264 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



to bring about a convention for reconsideration of the act. 

 Both Germany and Great Britain declined to entertain the 

 proposition, and the unsatisfactory governmental system, as 

 originally adopted at Berlin, continued to exist, to the dis- 

 tress of the natives, and to the annoyance of all concerned. 



Referring to the many troubles of Samoa since the Berlin 

 Act had gone into force, President Cleveland said in 1893, 

 "This incident, and the events leading up to it [American 

 interposition in Samoa], signally illustrate the impolicy of 

 entangling alliances with foreign powers." 



The next year President Cleveland repeated his views upon 

 the subject : 



The present government has utterly failed to correct, if indeed 

 it has not aggravated, the very evils it was intended to prevent. 

 It has not stimulated our commerce with the islands. Our par- 

 ticipation in its establishment against the wishes of the natives 

 was in plain defiance of the conservative teachings and warnings 

 of the wise and patriotic men who laid the foundations of our free 

 institutions, and I invite an expression of the judgment of Con- 

 gress on the propriety of steps being taken by this Government 

 looking to the withdrawal from its engagements with the other 

 powers on some reasonable terms not prejudicial to any of our 

 existing rights. 



In December, 1895, the President was moved once more to 

 touch upon the Samoan matter in his third annual message 

 to Congress : 



In my last two annual messages I called the attention of the 

 Congress to the position we occupied as one of the parties to a 

 treaty or agreement by which we became jointly bound with Eng- 

 land and Germany to so interfere with the government and con- 

 trol of Samoa as in effect to assume the management of its affairs. 

 On the 9th of May, 1894, I transmitted to the Senate a special 

 message . . . and emphasizing the opinion I have at all times 

 entertained, that our situation in this matter was inconsistent with 

 the mission and traditions of our government, in violation of the 

 principles we profess, and in all its phases mischievous and vexa- 

 tious. I again press this subject upon the attention of the Con- 

 gress, and ask for such legislative action or expression as will lead 

 the way to our relief from obligation both irksome and unnatural. 



