The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 35, July 8, 1897: A Weekly Magazine for Boys and GirlsVarious
History
The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 35, July 8, 1897: A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls
Various
History, Modern -- 19th century -- Juvenile literature -- Periodicals
This time she will probably not escape so easily.
* * * * *
When the President sent the Hawaiian Annexation Treaty to the Senate, he
sent with it a message, giving reasons why the annexation of Hawaii
seems advisable.
His message stated that the idea of joining the two countries together
is no new one, that all our dealings with the Sandwich Islands for the
past three-quarters of a century have been leading toward this point,
and that for seventy years the government of the Hawaiian Islands has
leaned on the friendship of the United States, and annexation would be
only the natural outcome of the existing relations.
The Treaty has been published. It provides, in addition to the clauses
regarding the debt and the public lands (about which we told you last
week), that all existing treaties between Hawaii and foreign nations
shall cease, and that no further immigration of Chinese shall be allowed
to Hawaii, nor shall any of the Chinamen at present living in the
Hawaiian Islands be allowed to visit the United States.
These two clauses are objected to by both the Chinese and the Japanese.
China declares that if Hawaii is annexed it will become a part of the
United States, and protests that Chinamen living in Hawaii shall
therefore have the same right to come to the United States that they
have to journey from one State to another.
Japan has entered a formal protest against the annexation.
She claims that she has perpetual treaty rights with Hawaii; that is to
say, that her treaties can never be ended. She declares that the
Annexation Treaty must not have any clause cancelling existing treaties
with other nations. Such a clause would seriously damage her interests.
This protest from Japan comes in some degree from injured feelings.
Japan complains that throughout her disagreement with Hawaii she
recognized the interests of the United States, and caused copies of all
papers relating to the matter to be sent from her embassy to this
Government.
Despite this courtesy on her part, she was kept in complete ignorance of
the Annexation Treaty. When rumors of such an arrangement reached her
minister, he went to the State Department to make inquiries, and claims
that Mr. Sherman did not give satisfactory answers, but seemed purposely
trying to keep Japan in ignorance of the true state of the case.
Mr. Sherman replied to this protest that there can be no such thing as a
perpetual treaty.
According to his point of view, a treaty, no matter how strongly drawn,
must end when one of the countries that made it ceases to be a nation
any longer. Should the Senate ratify the treaty, Hawaii will become a
part of the United States, her life as a nation will be at an end, and
her treaties will cease with her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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