Lessons In Imperialism: Hawaii

                              1898: Honolulu

“We Need Hawaii,”
“just as much and a good deal more than we did California,” confides President McKinley to his secretary. “It is Manifest Destiny.”
The Missionary Record endorses Hawaiian annexation on the grounds that Christ was an imperialist, too. “Has it ever occurred to you that Jesus was the most imperial of the imperialists?” The Reverend Wallace Radcliffe dubs U.S. imperialism “enthusiastic, optimistic and beneficial republicanism,” explaining that it is “not for domination but for civilization; not for absolutism but for self government.”
In contrast, McKinley’s anti-imperialist opponents recoil at the prospect of annexing “a country an overwhelming majority of whose population consists of kanakas, Chinese, Japanese, and Portuguese.” Nebraska Senator William Allen warns that steak-and-potato Americans are now in “deadly competition with those who live on a bowl of rice and a rat a day.” A California representative shrieks of “the immoralities unmentionable” and the “nameless contagions” created by “Asiatics.” He reads an article into the Congressional Record entitled, “Shall We Annex Leprosy?”
In the senior chamber, Massachusetts Senator George Frisbie Hoar dismisses the wishes of Hawaiian natives on the grounds that, “It would be as reasonable to take the vote of children in an orphan asylum or an idiot school.” The Hawaiian government and its “dusky Queen,” he announces, are “things of the past.”
In the grip of U.S. missionaries and white plantation owners, Hawaii is annexed by joint resolution of Congress.  Islanders weep and investors cheer.12
1898: Honolulu
Queen Liliuokalani’s Lament
“It had not entered into our hearts that these friends and allies from the United States, even with all their foreign affinities, would ever go so far as to absolutely overthrow our form of government, seize our nation by the throat, and pass it over to an alien power...”
“Perhaps there is a kind of right, depending upon the precedents of all ages, and known as the ‘Right of Conquest,’ under which robbers and marauders may establish themselves in possession of whatsoever they are strong enough to ravish from their fellows.... we have known for many years that our Island monarchy has relied upon the protection always extended to us by the policy and the assured friendship of the great American republic. “
“If we have nourished in our bosom those who have sought our ruin, it has been because they were of the people whom we believed to be our dearest friends and allies...”
“The conspirators, having actually gained possession of the machinery of government, and the recognition of foreign ministers, refused to surrender their conquest. So it happens that, overawed by the power of the United States to the extent that they can neither themselves throw off the usurpers, nor obtain assistance from other friendly states, the people of the Islands have no voice in determining their future, but are virtually relegated to the condition of the aborigines of the American continent.”13
 Sources:

Kent, Noel J., Hawaii: Islands Under The Influence, (Monthly Review, 1983)

Zinn, Howard, A People's History of the United States, (Harper, 1995)

Schirmer, Daniel B., Republic or Empire: American Resistance to the Philippine War, (Schenken Publishing, 1972)

Chomsky, Noam, Year 501 - The Conquest Continues, (South End, 1993)<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-alt:"Times New Roman"; mso-font-charset:77; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:auto; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:TimesNewRomanPS-BoldItalicMT; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-alt:"Times New Roman"; mso-font-charset:77; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:auto; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-alt:"Times New Roman"; mso-font-charset:77; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:auto; mso-font-signature:50331651 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-alt:"Times New Roman"; mso-font-charset:77; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:auto; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} </style>