By the arrival, on Monday last, of the clipper ship Fair Wind, Capt. Crowell, in 8 days 17 hours from San Francisco, we have received that city’s journal to the 12th inst., containing telegraphed news from the East, to December 23 from St. Louis, and December 16 from Queenstown, Ireland, and Australian papers to October 12th.
The passage of the Fair Winds the quickest ever put on record between this place and San Francisco. By it we are in receipt of European news only 30 days old, and 24 days from the Eastern States.
The news from the United States continue interestly gloomy. The secession movement is rather increasing and gaining moral strength from the numerous defections among the Southerners and the wavering attitude of the North. The President having enunciated the doctrine (correctly or not, it is not ours to say) that a seceding State could not constitutionally be coerced into the Union, South Carolina is emboldened to persevere, and is apparently diligently improving her time between now and the 4th of March to organize her resources and mature the plan of that Southern Confederacy or consolidated Republic which seems the inevitable consequence of the secession of the Cotton States.
That the United States a now in an “awful fix,” to use their own vernacular, no sensible man can deny. But it is not a visitation of God or a stroke of Providence, but has been coming for years, and is the work of man, of principle jobbing politicians, North and South, and of clerical manipulation.
We cannot, however, yet reconcile ourselves to the idea of a dissolution of the Union. The time has surely not yet come. It is a fearful crisis to contemplate, but we have still hope in the naturally robust constitution
of the patient. Already indignation meetings have been held in the North, and men who would not care for Southern rights beg’n to see the folly of their acts when loss of employment and starvation blanch the cheeks of wives and children.
The Polynesian, Honolulu, Kingdom of Hawaii
Background: Hawaii and the US Civil War
In 1861, Hawaii was an independent kingdom. King Kamehameha IV followed the lead of the major European powers and declared neutrality during the war. Despite that, there were strong ties to the United States — particularly New England — due to the whaling industry and missionary work, and opposition to slavery, which was outlawed in the kingdom. Over 100 native Hawaiian or Hawaii-born combatants have been identified as serving in the Union or Confederate forces (primarily Union, but some in the Confederate Navy). Exact numbers and identities are difficult to track as many enlisted using western rather than native names.
