_Question_. Colonel, what do you think about Mr. Cleveland's
Hawaiian policy?
_Answer_. I think it exceedingly laughable and a little dishonest
--with the further fault that it is wholly unconstitutional. This
is not a one-man Government, and while Liliuokalani may be Queen,
Cleveland is certainly not a king. The worst thing about the whole
matter, as it appears to me, is the bad faith that was shown by
Mr. Cleveland--the double-dealing. He sent Mr. Willis as Minister
to the Provisional Government and by that act admitted the existence,
and the rightful existence, of the Provisional Government of the
Sandwich Islands.
When Mr. Willis started he gave him two letters. One was addressed
to Dole, President of the Provisional Government, in which he
addressed Dole as "Great and good friend," and at the close, being
a devout Christian, he asked "God to take care of Dole." This was
the first letter. The letter of one President to another; of one
friend to another. The second letter was addressed to Mr. Willis,
in which Mr. Willis was told to upset Dole at the first opportunity
and put the deposed Queen back on her throne. This may be diplomacy,
but it is no kin to honesty.
In my judgment, it is the worst thing connected with the Hawaiian
affair. What must "the great and good" Dole think of our great
and good President? What must other nations think when they read
the two letters and mentally exclaim, "Look upon this and then upon
that?" I think Mr. Cleveland has acted arrogantly, foolishly, and
unfairly. I am in favor of obtaining the Sandwich Islands--of
course by fair means. I favor this policy because I want my country
to become a power in the Pacific. All my life I have wanted this
country to own the West Indies, the Bermudas, the Bahamas and
Barbadoes. They are our islands. They belong to this continent,
and for any other nation to take them or claim them was, and is,
a piece of impertinence and impudence.
So I would like to see the Sandwich Islands annexed to the United
States. They are a good way from San Francisco and our Western
shore, but they are nearer to us than they are to any other nation.
I think they would be of great importance. They would tend to
increase the Asiatic trade, and they certainly would be important
in case of war. We should have fortifications on those islands
that no naval power could take.
Some objection has been made on the ground that under our system
the people of those islands would have to be represented in Congress.
I say yes, represented by a delegate until the islands become a
real part of the country, and by that time, there would be several
hundred thousand Americans living there, capable of sending over
respectable members of Congress.
Now, I think that Mr. Cleveland has made a very great mistake.
First, I think he was mistaken as to the facts in the Sandwich
Islands; second, as to the Constitution of the United States, and
thirdly, as to the powers of the President of the United States.
_Question_. In your experience as a lawyer what was the most unique
case in which you were ever engaged?
_Answer_. The Star Route trial. Every paper in the country, but
one, was against the defence, and that one was a little sheet owned
by one of the defendants. I received a note from a man living in
a little town in Ohio criticizing me for defending the accused.
In reply I wrote that I supposed he was a sensible man and that
he, of course, knew what he was talking about when he said the
accused were guilty; that the Government needed just such men as
he, and that he should come to the trial at once and testify. The
man wrote back: "Dear Colonel: I am a ---- fool."
_Question_. Will the church and the stage ever work together for
the betterment of the world, and what is the province of each?
_Answer_. The church and stage will never work together. The
pulpit pretends that fiction is fact. The stage pretends that
fiction is fact. The pulpit pretence is dishonest--that of the
stage is sincere. The actor is true to art, and honestly pretends
to be what he is not. The actor is natural, if he is great, and
in this naturalness is his truth and his sincerity. The pulpit is
unnatural, and for that reason untrue. The pulpit is for another
world, the stage for this. The stage is good because it is natural,
because it portrays real and actual life; because "it holds the
mirror up to nature." The pulpit is weak because it too often
belittles and demeans this life; because it slanders and calumniates
the natural and is the enemy of joy.
--_The Inter-Ocean_, Chicago, February 2, 1894.