A Letter from California.
O Kuokoa Newspaper; Aloha kaua:
As you passed by and entered my home in this land where I am living as a malihini, and I gazed to see the wealth contained in your patient bowels, and the freight you carried from our land of birth, and I saw and was appreciative, and my eyes were satiated seeing, and my ears were full from listening.
While we were meeting, I got the idea to place forth this below as freight for you to take back, and it is for you to regurgitate it before the public, those who love news, in the Hawaiian Archipelago.
This is it: There are three big things talked of in California this year, but I don’t intend to go on about them all; but I will speak about them so that they are understood.
- The movement by the haole to new places where gold was newly found: some to Boyce River, and some to Cariboo, and some to Nex Perces, and so forth.
- The war in the eastern states of America.
- The choosing of Heads of Government here in California for the next two years, 1864 and 1865, from Governor and all the Leaders beneath him.
And it is this last thing that I will describe in detail, being that I live in this land and often see this sort of thing, and because I have lived in this land for a long time, therefore, I can elaborate a great deal on this.
All the citizens here in California and all of America are divided into two groups: some are Democrats, and the others are Union Republican, and with this division, this causes much opposition between them when it is time to vote for their Leaders, and a form of wagering as well.
The two parties mentioned above, their selected Committees are meeting here and there to choose Leaders for the different Counties as per their wants, and they will select a new Committee from the different Counties to go to their big meeting in Sacramento, and it is there that the Heads of Government for all of California is decided, from the Governor down, as usual.
When it is time for this voting, or perhaps before then, there is much fighting while they malign one another, and go against their own selves, as if one is of a different nationality from the other, as they send filthy words from their antagonistic hearts without holding their tongues from saying nasty words, and actual striking, with guns, or perhaps with knives; with some being injured and other dying.
The main cause for this fighting is that one side is insisting that the enslaving of “nika” be abolished, and the other side insists that the enslaving of “nika” be continued, and that the new land called Territory be lands where “nika” are enslaved, those are lands of America that are set aside and not made into a state like California, and perhaps Ohio.
Republicans are the people who help greatly the cause of abolishing the enslaving of “nika” in all the states of the United States of America. This party appeared in 1856, from the party called Whig, but at that time, they were not victorious over the Democrats. But in the election for President in 1860, they were victorious; because their desires came true, and that is how Abraham Lincoln became president, and they continue to be victorious until today.
Mr. Leland Stanford is the Governor here in California now; he was elected in 1861, and he will be done on the last day of December of this year. He is in the Republican party, and so too are the majority of the Leaders under him, so too is the Legislature of this land; there are but a few Government Leaders who were voted in by the Democratic party.
The Democratic party these days is called rebels; because it is that party that began the rebellion by the Southern states of America until today. But not all of the people of that party are rebels, some of them are behind the old Nation, and are upholding the Constitution.
And it was this fighting between the two parties that disturbed the peaceful way of life of the famous Nation of the United States, taking away thousands of soldiers to their death and spilling many gallons of blood on the battle field, that is, “a house divided against itself cannot stand. [O ka hale i mokuahana ia ia iho, aole loa ia e mau.]”
On perhaps the 19th of this month, they will all meet at Sacramento, and after that the people who are believed to be the ones that will become the Leaders will be announced, and I will then tell you the names of those voted for from each party.
I will conclude my writing at this time, with my hope to give aloha to the Kuokoa Newspaper, the Greatest Prize of the Hawaii Nation.
With appreciation,
Hiram R. Nalau.
Irish Creek, California, June 5, 1863.
(Kuokoa, 7/25/1863, p. 1)
Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Buke II, Helu 30, Aoao 1. Iulai 25, 1863.
nupepa 