been vacated at the king's death. Pleased with her victory, the queen planned for an unlimited exercise of power, but bided her time until matters appeared to be ripe. Her sympathies were still largely inclined toward the American element in the Islands, by reason of her marriage to John O. Dominis, a native of Boston, and a man thoroughly imbued with the sentiment of his nationality. But in less than a year after the accession of his wife to the throne, General Dominis died. From that time the queen's love for the American people seems to have waned, and in its place appeared a growing sentiment toward the English element.

Soon after she began to reign, Queen Liliuokalani had appointed her niece, the Princess Victoria Kaiulani, the heir to the throne. This princess, then a girl in her teens, was a daughter of a deceased sister of the queen, her father being an Englishman of wealth and of excellent reputation, the Hon. A. S. Cleghorn. At this time the young princess was obtaining her education in England, and was believed to be thoroughly imbued with English sympathies. From this period

onward the history of American influence in the Islands is of necessity inextricably blended with the political history of the island government itself. So rapid were the various movements which go to make up the island history, and so closely were they watched by the government at Washington through its representative at Honolulu, that to trace the exact effect of American influences is almost impossible.

As the months passed, the design of the queen to return, so far as possible, to the ancient absolutism, rapidly developed. Her dissatisfaction with the liberal provisions of the constitution of 1887 became more and more apparent. The marshal of the kingdom, a half-caste Tahitian named Wilson, was a confidential adviser of the queen, a circumstance which served to create some popular dissatisfaction. By character and education Wilson was deemed by many to be unfit to fill the important position of principal adviser to the queen. Nominally, this man, as already stated, occupied the office of marshal of the kingdom. Really, he was by many regarded as possessing an influence equal to that

of prime minister. Mutterings, first low, then loud, were heard,— mutterings of discontent which bade fair to culminate in open rebellion. This dissatisfaction pervaded the legislature, and in the early autumn of the year 1892 a vote of "want of confidence" in the queen's ministry precipitated an open conflict between the legislative and the executive branches of the government. "My present impression is," wrote Minister Stevens in October, "that the queen and her faction will have to yield. Otherwise the entire overthrow of the monarchy could not be long delayed."

Convinced that a crisis was near at hand, Mr. Stevens in November, 1892, again wrote to the Department of State :

"One of two courses seems to me absolutely necessary to be followed, either bold and vigorous measures for annexation or a 'customs union,' an ocean cable from the Californian coast to Honolulu, Pearl Harbor perpetually ceded to the United States, with an implied but not necessarily stipulated American protectorate over the Islands." This suggestion by Minister Stevens of the

approaching necessity of an ocean cable connecting the United States with the Hawaiian Islands was not the first occasion upon which such an undertaking had been officially commended. The desirability of such a measure had more than once been brought to the attention of Congress. The brief allusion of President Cleveland, in his message to the Forty-ninth Congress, to its desirability has already been quoted.* Two years later, in his message to the Fiftieth Congress at the opening of its second session, in December, 1888, Mr. Cleveland urged attention to this important project in these words:

"In the vast field of Oriental commerce now unfolded from our Pacific borders, no feature presents stronger recommendations for Congressional action than the establishment of communication by submarine telegraph with Honolulu. The geographical position of the Hawaiian group, in relation to our Pacific States, creates a natural interdependency and mutuality of interest, which our present treaties were intended to foster, and which make close communication a logical and commercial necessity."

*Ante, p. 152.

Mr. Harrison, who succeeded Mr. Cleveland in the Presidential chair, was equally gracious in his attitude toward Hawaii. Early in his administration he took occasion to recommend that the rank of the representative of the government of the United States at Honolulu be raised to that of envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, a recommendation which was adopted.

In his message to the Fifty-second Congress in its first session, in December, 1891, President Harrison informed Congress that surveys for the much-needed submarine cable, from the Pacific coast to Honolulu, were in progress, and urged that "this enterprise should have the suitable promotion of the two governments." At the same time he recommended that provision be made for the improvement of the harbor of Pearl River and for equipping it as a naval station. Again, at the opening of the second session of the Fifty-second Congress, in December, 1892, President Harrison called attention to the pressing need of the submarine cable.

"Our relations with Hawaii," said Mr. Harrison, "have been such as to attract an increased