Speech #560043784

But the better influences. while not the most powerful at all times. have been the most insistently applied. with the result that the remnant of the native Hawaiian race has made notable progress in all the arts of civilization. is almost universally possessed of a fair education. and still retains the many splendid qualities which have ever chatacterized them. It is to the credit of the early missionary influences that next to the unswerving loyalty and devotion to his hereditary chieftain. which has always characterized him. the Hawaiian has continuously displayed a sincere regard for and attachment to the Government and Ihe people of the United States. while in the breasts of those of our countrymen who made these summer isles their homes there has ever burned the ardent fires of patriotic devotion to their native land. which have been transmitted to their children born and reared there. with scarcely diminished fervor. coupled with an attachment to the isles of their nativity. whose warmth can only be appreciated by those whose good fortune it is to have bees brought for a brief space of time within the magic witchery of taese gems of the Pacific. Surrounded from the time of their arrival in the islands by such American iniluences and sentiments. it was but natural that all other immigrants to Hawaii. the darkskinned Portuguese from the Azores as well as those from Europe. should catch some. at least. of that spirit which constantly drew the hopes of the islanders to the great Republic and which. in my opinion. wasalways a stronger bond of unity between native and foreign born than ever was the government which was evolved from the old feudal system and whiih passed by regular and generally orderly changes through successive stages of despotic. limited. and constitutional monarchy. anti finally emerged by bloodless and inevitable evolution into the republic. To the men in the island of American birth and American parentage. and not only to them. but. to many others. who. through their influences. had learned to value our institutions and look to us for defense and development. the final raising of the Stars and Stripes. never more to be lowered. on August 12. 1898. above the palace of tha Kamehamehas. was the consummation of a long. earnest. and unselfish effort to be brought within the protection of the banner of the free. an earnestly longedfor "coming home." The committee in its bill providhbs for manhood suffrage. with an educational qualification. which will place the ballot in the hands of a great majority of male citizens. but exclude Asiatics from that privilege. This is a change in the original bill. which contained a property qualification for the voters for Senators. and in my opinion the change is a wise one. It is wise. first. that it puts all electors on an equality. and. second. because in my opinion there is no condition existent in Hawaii warranting such a departure from our former Territorial legislation as is contained in a proviso for a property qualification of electors. It is true that some patriotic and intelligent men. both here and in the islands. consider a small property qualification necessary I for the maintenance of a safe and stable government. and I do not pretend to say that a thirty days sojourn in the isiands better qualifies me to judge on this point than those who have thorough personal knowledge of the conditions. lam. however. on general principles. opposed to a proposition to deprive those who are able to read and write and therefore inform themselves. and who have had a reasonable training by participation in or by actual contact for a considerable length of time with the institutions of selfgovernment. of the right to exercise the elective franchise for the reason that they are not the possessors of real estate. It is pointed out by those who desire to restrict the franchise in Hawaii that the number of Caucasians in the islandsis but a fraction of the entire population. as though upon our race rested the entire responsibility of government there: and those who hold this view seem to regard the less than 10.000 native and foreign born of American. English. French. and Scandinavian parentage as the saving remnant. the leaven which must be depended upon entirely to leaven the whole lump of Hawidian citizenship.