170

IMPERFECTLY CHRISTIANIZED.

religion, no other acknowledged worship. They had the Sabbath, Christian churches, and a Christian ministry; and their literature, so far as they had any, was almost wholly Christian. Theirs were some of

the largest churches in the world, and as great a proportion of the people attending the Sabbath worship, as in any Christian nation. On the other hand, the people as a body, including the greater part of the church-members, had only a partial engrafting of civilization upon their Christianity. They were rude in their dwellings and their social habits, and were sadly wanting in industry and thrift, in judgment and decision of character, and were yet painfully liable to the national sin, which was still wasting them as a people.

Not fully en

rank in

We must probably admit, that whatever right the Hawaiian churches of 1841 might claim to titled to take the Christian name, and they, doubtless, Christendom were fully entitled to it, the nation, as such, could not properly be allowed to take rank in Christendom as a Christian nation. Scarcely twenty years had passed since they were barbarous pagans. Their moral, social, and civil elevation was not yet sufficient to entitle them to such a recognition. Nor were the churches at home prepared to admit it. At the annual meeting of the American Board in Cincinnati, as late as 1853, the Prudential Committee ventured upon a somewhat jubiversion. lant announcement, that the Sandwich Islands had been Christianized; but so unprepared was even the Board, at that time, for appreciating and receiving such intelligence, that the announcement awakened no apparent interest; nor does the fact seem to have been generally credited by the Board until ten years later.

The Board slow to recognize the

national con

IMPERFECT CHURCH DEVELOPMENT.

171

church de

The island churches were in their primitive condition as late as 1863. All their centres Imperfect were at the missionary stations, mission- velopment. aries were, for the most part, the pastors, and but few natives were professedly training for the pastoral office. The important discovery had scarcely then been made, that self-governed, self-reliant churches are hardly a possibility among the heathen, without pastors of the same race. Nor was it till quite recently, that the missionaries were fully prepared to enter on a vigorous course of measures for putting the native churches on an independent footing. Churches formed as those at the Islands had been, and so much under the direction of missionaries as they were, could do comparatively little to educate the nation for self-government in its civil departments; except only as they inculcated the principles of justice, equity, and mercy.

A constitu

CHAPTER XXII.

GROWTH OF THE CIVIL COMMUNITY.

1838-1842.

MR. RICHARDS, soon after entering upon his official duties, delivered a course of lection adopted. tures to the chiefs on political economy and the general science of government. From the ideas thus obtained, a constitution was drawn up, based upon their old forms, and published in 1840. It is an interesting fact that, although this constitution greatly restricts the power of both king and chiefs, it was adopted unanimously. In comparison with the past, the progress of the nation was now more rapid. The liberal policy of other nations, and whatever of their forms could with propriety be transplanted, were embodied in the constitution and laws, but on a scale commensurate with the feebleness and youth of the nation. The penal code was greatly improved; primary courts and courts of appeal were established; the jury system was adopted. Sufficient was done to benefit greatly the position of natives and foreigners. Taxation was rendered more equal, and lighter; encouragement was proffered to industry, and to the increase of population; an enlightened public school system was organized. Imperfect as the system may appear to the critical eyes of a superior civilization, it was yet in advance of the

PROPERTY IN THE LANDS.

173

condition of the people. Wherever it operated fairly and systematically, much good was effected, and it served to prepare the way for more important changes.1

1

Property in

the lands.

The common people could now become owners of land in fee-simple. But their extreme poverty and want of skill were in the way of their becoming purchasers. So far as was possible, they received the counsel and aid of their missionary fathers. In one year, through the agency of a single missionary, seven thousand acres of pasture, and several hundred acres of arable land, were secured to a great number of poor people in the northern district of Oahu. A commission was appointed by the government to settle land titles; and, before the close of 1852, the claims of nearly all the people of the Islands had been investigated. The titles thus obtained were never to be questioned, even by the highest courts; and would invest the people with rights before unknown on any of the Islands, scarcely even by the highest chiefs. An impulse was thus given to the erection of better dwellings, and to a better cultivation of the soil, as was soon manifested throughout the Islands.

An impressive lesson, teaching the people that the laws were more than mere recommenda- Enforcement tions, was the execution of a chief for the of law. murder of his wife. He was put on trial, pronounced guilty by a native jury, and suffered the full penalty of the law, which was death by hanging. A similar lesson was taught to foreigners, by a fine imposed on the English consul for riotous conduct.

The Laplace treaty had proved so injurious to the 1 Jarves's History, p. 171.

174

The king and

THE KING AND TEMPERANCE.

cause of temperance, that a movement to arrest the evil was simultaneously made among the temperance. chiefs, without concert, at Honolulu and at Lahaina. The king was at the latter place, and he and the chiefs who were with him formed a temperance society. On putting his name to the pledge, he said: "I am one who wish to sign this pledge. Not, however, on account of the address we have just heard (referring to an address by Mr. Baldwin), but I thought of it before, and the evil of drinking rum was clear to me. Here is the reason why I thought it an evil. I am constituted a father to the people and the kingdom, and it belongs to me to regulate all the other chiefs. I have therefore become really ashamed, and I can no longer persist in rumdrinking. This is the reason why I subscribe my name to this pledge."

perance

Two days previous to this, a large temperance General tem- meeting was held at Honolulu, and Govermovement. nor Kekaunaoa, and several other chiefs, with some hundreds of the common people, took the pledge. In addition to this, about seven hundred children belonging to the first parish in Honolulu, then under the care of Dr. Armstrong, formed a "cold-water army," and took the pledge as teetotalers, with much zeal for the cause. Their motto was, "Water only; away with that which intoxicates." The restraints of law having been weakened by French interference, it was deemed the more necessary to create a public sentiment. This was in March, 1842. Writing from Honolulu in the October following, Dr. Armstrong declares, that he had known only three cases of drunkenness among the natives since April, and it was then as much as a