Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/388

364 the American flag” from the Hawaiian state-house—as if any man of self-respect would deny that wherever the flag floats in dishonor, honor commands it to be hauled down.

The clamor increased when it became known that under the instructions of our State Department the American Minister in Hawaii had offered to the dethroned Queen to restore her to her royal dignity, of which she had been deprived by the wrongful use of the power of the United States, on condition that she issue a general amnesty. It was fortunate that she refused to do this, and thus gave our Government an opportunity to retreat from an engagement, the execution of which might have produced most unfortunate complications. To restore the status quo ante even to the extent of putting the Queen on her throne again by the employment of the same power of the United States by which she had been driven from it, would indeed have accorded with abstract justice. But in dealing with the actualities of this world we have sometimes to admit that there are wrongs which cannot be completely righted in perfect justice to all, because by such wrongs situations may have been created, the entire overturning of which would inflict new wrongs upon innocent persons without after all furnishing the complete redress of the old wrongs aimed at. Thus the restoration of the Hawaiian Queen would undoubtedly have brought about in that country a state of restlessness and insecurity most grievous to the innocent part of the population—not to speak of the clash of opinions and the distracting agitation it would have caused in the United States.

It was wise, therefore, to recognize the new government of Hawaii as the government de facto, and firmly to resist the annexation scheme. On the whole, the action of the Administration in this case produced excellent effects. In declining to profit from an illegitimate use of the power of the United States, and in endeavoring, as far as possible,