Template:372-373

I say unto you, loving people, go with good hope and do not be disturbed or troubled in your minds. Because, within the next few days now coming, I will proclaim the new constitution.

The executive officers of the law (the cabinet) knew the errors in this new constitution, but they said nothing.

" 'Therefore, 1 hope that the thing which you, my people, so much want will be accomplished; it also is my strong desire.'"

Here is a direct accusation by the Queen against her cabinet, all of whom, with onGexception, were white men, that they had misled her as to the eftect of the constitution, and had failed to point out errors in it which, as a pretext, led to its rejection by them, causing them to refuse at the last moment to join with her in its promulgation. This call was, in fact, a new promise which was made by the Queen, with the evident consent of her immediate native followers, that within the next few days now coming she would proclaim the new constitution, notwithstanding her failure to give it a successful promulgation on the preceding Saturday. The intensity of the Queen's opposition to the missionaries and the white people was caused by her intention that the Kingdom should return to its former absolute character, and that the best results of civilization in Hawaii should be obliterated.

Civilization and constitutional government in Hawaii are the foster children of the American Christian missionaries. It cdn not be justly charged to the men and women who inaugurated this era of humanity, light, and justice in those islands that either they or their posterity or their followers, whether native or foreign, have faltered in their devotion to their exalted purposes. They have not pursued any devious course in their conduct, nor have they done any wrong or harm to the Hawaiian people or their native rulers. They have not betrayed any trust confided to them, nor have they encouraged any vice or pandered to any degrading sentiment or practice among those people. Among the native Hawaiians, where they found paganism in the most abhorrent forms of idolatry, debauchery, disease, ignorance and cruelty 75 years ago, they planted and established, with the free consent and ea~er encouragement of those natives and without the shedding of blood, the Christian ordinance of marriage, supplanting polygamy; a revereuce for the character of women and a respect for their rights; the Christian Sabbath aud freedom of religious faith and worship, as foundations of society and of the state; universal education, including the kings and the peasantry; temperance in place of the orgies of drunkenness that were all-pervading; and the separate holdings of lands upon which tb,t; people built their homes. In doing these benevolent works the American missionary did not attempt to assume the powers and functions of political government. As education, enlightenment, and the evident b~nefits of civilization revealed to those in authority the necessity of WIse and faithful counsels in building up and regulating the governmen~ to meet those new conditions, the kings invited some of the best qualIfied and most trm.ted of these worthy men tQ aid them in developing a~d conducting the civil government. As a predicate for this work they freely consented to and even suggested the giving up of some of their absolute powers and to place others under the constraint of ~onstitutionallimitations. Th~y created an advisory council and a legIslature and conve~ted H!1'Yall from an absolute despotism into a land oflaw. The. cabl~et mmlster~ thus chosen from the missionary . lei.slheDin?g-enthwteerecorneftiadmenecde omf tohfefickem. dgusrmagnd vtehrey ploenogplepeirniodthse,irthuinstegersittayb,-wisdom, and loyalty to the Government. No charge of defection or dishonesty was ever ~ade against any of these public servants during the reign of the Kamehamehas, nor indeed at any time. They acquired property in moderate values by honest means, and labored to exhibit to the people the advantages of industry, frugality, economy, and thrift.

The progressive elevation of the country and of the people from the very depravity of paganism into an enlightened and educated common. wealth and the growth of their industries and wealth will be seen at a glance in the statements of the most important events and in the tables showing the most important results of their work and influence, which are set forth in the evidence accompanying this report. This array of undisputed facts shows 'that, with Christianity and education as the basis, there has come over Hawaii the most rapid and successful improvement in political, industrial, and commercial conditions that has marked the course of any people in Christendom.

.In the message of President Tyler to Congress he says:

, "The condition of those islands has excited a good deal of interest, which is increasing by every successive proof that their inhabitants are making progress in civilization and becoming more and more competent , to maintain regular and orderly government. They lie in the Pacific Ocean, much nearer to this conttnent than the other, and have become an important place for the refitment and provisioning of American and European vessels.

'" Owing to their locality and to the course of the winds which pre. vail in this quarter of the world the Sandwich Islands are the stopping place for almost all vessels passing from continent to continent a('rOS8 the Pacific Ocean. They are especially resorted to by the great numbers of vess'els of the United States which are engaged in the whale fishery in those seas. The number of vessels of all sorts and the amount of property owned by citizens of the United States which are found in those islands in the course of a year are stated probably with sufficient accuracy in the letter of the agents. ,

"'Just emerging from a state of barbarism, the Government of the islands is as yet feeble; but its dispositions appear to be just and pacific; and it seems,anxious to improve the condition or its people by , the introduction of know}edge, of religious and moral institutions, means of education, and the arts of civilized life.

In the House of Representatives this subject was referred to the Committee on Foreign Aft'airs, and Hon. John Q. Adams, in concluding his report upon the subject, says: "

" It is a subject of cheering contemplation to the friends of human improvement and virtue that, by the mild and gentle influence of ChristiaR charity, dispensed by humble missionaries of thf; gospel, unarmed with secular power, within the last quarter Qf a century the people of this group of islands have been converted from the lowest debasement of idolatry to the blessings of the Christian gospel; united under one balanced government.; rallied to the fold of civilization by a written language ~nd constitution, providing security for the rights of perFlons,property, and mind, mnd invested with all the elements of right and power which can entitle them to be acknowledged by their brethren of the human race as a separate and independent community. To the co;nsummation of their acknowledgment the people of the North