No. 32.] Mr. McCook to Mr. Seward. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the honor to inclose you the copy of a communication addressed by me to Gen. Van Valkenburgh, United States minister resident at Yedo, Japan. The note explains itself; and as I deemed it essential to the interests of the public service that it should be written and forwarded promptly, I hope its contents will meet with your entire approval. I have the honor to be, etc., EDWARD M. McCоOK. [Inclosure in No. 32.] Mr. McCook to Gen. Van Valkenburgh. UNITED STATES LEGATION, Honolulu, August 3, 1867. DEAR SIR: An envoy of the Hawaiian Government sails for Japan to-day for the purpose of endeavoring to negotiate a treaty with Japan which will admit the sugars and other products of that kingdom on an equality with the products of the United States, England, etc. I should think it would be your policy to oppose the consummation of such a treaty by every means in your power. The Pacific States of the United States are almost entirely dependent upon these Hawaiian Islands for their supply of sugars, and the planters here depend on the Pacific States just as entirely for a market. This circumstance has been instrumental in maintaining American influence here, although all the sympathies of the Government are probably English; and so soon as they can find another market which will render them independent of the United States, our political and commercial influence on the islands will be lost. You have been here and understand how important in every respect these islands are to our country; and the fact that a treaty of reciprocity has just been concluded with them shows conclusively that the President and Secretary of State fully realize this importance, and are anxious by securing all their trade to make American influence paramount. Should they secure this treaty with Japan, and thus find another and possibly better market for their sugars, etc., it will in effect defeat the objects of the treaty just concluded, by diverting the trade we wish to secure into another channel, and enable the planters and merchants of these islands to sell their sugars to Japan, and with the proceeds buy their goods, as they now do, in an English market, instead of an American one, as they would naturally if their trade were exclusively with the United States. At any rate I believe that after so largely subsidizing a line of steamers to secure the trade of China and Japan, we ought to secure all of it if we can; and if the Japanese want sugars raised in this part of the Pacific let them buy them through the merchants of San Francisco, or some of our other Pacific ports. This seems like a small affair, but I think our new trade growing up with China and Japan should be jealously watched and fostered, and all other countries hindered if possible from injuriously interfering with it in any way. I hope you will concur with me in the view I have taken of this matter, and throw every obstacle you can in the way of the success of Capt. Waterman, the Hawaiian envoy, and request Gen. Stahl and our other consuls to do the same. I have forwarded a copy of this letter to the honorable Secretary of State, hoping that he will approve my opinions and communicate with you at once. SIR: Circumstances have transpired here which induce a belief that a strong interest, based upon a desire for annexation of the Sandwich Islands, will be active in opposing a ratification of the reciprocity treaty. It will be argued that the reciprocity will tend to hinder and defeat an early annexation, to which the people of the Sandwich Islands are supposed to be now strongly inclined. Under these circumstances, I have, first, to advise that you remain at Honolulu instead of coming to the United States, as you have before proposed. Second. You will be governed in all your proceedings by a proper respect and courtesy to the Government and people of the Sandwich Islands; but it is proper that you should know, for your own information, that a lawful and peaceful annexation of the islands to the United States, with the consent of the people of the Sandwich Islands, is deemed desirable by this Government; and that if the policy of annexation should really conflict with the policy of reciprocity, annexation is in every case to be preferred. The bearer of this communication will remain for the present at Honolulu, and will conform himself in his proceedings there to your advice, coöperating with you confidentially; and you will exercise your own discretion how far it may be necessary and when to instruct him in any of the matters contained in this dispatch. I am, etc., SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch of the 5th of August, No. 31. The President is gratified with the information that His Majesty the King of the Sandwich Islands approves of the reciprocity treaty, and that he took measures to call an extra ordinary session of the legislature for the purpose of a formal ratification. Since the receipt of your dispatch we have received a report by the telegraph from San Francisco that the treaty has been finally and fully ratified by the Hawaiian Government. I refrain altogether from treating upon the subject of the irritation which has been manifested at Honolulu in connection with the visit of the Lackawanna at that port. No conceivable good could result from engaging in diplomatic debate upon that subject. SIR: Your letter of the 14th of April has been received and carefully read. The information which you give of the excitement which is prevailing in Honolulu in regard to the annexation of the Sandwich Islands is very interesting. You suggest a system of proceeding here with reference to that object which could not possibly, at the present time, obtain the sanction of any department of this Government. Without going into an explanation of the causes for the condition of national sentiment which temporarily exists, it is enough to say that the public attention sensibly continues to be fastened upon the domestic questions which have grown out of the late civil war. The public mind refuses to dismiss these questions even so far as to entertain the higher but more remote questions of national extension and aggrandizement. The periodical Presidential and Congressional elections are approaching. Each of the political parties seems to suppose that economy and retrenchment will be prevailing considerations in that election and the leaders of each party therefore seem to shrink from every suggestion which may involve any new national enterprise, and especially any foreign one. How long sentiments of this sort may control the proceedings of the Government is uncertain, but, in the meantime, it will be well for you not to allow extravagant expectations of sympathy between the United States and the friends of annexation in the islands to influence your own conduct. You will continue, however, to write me upon the subject freely as you have hitherto done. I am, etc., No. 54.] WILLIAM H. SEWARD. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.: SIR: I have the honor to forward herewith a copy of a communication addressed by me to the Hawaiian minister of foreign affairs on the .1 29th ultimo. At the same time I inclosed him a copy of the resolution of the Congress of the United States which accompanied your circular of January 17, 1867, relative to the coolie trade. I deemed this action called for on my part from the fact that during my absence a cargo of Japanese coolies arrived at this port on the British ship Scioto, and were distributed among the planters and other parties on the islands under a system of contracts holding them to labor for the term of three years. I know nothing of the circumstances under which these people left Japan, but supposed you are fully advised in the premises through Mr. Vanvalkenburg. I have been informed that it is in contemplation to send an expedition to the South Sea Islands under the auspices of the Hawaiian Government, or the Hawaiian board of immigration, for the purpose of procuring laborers (coolies) from there. Should this really have been the design, I hope the communication I have already addressed to His Majesty's Government may lead them to abandon their purpose. If, any such attempt is persisted in I will deem it my duty to protest most emphatically against it, unless otherwise directed by you. As these South Sea Islanders are without an organized government and unable to protect themselves, any attempt to take them by force or fraud from their own country and reduce them to a state of temporary servitude here would, it seems to me, justify such active interference on the part of the Government of the United States as might be necessary to prevent the inauguration of a traffic more odious than the cooly trade of China. I have the honor to be, your very obedient servant, EDWARD M. McCook. No. 41.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the honor to inclose you a copy of a resolution on the subject of the cooly trade, which has unanimously passed both Houses of the Congress of the United States. It is believed that in this matter the resolution referred to correctly indicates the moral sentiment of the country I have the honor to represent; consequently I transmit the inclosed copy for the information of your Government, believing that His Majesty, actuated by those sentiments of humanity for which he has always been so eminently distinguished, will cordially coöperate with the Government of the United States in its endeavor to discountenance and discourage a traffic so repulsive that it meets with the reprobation of the civilized world. With sentiments of the highest consideration and regard, I have the honor to be, Your very obedient servant, His Excellency STEPHEN H. PHILLIPS, EDWARD M. McCook. H. H. M. Minister of Foreign Affairs, etc. [From the annual message of President Johnson to the Fortieth Congress, December 9, 1868.] I am aware that upon the question of further extending our possessions it is apprehended by some that our political system can not successfully be applied to an area more extended than our continent; but the conviction is rapidly gaining ground in the American mind that, with the increased facilities for intercommunication between all portions of the earth, the principles of free government, as embraced in our Constitution, if faithfully maintained and carried out, would prove of sufficient strength and breadth to comprehend within their sphere and influence the civilized nations of the world. The attention of the Senate and of Congress is again respectfully invited to the treaty for the establishment of commercial reciprocity with the Hawaiian Kingdom, entered into last year, and already ratified by that Government. The attitude of the United States towards these islands is not very different from that in which they stand towards the West Indies. It is known and felt by the Hawaiian Government and people that their Government and institutions are feeble and precarious; that the United States, being so near a neighbor, would be unwilling to see the islands pass under foreign control. Their prosperity is continually disturbed by expectations and alarms of unfriendly political proceedings, as well from the United States as from other foreign powers. A reciprocity treaty, while it could not materially diminish the revenues of the United States, would be a guaranty of the good will and forbearance of all nations until the people of the islands shall of themselves, at no distant day, voluntarily apply for admission into the Union. HONOLULU, April 14, 1869. DEAR FATHER: The bark Comet sails to-day for San Francisco, and even though I have little to make a letter interesting, I will venture a few lines. Our latest advices, by the Idaho, seemed to convey the idea that the reciprocity treaty was beyond hope, and the effect is beginning to be generally felt and seen. Men who have kept silent for months, guarding their words and actions, have openly expressed themselves of late as being in favor of annexation, and begun to talk of forming an organization or party with that end in view. What they want is to know that they will be backed up by the United States and its representatives here in all proper measures taken by them to secure a change in the political sentiment of the islands and their annexation at the earliest possible period. This means not necessarily a war on the part of the United States, but a feeling that they are supported by our Government and its officials, even to the continued presence of a man-of-war, if necessary, and intervention should this Government attempt to stop free speech and a free press or put down an American simply because he is an American and expresses himself favorably towards the United States. Americans whose opinions are entitled to respect claim that they have never had from the Government of the United States that countenance and support that England and France have always extended to their subjects here. They say (and I am disposed to think with some justice) that while an Englishman or Frenchman, even though holding an office under this Government, never forgets his country, Americans have been brought up and become more thoroughly Hawaiian than the |