■4- 



ANNEXATION JUSTIFIED IN THE INTERESTS OF PEACE AND ' 
AN HONORABLE DISCHARGE OF DUTY. 



REMARKS 



OF 



" Ho:^^. j. i-i. walkee, 



Oir IM^SS^^CIIUSETTS, 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



Saturday, June 11, 1898. 



1898. 






68708 



-^ 






SPEECH 

OF 

HON. J. H. WALKEE. 



The House having under consideration the joint resohition (H. Res. ?j9) to 
provide for annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the United States- 
Mr. WALKER of Massachusc-tts said: 

Mr. Speaker: I hope I shall be able to relieve the House from 
any effects which may have been produced by the lamentations 
of its Jeremiah. [Laughter.] In the discussion and decision of 
this question there is not the first element or purpose of territorial 
expansion. "We enter upon the discussion and decision of this 
^ question of accepting Hawaii in precisely the same manner and 

upon the same principles that we would enter upon the discussion 
of the question of building a ship of our Navy. It is within as 
narrow limits as that question. It is clearly a question of our 
national defense, our national duty, 0':r national existence, in 
the position in which the great Former of the destiny of nations 
has placed us. 

I have struggled against this decision. 1 have been opposed 
to the annexation of Hawaii until I heard the shot of the guns of 
Dewey at Manila; and then I wakened to the importance of this 
question to the great destiny, as I believe, of this nation. No 
man has a moral right, in his power and strength in any commu- 
nity, to shut himself up within his own selfish interest and advan- 
tage and there live, seeking what he may for himself and forget- 
ting those about him. He has not this right either in a State or 
in a nation, nor has any nation such a right. It has no right to 
cut itself off from all the moral obligations that rest upon it to 
secure righteousness and maintain peace in the great community 

of nations. 

3553 3 



Are there any obligations resting upon that great empire of 
Great Britain to secure justice? Do we look upon her to discharge 
any of the duties that become her in her place of power among the 
nations? And are we to be absolved from every obligation that 
rests upon England? Was that the idea of our fathers? Have w^e 
received nothing in blessing from Almighty God? Shall we re- 
turn nothing to our fellow-nations in interest in them as our fel- 
lows? I do not make any claim that it is our duty to right the 
wrongs of every people and of every nation under all circum' 
stances, but I do say that it is the duty of this nation to take its 
proper place among the nations of the world, and that we stand 
verily guilty before God if we do not do our full duty, maintain- 
ing peace in the world. We are seeking Hawaii for peace. 

The roots of all moral courage rest in physical courage. The 
power of moral courage, in the l^st analysis, rests in the physical 
courage of the man or the nation, and the certainty that moral 
courage will find exercise in physical courage and in action when 
duty calls. In order that we may have practical courage, phys- 
ical courage, and moral courage we must have the means of legit- 
imately exercising our physical power, else we are as weak as 
China when attacked by Japan. Where was this nation in prac- 
tical physical power when Chile threatened us but a short time 
since? If Chile had pursued her purpose to the end she would 
have won as against us for a time. Where should we have been 
in this contest with the w eak power of Spain ten years ago? Spain 
would have won if the contest had been then commenced. 

Mr. Speaker, I have become convinced that this nation, to main- 
tain her self-respect and the respect of the nations and in the in- 
terest of peace, must have a navy as powerful as any nation in the 
world — ship for ship, man for man, fort for fort. [Applause. ] We 
must have Hawaii as a part of our naval outfit. We must have 
the Nicaragua Canal as a part of our naval as well as mercantile 
outfit. [Applause.] Those are three things that this nation owes 
to itself and owes it to every other nation of the world to have. 
It is a duty that we can not shirk. Any man who belittles his 
own power and shirks his own duty, shrinks and shrivels and does 
injury to his town as long as he exists on this earth. Every na- 
tion that forgets its high place, every nation that fails to do its 

3553 



5 

duty, must shrink and shrivel in the life of each one of its citi- 
2ens all the days of its existence. 

I was struck, as I never have been struck before by any event 
in our history, even more than when the guns were fired on 
Fort Sumter, by the electrical effect upon this nation when we 
heard the guns of Dewey at Manila. [Applause.] This nation 
towers to a height more than double what she ever had attained 
before. And I say here that we must come up to our opportuni- 
ties, that we must be in the possession of the physical power to 
make our moral decisions effective, or we must see civilization 
hindered if not retrograded. 

What are the other nations of the earth doing? Where is the 
nation standing for liberty among the nations, with the power 
and disposition to enforce it, except England? I ask here and 
now, are we to enter into alliance with England? No! Are we 
to have an alliance with England? Yes. What kind of an alli- 
ance? None whatever in form, but an alliance of good fellow- 
ship, of duty done, seeing our duty eye to eye for humanity. I 
believe that this Government, uniting with Japan and Great 
Britain, should enter into a treaty to-morrow, if possible, that the 
ports of all three nations, under all circumstances, should be 
open to each one and all of the three nations. How long? Not a 
day beyond the time when either nation shall give notice that the 
agreement is terminated. 

The most lasting alliance that can be made, and the only one 
that can be lasting, is an alliance which will last during the free 
consent of the parties to it. The moment you make an alliance 
for all time each party begins to think when and where and how 
it shall be terminated; but when you make an alliance that can 
be terminated at any moment, each party is studying to maintain 
and perpetuate it. What shall we add to that? Following the 
example of the three American commissioners, who alone settled 
the trouble of our southern neighbor Venezuela, we will agree 
that when any difficulty arises between any two of the three na- 
tions that the two nations that are at a misunderstanding shall 
each appoint— what? A court of arbitration? No; for a court of 

arbitration will breed war. What then? The countries at odds 
3553 



6 

shall each appoint three commissioners of its own citizens, and 
that for two years they will take no further action. 

Then each commissioner of each country is in duty bound and 
under bonds to find grounds of agreement, not of disassent. But 
if you have a court of arbitration, the commissioners of each na- 
tion become counsel for their respective nation, and are studying 
for grounds of disagreement, and not of agreement. This is all 
the alliance we want with any nation. The time has come, and 
in the interest of peace, when this country must and will have the 
power of enforcing the just and righteous decision of a righteous 
people. The righteous are in the majority always in this country. 
They always have been in every exigency in the past, and will be 
in the future; and not only in this country, but in every other 
nation that speaks the language of the Anglo-Saxon race. 

Now, what will become of our friend Russia, that has always 
stood by us? Because of our power and because of our friendship 
to the mother country we will see that neither she nor any other 
country does injustice to our friend Russia, or any other nation 
that is friendly or even unfriendly to us. The time of our swad- 
ling clothes has gone. The pitcher is broken at the well, and 
never can be restored. We can not shut our eyes to the fact that 
we have attained to-day, as I said before, to a stature such as none 
of us dreamed we should ever reach in our day or even in that of 
our immediate children. We can not shirk its responsibilities. 
We can not return again to the place of a physical pigmy or a 
moral dwarf. [Applause.] 

3553 



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