Speeches of His Majesty Kamehameha IV. To the Hawaiian Legislature Part 5

His Majesty spoke of the short-comings of the people as an agricultural population, and though he set down naught in malice it is equally certain that he extenuated nothing. This plain speaking tells with the Hawaiians, especially when it falls from the lips of their hereditary rulers. In the first place allusion was made to the almost universal want of perseverance which marks the character of the laboring cla.s.ses more than that of any other. The King showed in few words how necessary it is to make agriculture an absorbing pursuit, the only pursuit in fact of the man who engages in it, proving that the intermission of a day may often render nugatory the labor of a month. No man in fact having put his hand to the plough ought to look back, till the last process of all dependent upon ploughing has been brought to the best possible issue. In the next place, the want of capital was touched on, and spoken of as a very serious draw-back, though not an insurmountable objection to the pursuit of agriculture. In a country like this where the necessaries of life are so easily supplied, one man's steady labor will always produce very much more than one man's sustenance, and the overplus with ordinary thrift--or what would be considered such in other lands--becomes so much capital with which to increase the scope of an individual's exertions, and provide those means and appliances which by reducing labor add to profit. A carelessness to observe and communicate the results of observation as to seasons and localities, was another peculiarity common amongst the Hawaiians. The natives are too much inclined to make an attempt without first gaining all the information procurable in regard to the particular plant or vegetable they intend to cultivate. Slight variations in the alt.i.tude of different fields above the level of the sea, and differences in the quality of the soil, produce oftentimes no less results than failure on the one hand and success on the other. But the Hawaiians are too apt to make an essay without previous enquiry, and afterwards to keep to themselves the result of the experiment. This should not be in a country which is visited weekly in its whole length and breadth by a newspaper intended, more than for any other purpose, to spread a knowledge of practical agriculture and afford a medium for intercommunication upon points interesting to persons engaged in the original pursuit of our race. The King enforced this idea with great earnestness, begging his hearers to look upon themselves as links in the chain of improvement, dependent upon the past, as future laborers would depend upon them for such experience as to seasons, methods and localities as might be worthy of record and transmission to another generation.

The absence of methodical habits in the tillers of the soil was adverted to. Whilst on this subject, the King spoke of the utter disregard showed for any regularity in the hours of commencing and leaving off work. This desultory system is greatly aided by the want of stated hours for taking food and retiring to rest. If there were a common hour for breakfast and dinner, the hours for labor would be regulated and understood. The want of economy, not of time only, but of material, too, and labor, was then touched on. His Majesty seemed to be hinting at the old saying that "a st.i.tch in time saves nine," a fact usually disregarded by the natives of this country. One gap in a fence is generally a prelude to its total destruction, whereas half a day's work might save it for years to come, and prevent the outlay at some future day of the labor and material necessary to build a new one. But we cannot follow the line of ill.u.s.tration used to enforce this point; suffice it to say that the matter was made intelligible and the value of economy fully vindicated. After some remarks on roads and means of communication by water, in which steam was spoken of as one of the agents to which our agriculturists must look for a helping hand up the hill that leads to competency and opulence, the King strongly recommended the planting of fruit trees, and went into some practical details of the method now pursued by the natives of Kona, Hawaii, who as a cla.s.s bid fair not long hence to be, perhaps, more comfortably off than the people of any other district. Coffee, oranges, lemons and grape-vines were more particularly recommended to the fostering care of the audience. Allusion was also made to Dr. Hillebrand's very able remarks on the advantages of shade trees. His Majesty then brought his address to a close with a few general remarks that told home, breathing as they did the spirit of his often repeated exhortation to his people to remember that none will help those who will not help themselves--that responsible men must not, like children at their games, sit down to "open their mouths and shut their eyes," and "see what G.o.d will send them."

MAY 26, 1857.

_His Majesty's Reply to the Address of S. N. Castle, Esq., on Presenting a Bible on behalf of the "American Bible Society."_

The volume you present me in behalf of the American Bible Society, and the letter with which it is accompanied, I receive with a mingled feeling of pleasure and reverence. When I remember the moral illumination and the sense of social propriety which have spread throughout these islands, in proportion as the Holy Scriptures have been circulated, I cannot but admire and respect the human agency through which Providence has effected its benign purpose. But of all the members of the inst.i.tution, there is none with whom I could more gladly find myself in communication than the Secretary, whose labors have won for him a name among Christian philanthropists which might excite a world to emulation.

I will not attempt to echo the tone of fervent admiration and grat.i.tude with which you allude to the happy changes effected by the dissemination of G.o.d's Holy Word. But from the position I occupy, the facts meet me whichever way I turn my eyes. I see them every day and every hour. I see principles taking root among my people that were unknown and unintelligible to them at that dark period of our religious history to which you have referred. They have now a standard by which to judge of themselves and of each other as members of society. Without that standard no law but the law of autocratic power could have ruled them. Its absence would have rendered the gift of free inst.i.tutions, such as they now enjoy, a worse than useless act of magnanimity on the part of my predecessors. The commerce and intercourse with other countries to which we owe our present prosperity would have been checked by numberless difficulties. In one word, we see through all our relations the effect of those aspirations and principles inculcated by this sacred volume.

I should be wanting to myself did I not express the gratification I feel at seeing here present some of those who were the first to labor in the vineyard. Although they look for their reward elsewhere, they will not reject my pa.s.sing tribute of respect. Their labor has been long and their anxiety great, but their constancy and patience have equaled the emergency. The result of their life's work may even disappoint them if they judge it by the antic.i.p.ation of their more sanguine years. Yet, in their decline of life, they see some of the fruits they prayed for, and they will not complain when they remember that the measure of their success is from above.

Allow me to thank you for your personal share in the presentation, and through you to express my kindest acknowledgments to the American Bible Society.

DECEMBER 10, 1857.

BY ORDER OF THE KING.

It is hereby proclaimed that Thursday, the 31st of December ensuing, be kept as a day of solemn fasting and humiliation for sin, and of thanksgiving to Almighty G.o.d for numberless unmerited mercies and blessings received during the year that expires on that day.

L. KAMEHAMEHA.

JANUARY 21, 1858.

_His Majesty's Reply to the Address of Capt. Davis, of the U. S. Sloop_ =St. Marys=, _upon the eve of her Departure for San Francisco._

I can heartily a.s.sure you, Captain Davis, that it would have been a source of unfeigned regret to me, had circ.u.mstances prevented my having this last interview with you before your departure from these waters. When I say last, I mean the last during the visit of the _St. Marys_, for I sincerely hope to see you here again, and when you do return, I hope you will bring with you the same officers whose sojourn here with you has contributed so much to the social enjoyment of the last few months.

Your desire to increase the good understanding existing between my Government and your own has been so conspicuous that I cannot but congratulate the latter upon the happy circ.u.mstances that in sending a s.h.i.+p here, for the preservation of safety and order, the command of that vessel devolved upon no other than you. That you have been successful in your object, must be a matter of pride to you, and I do not think you will hear with indifference from my lips the simple announcement, that I and every member of my Government have appreciated those exertions, but no one more so than I, whose opportunities of judging of your intentions have, I am happy to say, been more numerous than those of some others.

MAY 21, 1858.

_Replies by His Majesty to the Congratulatory Addresses on the Birth of a Son and Heir to His Throne, by A. P. Everett, Esq., for himself and other Foreign Consuls; by H. R. H. Prince General Kamehameha; by the Rev. Mr. Damon and other Clergymen; and by the U. S. Consul, A. Pratt, Esq., for Foreign Residents generally._

His Majesty replied as follows:

GENTLEMEN:--I very kindly thank you for the congratulations you have just offered to the Queen and myself, and for the kind wishes you have expressed for the prosperity and happiness of the infant Prince. I also thank you for the many expressions of sympathy and good will which you have employed towards my people and Government, and for the prosperity of both. I a.s.sure you that the prosperity and happiness of my country, and of all who live within my rule, are subjects dear to my heart. And there is no greater encouragement afforded me that the hopes so often expressed by the friends of the Hawaiian people will be fulfilled, than the knowledge that I have the support and sympathy of the great and powerful nations whose officers I rejoice to see before me on this, to me, particularly happy day.

PRINCE AND SOLDIERS:--The expressions of loyalty you have just uttered are very welcome to me. There is no tie between the head of a government and his troops like that of mutual good wishes and a common object. Such exists between us, and may it never cease to exist. So long as it does we have nothing to fear of one another, but every thing to hope. In the Queen's name and that of our infant son I thank you kindly for your generous wishes.

Turning to Mr. Damon and the other reverend gentlemen present His Majesty observed:

GENTLEMEN:--For your valuable present allow me to thank you in the name of my son, whose advent into this life has been greeted so kindly, so heartily, by the community at large, but by none more sincerely, or with more ardent wishes for his real happiness than by yourselves--of that I am sure. The birth of the young Prince has placed me in a relations.h.i.+p to which I have hitherto been a stranger, and it has imposed upon me new responsibilities. I trust that in my conduct towards him throughout my life, I may remember the particular offering which your affection deemed most proper, and that as this Bible is one of my boy's first possessions, so its contents may be the longest remembered. In the Queen's name and my own I thank you, and it shall be the task of both of us to teach our first-born child to kindly regard you.

Then addressing himself more particularly to Mr. Consul Pratt, and from him to the a.s.sembly in general, His Majesty added:

GENTLEMEN AND FRIENDS:--I receive your congratulations on this occasion with mixed feelings of pleasure and pride. I take pleasure in knowing that the event which has given so much happiness in my own domestic circle, has caused a pleasure in this whole community and brought to my house these unmistakable marks of sympathy and good will; and I cannot but feel pride, at such a time as this, in knowing that my first-born child, the destined heir to the position I now occupy, enters the world amidst your hearty acclamations. I thank you for those expressions towards the Queen and myself, which are reiterations of feelings often expressed, and more often manifested than expressed, but which come doubly welcome at a time when every parent's heart has a yearning for sympathy.

Gentlemen, you see me a proud father, and by these manifestations of your love for me and mine you make me a proud King. Such occasions as these make a throne worthy of any man's envy, whilst the feelings uppermost in my heart will establish and seal from this time forth a new tie between me and every man who, like myself, can say he has a child.

MAY 22, 1858.

_Reply by His Majesty to the Address presented to Him by the Lodge of Free Masons and the Royal Arch Chapter of Honolulu._

MOST EXCELLENT HIGH PRIEST, COMPANIONS AND BRETHREN:

Bound together as we are in a holy league of brotherhood, I should not be doing justice to the feelings which actuate me in my relations.h.i.+p with yourselves, and operate amongst us all, did I deny that I almost expected you would seek a special occasion to felicitate me in the character in which we now appear. For all your kind wishes I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and among the many blessings for which I have, at this time, especial reason to be thankful to our Supreme Grand Master, I do not reckon this the least, that I enjoy the sympathy of a Fraternity whose objects are so pure, and whose friends.h.i.+ps so true as those of our Order. I will not multiply words, but believe me, that when I look upon my infant son, whose birth has been the cause of so much joy to me, and of so much interest to yourselves, the thought already crosses my mind that perhaps one day he may wear these dearly prized badges, and that his intercourse with his fellow men, like his father's, may be rendered more pleasant, and, perhaps, more profitable, by his espousing those solemn tenets which make the name of a Freemason honorable throughout the world.

MAY 25, 1858.

_Replies by His Majesty to the Hon. D. L. Gregg, Commissioner of the United States, and to the Hon. James W. Borden, his Successor, upon his Presentation as the new Commissioner._

His Majesty, turning to Mr. Gregg, replied:

From the renewed a.s.surances of sympathy and good will towards this Kingdom which, on the part of the President of the United States of America, you have just expressed, I cannot but derive the liveliest gratification, reminding me as they do of the long course of years during which the successive Heads of your Government have offered, through their Representatives here, similar professions of amity, without one interruption having occurred to mar the retrospect. I should be sorry were the President, or you, to suppose for one instant that I regard these professions merely as a civil form of words called for by the occasion.

The Government of the United States has never flattered me or my Predecessors with expectations of more than it intended to perform; the action has always followed true to the word, and we know by experience the value of such a.s.surances as those to which I have just listened with so much satisfaction.

It is, indeed, a fact worthy of notice and of remembrance, that the relations existing between the two countries were never more happy, or more calculated to inspire the smaller nation with a sense of independence and an appreciation of the fact that its future is in its own hands, than at this very moment, when, after having faithfully watched the interests intrusted to your care for more than four years, you are resigning that honorable duty into other hands. You have shown that strength of purpose may be united with courtesy of manner, and have justified your appointment by proving that their rights are best guarded, whose representative, being honest in his own intentions, does not without cause doubt the faith of the Government to which he is accredited.

Although I am afraid you over-estimate the actual value of the marks of courtesy and attempts to make agreeable your residence and that of your family upon these islands, which we have sought to offer, I thank you for the kind expression of your acknowledgments, and trust that you will always believe that my object, and that of every member of my Government, was but poorly carried out by any manifestations which it has been in our power to make. But, Mr. Gregg, not to seem to claim more credit than we deserve, allow me to add that the attempt was by no means a disinterested one, for in all the relations of society, those persons are most welcome who ornament it most and are themselves the most courteous.

I have too much confidence in the good will and sympathy of the Government of the United States, and faith in the wisdom of the President, to allow of a single doubt as to the course which your successor will pursue. It shall be my endeavor, and that of my Government, to regard him as the honored Representative of a great nation, and a good Friend. I believe that his dealings with us will be generous, that he will pursue the policy which in the hands of his predecessors has so largely helped to make this nation what it is to-day, and that if, coming after you, he cannot increase the feelings of kindness, and on one side of grat.i.tude, which already exist here and in the United States, he will at least maintain them.

Then addressing himself to Mr. Borden, the King spoke as follows: