226 



CONGRESS. (THE HAWAIIAN QUESTION.) 



attracted attention. One was the extraordinary haste, 

 not to say precipitancy, characterizing all the trans- 

 actions connected with the treaty. 



It appeared that a so-called committee of safety, 

 ostensibly the source of the revolt against the consti- 

 tutional 'government of Hawaii, was organized on 

 Saturday, the 14th day of January; that on Monday, 

 the 16th, the United States forces were landed at 

 Honolulu from a naval vessel lying in its harbor; 

 that, on the 17th the scheme of a provisional govern- 

 ment was perfected, and a proclamation naming its 

 officers was on the same day prepared and read at the 

 Government buildinir ; that immediately thereupon 

 the United States minister recognized the Provisional 

 Government thus created ; that two days afterward, 

 on the 19th day of January, commissioners repre- 

 senting such government sailed for this country in a 

 steamer especially chartered for the occasion, arriving 

 in San Francisco on the 28th day of January, and in 

 Washington on the 3d day of February ; that on the 

 next day they had their first interview with the Sec- 

 retary of State, and another on the llth, when the 

 treaty of annexation was practically agreed upon, and 

 that on the 14th it was formally concluded, and on the 

 15th transmitted to the Senate. Thus, between the 

 initiation of the scheme for a provisional government 

 in Hawaii on the 14th day of January and the sub- 

 mission to the Senate of the treaty of annexation 

 concluded with such government, the entire interval 

 was thirty-two days, fifteen of which were spent by 

 the Hawaiian cdmmissioners in their journey to 

 Washington. 



In the next place, upon the face of the papers sub- 

 mitted with the treaty it clearly appeared that there 

 was open and undetermined an issue of fact of the 

 most vital importance. The message of the President 

 accompanying the treaty declared that u the over- 

 throw of the monarchy was not in any way promoted 

 by tli is Government," and in a letter to the President 

 from the Secretary of State, also submitted to the 

 Senate with the treaty, the following passage occurs: 



u At the time the Provisional Government took 

 possession of the Government buildings no troops or 

 officers of the United States were present or took any 

 part whatever in the proceedings. No public rec- 

 ognition was accorded to the Provisional Govern- 

 ment by the United States minister until after the 

 Queen's abdication, and when they were in effective 

 possession of the Government buildings, the archives, 

 the treasury, the barracks, the police station, and all 

 the potential machinery of the Government." 



But a protest also accompanied said treaty, signed 

 by the Queen and her ministers at the time she 

 made way for the Provisional Government, which 

 explicitly stated that she yielded to the supreme force 

 of the United States, whose minister had caused 

 United States troops to be landed at Honolulu, and 

 declared that he would support such Provisional 

 Government. 



The truth or falsity of this protest was surely of the 

 first importance. If" true, nothing but the conceal- 

 ment ot its truth could induce our Government to 

 negotiate with the semblance of a government thus 

 created, nor could a treaty resulting from the acts 

 >tated in the- protest have been knowingly deemed 

 worthy of consideration by the Senate. Yet the 

 truth or falsity of the protest had not been investi- 

 gated. 



I conceived it to he my duty, therefore, to withdraw 

 the treaty from the Senate for examination, and mean- 

 while to cause an accurate, full, and impartial investi- 

 gation to be made of the facts attending the subver- 

 sion of the constitutional Government of Hawaii, and 

 the installment in its place of the Provisional Govern- 

 ment. I selected for the work of investigation the 

 lion. James II. Blount, of Georgia, whose' service of 

 eighteen years as a member of the House of .Rep- 

 resentatives, and whose experience as chairman. of 

 the Committee of Foreign Affairs in that body, and 

 his consequent familiarity with international topics, 

 joined with his high character and honorable reputa- 



tion, seemed to render him peculiarly fitted for the 

 duties intrusted to him. His report detailing his 

 action under the instructions given him, and the con- 

 elusions derived from his investigation, accompany 

 this message. 



These conclusions do not rest for their acceptance 

 entirely upon Mr. Blount's honesty and ability as a 

 man, nor upon his acumen and impartiality as an in- 

 vestigator. They are accompanied by the evidence 

 upon which they are based, which evidence is also 

 herewith transmitted, and from which, it seems to 

 me. no other deductions could possibly be reached 

 than those arrived at by the commissioner. The re- 

 port, with its accompanying proofs and such other 

 evidence as is now before the Congress or is herewith 

 submitted, justifies, in my opinion, the statement that 

 when the President was led to submit the treaty to 

 the Senate with the declaration that the monarchy 

 Avas not in any way promoted by this Government, 

 and when the Senate was induced" to receive and dis- 

 cuss it on that basis, both President and Senate were 

 misled. 



The attempt will not be made, in this communica- 

 tion, to touch upon all the facts which throw light 

 upon the progress and consummation of this scheme 

 of annexation. A very brief and imperfect reference 

 to the facts and evidence at hand will exhibit its 

 character and the incidents in which it gets its birth. 

 It is unnecessary to set forth the reasons which 

 in January, 1893, led a considerable proportion ot 

 American and other foreign merchants and traders 

 residing at Honolulu to favor the annexation of 

 Hawaii to the United States. It is sufficient to note 

 the fact, and to observe that the project Avas one 

 which Avas zealously promoted by the minister rep- 

 resenting the United States in that country. He 

 evidently had an ardent desire that it should become 

 an act accomplished by his agency and during his 

 ministry, and was not inconveniently scrupulous as 

 to the means employed to that end. On the 19th 

 day of November, 1892 nearly two months before 

 the first overt act tending toward subversion of the 

 Hawaiian Government and the attempted transfer of 

 Hawaiian territory to the United States he addressed 

 a long letter to the Secretary of State, in which the 

 case for annexation was elaborately argued on moral, 

 political, and economical grounds. He refers to the 

 loss to the Hawaiian sugar interests from the opera- 

 tion of the McKinley bill, and the tendency to a still 

 further depreciation of sugar property unless some 

 positive measure of relief is granted. lie strongly 

 inveighs against the existing Hawaiian Government, 

 and emphatically declares for annexation. lie says : 



*' In truth, the monarchy here is an absurd anach- 

 ronism. It has nothing "on Avhieh it logically or 

 legitimately stands. The feudal basis on which it 

 once stood no longer exists ; the monarchy now is 

 only an impediment to good government and an ob- 

 struction to the prosperity and progress of the 

 islands." He further says : " As a Crown colony of 

 Great Britain or a territory of the United States, the 

 Government modifications could be made readily 

 and good administration of the law secured. Destiny 

 and the vast future interests of the United States in 

 the Pacific clearly indicate who, at no distant day, 

 must be responsible for the government of these 

 islands. Under a territorial government thev could 

 be as easily governed as any of the existing Territo- 

 ries of the United States. 'Hawaii has reached the 

 parting of the ways. She must now take the road 

 which leads to As'ia, or the other Avhich outlets her 

 in America, gives her an American civilization, and 

 binds her to the care of American destiny." He also 

 declares : " One of two courses seem to me absolutely 

 necessary to be followed: either bold and vicroioiis 

 measures for annexation, or a customs union, an ocean 

 cable from the California coast to Honolulu, Pearl 

 Harbor perpetually ceded to the United States, Avith 

 an implied but not expressly stipulated American 

 protectorate over the islands. I believe the former to 

 be the better, that which will prove much the more 





