appointment.
He came to me in the Senate one day and told me that there was no
chance of Lawrence being appointed and that the President had
determined to appoint me. I told Connolly I did not see how I
could accept an appointment, under the circumstances, and that
Lawrence might misunderstand it. Connolly said he thought I must
take the place. The President himself afterwards talked with me
about it. I hesitated. He urged me, insisting that I could not
very well afford to decline. Finally I said that if he insisted,
I would accept. He nominated us to the Senate for confirmation.
This precipitated considerable debate in the Senate, for, by the
member of the Committee on the Judiciary, the appointment of Senators
and members on such a commission was regarded as unconstitutional;
but the committee determined to take no action on the nominations
at all, so we were neither confirmed nor rejected. President
McKinley urged us to go ahead, however, visit the islands, and make
our report, which we did. This was the beginning of expansion, or
Imperialism, in the campaign of 1900.

One writer, in speaking of the acquisition of these islands, said:

"One of the brightest episodes in American history was the acquisition
of the Hawaiian Islands, and Senator Cullom's name is prominently
associated with that act. He read aright our history as a nation
of expansionists. He was not afraid to permit the great republic
to become greater. He deemed it wise that to the lines of our
influence on land should be added a national influence on the seas.
This view was accepted by the people and by the national Legislature.
By President McKinley, Senator Cullom was appointed chairman of
the Hawaiian Commission, composed of Senator Morgan of Alabama,
and Congressman Hitt of Illinois, and Senator Cullom, to visit the
islands and frame a new law providing for their civil government
and defining their future relations with the United States. Since
the days of Clyde in India, few men have been clothed with a more
important duty than this commission, whose mission it was to prepare
a Government for the Hawaiian Islands. The bill recommended by
the commission was enacted by Congress, and stands as the organic
law of the islands to-day."

We had an exceedingly interesting time in the Hawaiian Islands.
They were not known so well then as they are to-day. We visited
several of the islands composing the group, and publicly explained
our m