopted by the Constitutional Convention of 1894 to be the Constitution and the Supreme Law of the Republic of Hawaii, and by the virtue of this Constitution I now assume the office and

authority of President thereof. God save the Republic!"

As the last sentence was uttered the guns of the battery boomed a salute to the Hawaiian flag, which was unfurled upon the tower of the building. An old native Hawaiian bared his head to the salute, exclaiming, “There is more patriotism in a pound of that powder than in all the royalism of Hawaii."

Admiral Walker and his staff, with the diplomatic representatives, were present at the proclamation ceremonies, and Chief Justice Judd, whose father had exerted so great an influence in the civilisation of the natives, and Associate Justice Bickerton were the first to take the oath of allegiance. This was administered in the presence of five thousand people. The remainder of the day was devoted to athletic sports and yacht races and to official and private receptions, and in the evening there were brilliant illuminations.

The Constitution thus formally adopted was modelled after that of the United States, and framed specially to simplify annexation, which it anticipated. It was extremely liberal. President Dole, as I have said elsewhere, had been the devoted friend of the natives, and rights and privileges were assured them under the new Government which they had never enjoyed under the domination of their own

race.

In this final triumph of liberty an effort was

1894.]

THE QUEEN-AGITATOR.

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made to secure equal rights and justice to the female as well as to the male citizens of the new Republic, and in favour of this the Hon. L. A. Thurston laboured strenuously, supported by the most intelligent men and women in the Islands.

There were those, however, who were timid, having yet to learn that justice is eternally an abstract principle into which questions of expediency cannot enter, and with whose administration there can be no temporising, as older governments are slowly realising.

The new Government thus auspiciously established continued to administer public affairs with the moderation and justice which the Provisional Government had manifested from the beginning. Its pacific rule was but once disturbed, and this was in the native uprising, instigated by the Queen and the adventurers that still gathered about her, in January, 1895. It was suppressed within little more than a fortnight, the conspirators being tried and sentenced to fine and imprisonment, most of them, however, being afterwards pardoned. The country has now enjoyed more than three years of uninterrupted peace, during which prosperity has steadily increased. In the financial report for 1897 the total current revenue for 1896 was $1,997,818. 18, and the total expenditure for the same year $1,904, 190.92.

"This shows," says Mr. Thurston, "that after paying all running expenses, interest on all loans,

19

and redeeming $16,000 worth of bonds falling due, the Treasury closed the year with a cash surplus over $71,000 greater than at the beginning," - proof that the country is, as he asserts it to be, "self-supporting, solvent, and prosperous." The sums mentioned may seem insignificant to governments whose receipts and expenditures are reckoned by millions, but it must be borne in mind that the entire population of the Islands is but 109,020, many of the natives being merely nominal tax-payers.

Mr. Thurston has thus summarised the form of the new Republic, which I quote verbatim :

"The Government of Hawaii was a monarchy until January, 1893, when Liliuokalani attempted to abrogate the Constitution and promulgate one increasing her power and disfranchising the whites.

"The people thereupon overthrew the monarchy, and established a Provisional Government, January 17th, 1893.

"Later a Constitutional Convention unanimously adopted a Constitution declaring the Republic of Hawaii on July 4th, 1894.

"The Executive consists of a President and four Cabinet officers. The President is Sandford Ballard Dole, fifty years of age, Hawaiian born, of American parentage, a graduate of Williams College, a lawyer by profession. He was a judge of the Supreme Court under the monarchy, which position he resigned to accept the leadership of the Revolution,