The sovereignty of the United States has been peacefully accepted by all its inhabitants, and after a hundred years of turmoil and uncertainty the islands are reposing in prosperity and stability, disturbed only by the political excitement incident to a democratic system of government.
It has not been possible, within the compass of this volume, to narrate in detail the events attending the transfer of Hawaii to the United States or to review the merits of the controversy on that subject. The citation of official documents given will enable the student to pursue his investigation at will.
The annexation of Hawaii to the United States was the necessary result of the policy announced by Secretary Webster in 1842, and steadily pursued by each succeeding administration. This result was foreseen by European statesmen such as Lord Palmerston, and by intelligent observers of the geographical situation of the islands in relation to the commerce of the Pacific. The reasons for it were doubly increased by the acquisition of the Philippine Islands. Hawaii then became more than an outpost of the territory of the American Union on the western coast of the continent. It was a link in the chain of its possessions in the Pacific. It would have been the excess of political unwisdom to allow this group of islands to fall into the hands of Great Britain or Japan, either of which powers stood ready to occupy them.
The native inhabitants had proved themselves incapable of maintaining a respectable and responsible government, and lacked the energy or the will to
