A New Method of Acquiring Territory. Presidents of the two countries, a treaty of annexation was prepared and submitted to the Senate of the United States, which, on June 8, 1844, was rejected by a very large majority. Near the close of the second ses sion of the Twenty-eighth Congress, a joint resolution giving the consent of that body to the erection of Texas into a State, with a republican form of government, for admis sion into the Union upon certain conditions and under certain guaranties therein spe cified, was passed by both Houses and ap proved by the President on March 1, 1845; and the Congress of that Republic, having complied with these conditions and accepted these guaranties on June 23, and the Repub lic having assented to the proposals of our Government by a delegated convention, be ginning its session on July 4, which action having been ratified on October 10, by a popular vote of 4174 to 312, a joint resolu tion declaring her to be one of the States and admitting her into the Union, was passed by the Congress of the United States and approved by the President on Decem ber 29, all in the same year. Having thus briefly related the circum stances under which the admission of Texas into the Union was accomplished, let us con trast them with those under which it has been attempted to annex the Hawaiian Is lands to the United States as one of its Terri tories. Until within a comparatively recent period, Hawaii has been an independent country, recognized as one of the nations of the earth, and, according to international law, the equal of any of them; and while she remained in that condition her people never manifested the slightest desire to become a part of this or of any other country, and, if left entirely to herself, she would, in all proba bility, have continued to be a separate and distinct nation. But in the course of time her territory was overrun by foreigners, un til her native people found themselves in a small minority of the whole population; and at the present day, out of a total of 109,020
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persons, the natives number only 31,019. In January, 1893, it was announced in the newspapers that the Royal Government of these islands had been overthrown by a rev olution, and that a Provisional Government had been inaugurated in its stead, which had been recognized by the American Minister, who had determined to support it by caus ing marines to be landed from a United States man-of-war, for the alleged purpose of protecting the property of American citi zens, and that this Provisional Government had appointed a commission to proceed to Washington, and to tender these islands to the United States. Want of space does not permit of giving a detailed history of this socalled revolution; nor is it necessary to do so, as it is quite generally understood by all, and denied by none, that the existing Gov ernment of that country is neither more nor less than a usurpation, having been called into existence against the wishes of the na tives by the superior power of the United States marines. It is this so-called Govern ment which has thus taken upon itself the responsibility of transferring to this country, so far as it had the power to do so, the po litical jurisdiction of another, without refer ence to, and against, the will of her original inhabitants, and in violation of her own Con stitution, as it confers upon her Legislature no power to cede away her territory or her jurisdiction to any other nation. Nor is it pretended that any vote of these people has ever been taken on the proposition to annex the islands to this country. On the con trary, the anti-annexationists held a mass meeting on September 6, 1897, and adopted resolutions declaring that nearly all of the natives, and a large majority of the people of the islands, were opposed to annexation, and fully believed in the independence and the perfect autonomy of the islands, and in the continuation of the Government of Hawaii as of a free and independent coun try, governed by and under her own laws. As further evidence of the truth of the
