Annexation of Hawaii - 1897

Hawaii May be Annexed

The Islands Are likely to Be Ceded to the United States

Chenango Union, June 17, 1897

Washington DC:  The indications here warrant the belief that the details of a scheme for the annexation of Hawaii will soon be submitted to Congress. These plans have been under consideration for a long while, and the persistent work of former minister Lorin A. Thurston and Mr. Castle, the present minister, has met with great encouragement in spite of the fact that Congress has been so largely occupied with Cuba.  They have interviewed members of the foreign relations committee in the house and senate and have been constant visitors at the state department.  They claim that the administration favors the idea and that Congress will soon receive the convention.

 

The articles of convention in the proposed scheme of annexation are interesting.  Hawaii is to become a territory of the United States, ceding all her ports and crown lands in exchange for the protection of the united States. She is to be known in the galaxy as the territory of Hawaii.  The United States, it is proposed, shall assume the debt of the Hawaiian republic to the limit of $4,000,000.

 

It is the present purpose, say the friends of the annexation policy, to extend full territorial rights of citizenship to all residents of Hawaii except Asiatics.  Chinese residents and cooly laborers, who form a part of the resident population of Hawaii, will not be permitted to come to the united States under any of the present privileges granted Chinamen to remove from one territory of the United States to another.

 

Friends of annexation in Washington declare that the president will submit a message to Congress on the subject before the adjournment of the present session. 

 

The effect of excluding from citizenship in the United States the Asiatic population is considered the most serious feature of the proposed annexation.  If adhered to, in the opinion of many public men here, it would lead to a straining of diplomatic relations with China and Japan. 

 

Speaking of Hawaiian annexation, Senator Frye is reported as saying :  "It is my opinion that President McKinley, before the adjournment of this extra session, will send to the senate a treaty of annexation of Hawaii."