An Object-Lesson for the Hawaiians

In the debate in the Senate on Hawaiian annexation, Senator Tillman of South Carolina, let unnumbered cats out of innumerable bags. He spoke of the way in which the people of the Southern States established “a white man’s government” after the war, of the opposition of the Republican party to the  methods by which that government was established, and wanted to know if the Republican party was not backing up a similar “white man’s government” at the expense of an inferior race in Hawaii. Senator Tillman caused much perturbation among the annexation ranks by these home-thrusts. There can be no doubt that a “white man’s government” has been erected in Hawaii by methods similar to the Ku Klux practices of the South after the war. The Hawaiians may rest assured that if they are annexed they will have as many rights under a “white man’s government” as the negroes now have in the South, and they can ask Senators Morgan and Tillman what those rights are. Senator Morgan will not tell them, but Senator Tillman will.—The Argonaut.

(Independent, 2/12/1898, p. 2)

The Independent, Volume VI, Number 814, Page 2. February 12, 1898.