King of the Hawaiian Islands Kamehameha IV

“ It is a melancholy fact that agriculture, as now practiced, is not a business of so prosperous and lucrative a nature as to induce men of means to engage in it; and capital is absolutely necessary to the successful production of our great staples, sugar, coffee and tobacco. I beg you, therefore, to consider whether there exist any restrictions, the removal of which would give new life to this important source of national prosperity, and tend to create a juster balance between our imports and exports. I need hardly mention the obligation that weighs upon you, to open wide our ports to commerce. ”

“ We have seen the tomb close over our Sovereign, but it does not bury our hopes. If we are united as one individual in seeking the peace, the prosperity and independence of our country, we shall not be overthrown. The importance of this unity is what I most wish to impress upon your minds. Let us be one and we shall not fall!
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On my part I shall endeavor to give you a mild, and liberal government, but at the same time one sufficiently vigorous to maintain the laws, secure you in all your rights of persons and property, and not too feeble to withstand the assaults of faction. ”

“ To be kind and generous to the foreigner, to trust and confide in him, is no new thing in the history of our race. It is an inheritance transmitted to us by our forefathers. The founder of our dynasty was ever glad to receive assistance and advice from foreigners. His successor, not deviating from the policy of his father, listened not only to the voice of a missionary, and turned with his people to the light of Christianity, but against the wishes of the nation left his native land to seek for advice and permanent protection at a foreign Court. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ As the legislators of a young commercial nation, we should be liberal in our measures, and far-sighted in our views.
A subject of deeper importance, in my opinion, than any I have hitherto mentioned, is that of the decrease of our population. It is a subject, in comparison with which all others sink into insignificance; for, our first and great duty is that of self-preservation. Our acts are in vain unless we can stay the wasting hand that is destroying our people. ”

“ Mixed with many circumstances that will always make the session of 1855 pleasant to reflect upon, there is one that must overshadow it forever in the minds of us all. The death of His Excellency, A. Paki, has stamped this year, and, indeed, removed a pillar of the State. From your own feelings on the loss of that High Chief and staunch Hawaiian, you may judge of mine. May the Almighty have us in his keeping, and bless, and perpetuate the Hawaiian Nation.
Nobles and Representatives, I regret that you have not been able to agree upon the details of the Appropriation Bill. ”

“ 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 gratitude, which already exist here and in the United States, he will at least maintain them. ”

“ There is scarcely in history, ancient or modern, any king to whom so many public reforms and benefits can be ascribed, as the achievements of only twenty-one years of his reign. Yet what king has had to contend with so many difficulties, arising from ignorance, prejudice, scanty revenue, inexperience and ineptitude, as his late Majesty King Kamehameha III.? It was only in 1844 that His Majesty had the assistance of a responsible legal counsellor, and of a Secretary of State; only in 1845 that a proper separation of the departments of government was attempted, and a cabinet formed. ”

“ 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 institutions, 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. ”

“ Thus the rising generation is prepared for its work. The children find themselves on starting in life possessed of the information necessary to success, whereas their father had to struggle on his way in the midst of darkness and misapprehension. Suppose a step similar to the one I have described were made by the young people from one end of the islands to the other. Would not ignorance give way to intelligence? Would not darkness become light? Would not inexpertness succumb to proficiency? The general result could only be a largely increased sum of individual and national prosperity. ”

“ For all of which numerous and invaluable blessings we owe, as a nation, a formal, general and heartfelt tribute of thanksgiving to the Almighty, on whose favor all prosperity, whether individual or national, depends.
We do, therefore, with the advice and consent of our Privy Council of State, designate and recommend Thursday, the 25th day of December next, as a day of general and public Thanksgiving to God, our Heavenly Father, throughout our islands; and we earnestly invite all good people to a sincere and prayerful observance of the same. ”

“ The doors of Justice are open to all, and so far as I am informed, its administration in the higher courts has been prompt, efficient and satisfactory. Of the inferior magistrates, there has been some complaint, no doubt in many instances with reason; but the character of district justices has greatly improved within the past few years, and it is to be hoped it will continue to improve. Weak as we are, and imperfect as our Government may be, it will not be doubted, I think, that there is no country in which there is more entire security for life, liberty, person and property. ”

“ If a man does not get rich in the first few months of his endeavoring to do so, he suddenly relaxes in his exertions, subsides into his native indolence, and becomes a laughing stock to those whose ideas are in advance of his own. You say commonly, everything a foreigner touches he turns into money. But the fact is that if you worked and persevered as the foreigners do, then you would grow rich like them. There are three essentials to success in cultivating the soil. The first is a place to cultivate—the second, the hands to work with—and the third, perseverance. ”

“ In the first place allusion was made to the almost universal want of perseverance which marks the character of the laboring classes 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. ”

“ I regard a regency by the Queen, in cases of temporary vacancy of the Throne, or during a minority of the Heir Apparent, as the best means to secure a wise and safe exercise of regal authority, with proper regard to the rights of all persons. It would be a safe depository of power, for no one can feel a more sincere interest for the honor and prosperity of the Kingdom than the Queen Consort, and the mother of the Heir Apparent. ”

“ If it have no other effect than to encourage a decrease of litigation, by exposing in its proper place the law applicable to every civil regulation which legislation makes the frame-work of our national system, your time, and the expenses of the session, will not have been consumed in vain.
I have heard with satisfaction that the amendments of the Constitution which I suggested and laid open to your consideration, have been acted upon, and I do not doubt that the next session will see them confirmed and made effective. ”

“ Whereas, during the year now drawing to a close, we have enjoyed, as a people, numerous and great blessings; peace and tranquility have prevailed throughout our islands; we have been not only free from dangers from abroad, but have continued to enjoy the most friendly assurances of protection in our independence from the most powerful governments in the world; although the times have been hard through the scarcity of money, and our people have suffered from a drought almost unparalleled, neither our agriculture nor commerce has entirely failed ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is not in the ranks of modern farmers that you must look for the most ignorant or the most immoral men. We all know that when an individual enters upon an undertaking of the mode to accomplish which he is ignorant, he applies for information where it may be found, having learnt that a man unqualified for his task must fail in it. Having acquired this much experience, and being solicitous for the prosperity and happiness of his children, he will on no account omit sending them to school, so that they may not be trammelled in after years by ignorance as their father was. ”

“ But if he comes here with no more exalted motive than that of building up his own interests at the expense of the native—to seek our confidence only to betray it—with no higher ambition than that of overthrowing our Government, and introducing anarchy, confusion and bloodshed—then is he most unwelcome! ”

“ Nobles and Representatives:—I deem it my duty, as Chief Magistrate of the Kingdom, to submit to the Legislature certain points in regard to which the organic law seems to require revision.
Experience has conclusively shown that the Constitution of 1852 does not, in many important respects, meet the expectations of its framers, or of my Predecessor, by whom it was voluntarily conceded.
It is the part of wisdom to derive lessons from experience, and to regulate our future policy in conformity with its suggestions. ”

“ So long as such feelings exist on your side, and we retain gratitude enough to remember with acknowledgments the benefits we have already received from the Government and people of the United States, and can appreciate the advantages continually derived from the friendship and countenance of such a nation, there is little chance that the harmony now happily existing will be disturbed. ”

“ In the matter of one appropriation only, do I entertain any doubts; but if by any possibility the military establishment can be maintained upon such a scale as to ensure a promise of security, no exertions will be wanting on the part of my Government to do so, without overstepping the amount by you provided.
To the members of the House of Representatives I would express my sincere acknowledgments for the readiness with which they have interpreted the public feeling, and provided for my establishment under the new relations which I am about to assume. ”

“ Revolutionary violence, therefore, has no excuse except in the selfish rapacity which prompts it. It cannot plead the example of any country bordering on the Pacific, where life and property are more secure than they have been here, under the reign of the late King; where foreigners enjoy greater privileges, and where, like this Kingdom, foreign commerce (excepting spirituous liquors) pays a contribution to the State of only 5 per cent. ”