“Breathes there a man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own my native land.”
(Scott.)

Many of those who support honestly the present state of affairs, have done so in the full hope and belief, that thereby the flag of their country—the Stars and Stripes—will float over the land in perpetuity. Not a single Hawaiian, however, even those few whose signatures to annexation petitions (not 200 in number and mostly convicts.) have been bought or forced by necessity from them, desires to see any foreign flag replace his own. And these Hawaiians are 40,000 strong, with 10,000 voters among them. Not one desires to see his country annexed and himself transferred to the government of another nation or race against his will, and at the bidding of a handful of strangers, even though they held every particle of property in the country (which they don’t by a long way). Their patriotism, loyalty and manhood, revolts against the thought. Yet these 40,000 relying on the honor and justice of the great American nation, are content to calmly and peaceable abide by and submit to the present condition of affairs, until that honorable nation will restore to them their rights, and await the time when of their own free will, unprompted and uncompelled by vis majeure, they shall seek union with, or admission to that united circle of states which was called into being, and has remained for over a century, as an eternal protest against all foreign rule by force, and in favor of individual freedom and liberty of self-government, to every man in the world, of whatever race or nationality. None can be found willing to barter his whole national life, tradition, and manhood, the land of his mother and father, the land of his birth, even in exchange for the proud privilege of becoming a citizen of the greatest republic on earth. And all honor to them for the manly and peaceful stand they have taken, relying on the justice of their cause, and the honor and fair dealing of the nation they appeal to, for the restoration of the rights of their Sovereign and themselves.

[This most likely came from the pen of one of the greats, Kahikina Kelekona, John G. M. Sheldon, the editor of the Hawaii Holomua.]

(Hawaii Holomua, 1/26/1893, p. 4)

Hawaii Holomua, Buke III, Helu 147, Aoao 4. Ianuari 26, 1893.