Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

History of California by Helen Elliott Bandini
page 178 of 259 (68%)
let ourselves go, we would have cried our way to the dock." But in the
war the record of the California troops was one that gave new honor to
their state.

Annexation of Hawaii

"The Hawaiian Islands," said Walt Whitman, in the Overland Monthly, "are
not a group. They are a string of rare and precious pearls in the
sapphire center of the great American seas. Some day we shall gather up
the pretty string of pearls and throw it merrily about the neck of the
beautiful woman who has her handsome head on the outside of the big
American Dollar, and they will be called the beautiful American
Islands."

In 1893 the native queen of the islands was deposed by a revolution
conducted in a great measure by Americans living in Hawaii. A
provisional government was formed and an application made for annexation
to the United States. Through two presidential terms the matter was
discussed both in Congress and by the people all over the country. Many
were against extending our possessions beyond the mainland in any
direction. Others thought it unfair to the natives of the islands to
take their lands against their will. It seemed to be pretty well proved,
however, that the native government was not for the advancement and best
interests of the country, and that in a short time these kindly, gentle
people would have to give up their valuable possessions to some stronger
power.

Captain Mahan, writing of these conditions, said: "These islands are the
key to the Pacific. For a foreign nation to hold them would mean that
our Pacific ports and our Pacific commerce would be at the mercy of that
DigitalOcean Referral Badge