The New York Times/1898/1/21/"Buying a Lawsuit"

“BUYING A LAWSUIT.”

Mr. Carl Schurz makes an excellent point, in the current number of Harper's Weekly, upon Hawaiian annexation. He calls attention anew to the fact, which has been called attention to before, that we are the “chartered libertine” of civilized nations, and are permitted to do things which would not be permitted to any other power. A good many of us have been in the habit of attributing our immunity to the fact that nobody expects civilized manners of us. There may be something in this explanation, which is not in the least flattering to us. But Mr. Schurz gives a more substantial explanation, which is in effect that no foreign nation has anything to gain by fighting us. It is true that there has been, and is now, nothing to prevent any strong naval power from taking possession of our chief seaports, and holding them to ransom, but that would partake too much of the nature of piracy to be in accordance with the spirit of the age. Germany might be moved to such an enterprise, being, although in most respects a modern country, ruled by a mediaeval monarch. But in general we are safe from being held to account for our procedures in that there is, nationally speaking, nothing to be gained by fighting us.

But all that would be changed as soon as we, in our turn, began the “career of expansion,” before we had half enough population to develop the resources of this continent. If we took possession of Hawaii we should at once supply to the overcrowded and expanding nations of Europe a reason for going to war with us and a prize of battle. We should become at the same time provocative and vulnerable if we went to work to “buy a lawsuit” two thousand miles away. Our present position is unassailable, as unassailable as that of Great Britain in China, and for the same reasons. Our commercial relations with Hawaii are so much more important than those of all other countries put together that we can very well insist that no other power shall take possession of the islands, by annexation or protectorate, or any other form of adoption. The power which might be supposed to have most interest in that direction, Great Britain, has distinctly disclaimed any intention of interfering with our superior interests. But as soon as we indicate, by annexing Hawaii, that we want not only “trade” but “territory,” we give each of the powers which are contending for the control of the western shore of the Pacific a motive for quarreling with us. We offer them the possession of the Hawaiian Islands as the prize of victory. It follows that, as soon as we assumed charge of the islands, we should have to maintain a navy for their protection superior to any navy that could be brought to bear against us. We should assume, without any motive, the burden of excessive armaments to which the European nations are subjected without any fault of their own.

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