DEPARTMENT OF STATE, BUREAU OF ROLLS AND LIBRARY, Washington, February 9, 1893. 3 REPORT UPON THE OFFICIAL RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES WITH THE On September 19, 1820, Mr. John C. Jones was appointed to reside at the Sandwich Islands in the capacity of "Agent of the United States for commerce and seamen." To those functions there were added to the duties of the agent a general supervision of American interests in the islands concerning the status of which he advised the Department from time to time. Other official information touching these interests, and events then current there, was occasionally afforded by officers of the Navy, on visiting vessels, whose instructions permitted their friendly intervention in such affairs of the country as they might with propriety regard as of importance to this Government. In consequence of instructions in May, 1825, to Commodore Hull, U. S. Navy, in cominand of the Pacific squadron, then at Callao, Thomas ap Catesby Jones, commanding the U. S. S. Peacock, was sent the following year to Honolulu on a visit of friendly inspection, to relieve the native authorities of the annoyance occasioned by deserters from American vessels in the islands, and to endeavor to adjust certain claims due American citizens there resident. The objects of this visit were successfully accomplished, and Capt. Jones negotiated a treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation with the King, which was signed December 23, 1826. This was the first treaty formally negotiated by the Hawaiians with any foreign power, and although it was never ratified by this Government, certain of its stipulations appear to have embodied friendly views and purposes of the United States which were considered morally binding by both parties. (A copy of the treaty will be found in Appendix In 1829, Capt. Finch, commanding the U. S. S. Vincennes, visited the islands as the bearer of presents and a letter, dated January 20 of that year, from the Secretary of the Navy, on behalf of the President. In that letter Mr. Southard said: The President anxiously hopes that peace and kindness and justice will prevail between your people and those citizens of the United States who visit your islands, and that the regulations of your government will be such as to enforce them upon all. Our citizens who violate your laws or interfere with your regulations violate at the same time their duty to their own Government and country, and merit censure and punishment. From time to time thereafter naval vessels of the United States visited Hawaii and intervened in a friendly way in their affairs. Among them the United States frigate Potomac, with Commodore Downs, touched at Honolulu soon after the deportation, in December, 1831, of the Roman Catholic priests who had been introduced into the country in 1827 by the French, and that officer interceded successfully in behalf of some of their converts, who were undergoing persecution at the hands of the native Government. These persecutions were not 4 " finally arrested until 1839, in July of which year the French frigate L'Artémise, Laplace, commander, visited there. Laplace propounded several demands for the adoption of measures for the protection of the Catholics and offered a treaty of commerce, etc., threatening in the event of noncompliance with the demands and nonsignature of the treaty by the Hawaiian authorities to proceed forthwith to hostilities. The American consul was notified by Laplace at the same time that the American Protestant clergy would be treated as a part of the native population when hostilities should begin, he regarding them as the instigators of the alleged insults to France. The treaty, however, was signed by the premier, in the King's name, and violence was averted. Under the provisions of article VI of this treaty intoxicating liquors were introduced. (Appendix.) At about the same time the British consul, Mr. Charlton, who had long been at odds with the native Government, left to present, en route to London, certain personal claims and complaints to the British naval force on the South Pacific station. Already his representations had secured the violent intervention of Lord Edward Russell, commanding H. B. M. S. Acteon, and that officer had "negotiated a treaty " under the guns of his ship, which was signed November 16, 1836. (Appendix.) Charlton did not return, but the result of his errand was the visit in February, 1843, of Lord George Paulet, commanding H. B. M. S. Carysfort, who seized the islands in the Queen's name and forced from the King, Kamehameha III, a deed of cession, which was pathetically proclaimed by the unfortunate monarch on the 25th of that month. The Government was immediately put in commission by a proclamation of Lord George, he and (in the King's absence) the King's deputy, Mr. Judd, with others, being of the commission. On the 11th of May Mr. Judd resigned, after a protest against some of the acts of the commission, and thus withdrew the King from all further participation in their course. The remaining members of the commission continued to administer the Government and to perform various sovereign functions. Among others, they raised a native regiment, which they called "The Queen's Own," but which they armed and equipped at the expense of the Hawaiian treasury, and the officers of which they, of course, required to make oath of allegiance to the British Queen. Commodore Kearney, U. S Navy, on board the U. S. Frigate Constellation, arrived on the 11th of July, and promptly protested against the King's deed of cession, and also against the acts of the commission wherein the rights of American citizens had suffered in any degree. The King returned to Honolulu on the 25th of July, and on the 26th Rear-Admiral Thomas, R. N., entered the harbor on board H. B. M. S. Dublin, from Valparaiso. After friendly conferences between the King and the admiral, an agreement was signed, the Hawaiian flag was restored on July 31, 1843, and Lord George Paulet's act of seizure disavowed. (Appendix.) In this relation Mr. Fox, in a note of June 25, 1843, to Mr. Upshur, used the following language: I am directed by the Earl of Aberdeen to state to you, for the information of the Government of the United States, that the occupation of the Sandwich Islands was an act entirely unauthorized by Her Majesty's Government; and that with the least practicable delay due inquiry will be made into the proceedings which led to it. (Appendix.) [In an ingenious (but not ingenuous) plea of defense against the claim of the King for compensation and reimbursement, the Earl of Aberdeen satisfied himself that no such claim could be entertained by Great Britain. He regarded the seizure by Lord George Paulet as not "forcible ".-History Hawaiian Islands, Jarves.] The indirect causes of this outrage were complicated, but of assisted and persistent growth. From the early days of foreign interests and immigration in Hawaii the American element had predominated. The contention of the two principal European nations sending ships into the North Pacific-England and France-for supremacy in the islands. was hampered by this fact. The remedy adopted by the French was the introduction of a rival religion. It was the belief of the British consul that American influence might thus be broken, and the field left clear for a settlement of the question of ultimate sovereignty between the two powers, whose policy in that part of the world was one of conquest or colonization. The native sentiment turned toward that people by whom their independence had been first virtually acknowledged. The treaty negotiated by Capt. Jones had been the first actual recognition of their autonomy. For while that treaty had not been formally ratified, it had been observed as morally binding. The United States had manifested towards the Hawaiians a spirit of goodwill, and had maintained an attitude of neighborly respect in all official relations. The visits of their naval vessels had been generally helpful and encouraging; the purposes of their immigrants had been generally civilizing and progressive. By the policy of the French and English the Americans were thrust into a position of defense alongside of the native population, and threatened with a share of the punishment to be visited upon the government for the fancied insults and wrongs suffered by the people of those two nations. But a short time before the event just recited, William Richards, a clergymen, and Timoteo Haalilio, of the King's suite, the first embassy from Hawaii, had left for the United States, thence to proceed to England and France, upon the errand of securing recognition of the independence of their government. Mr. Richards had been formerly sent to this country in 1836 by the King to secure, if possible, the service of some American eminent in public life as advisers to the chiefs; but his mission had been unsuccessful. The embassy having arrived at Washington addressed a communication to Mr. Webster on the 14th of December, 1842, setting forth the situation of affairs in the Hawaiian Islands, reciting the progress of the people in the paths of civilization; their aspirations, and the necessity that demanded the formulation by the King of some definite foreign policy, and the assumption by his government of diplomatic relations with other powers. Mr. Webster answered them on the 19th, declaring in the name of the President recognition of the independence of the Hawaiian Government and the sense of the United States that no interference with the King by foreign powers should be countenanced. He pointed out the interest of the American people in the islands and the reasons for such interest, and added that in so obvious a case the President did not regard a formal treaty or the establishment of formal diplomatic relations as then necessary. He concluded with the assurance that not improbably the correspondence would be made the subject of a communication to Congress, and be thus officially made known to the Governments of the principal commercial nations of Europe. The Presi dent communicated the correspondence to Congress on the 30th of December, with a special message declarative of his policy. (Appendix.) This recognition of Hawaiian independence was, as we shall see, afterwards confirmed by Mr. Calhoun. Proceeding to England the Hawaiian ambassadors were finally suc 2 cessful in London in securing, on the 28th of November, 1843, a convention between France and Great Britain, engaging them "reciprocally to consider the Sandwich Islands as an independent state, and never to take possession, either directly or under title of protectorate, or under any other form, of any part of the territory of which they are composed." (Appendix.) This convention did not, however, guarantee the autonomy of the islands as against any third power, nor did it contain any expression of opinion on that point similar in spirit to Mr. Webster's declaration of the preceding December. Its intention seems to have been simply reciprocally to bind those two powers to do one thing-that is, "to consider the Sandwich Islands as an independent state"-and to refrain from doing another thing-that is, "never to take possession," under any pretext, "of any part of the territory of which they are composed." In consequence of the recommendation contained in the message of President Tyler, of December 30, 1842, Congress made an appropriation for the compensation of a diplomatic officer from this Government to the Sandwich Islands, and on March 3, 1843, Mr. George Brown, of Massachusetts, was appointed commissioner. Mr. Brown arrived at Honolulu in October following, and, on the 30th of that month, presented his credentials, with an address to the King, in which he asked in behalf of the citizens of the United States favorable and impartial treatment, at the same time assuring the monarch that this Goverument had no wish to secure for itself or its citizens any exclusive priv ileges. The King, answering, said upon this point: You may assure your Government that I shall always consider the citizens of the United States as entitled to equal privileges with those of the most favored nation. (Appendix.) Unfortunately, soon after Mr. Brown's arrival-by the latter part of the following August-a cause of serious difference arose between him and the King's Government in the case of John Wiley, an American citizen, who had been arrested charged with the commission of a crime or misdemeanor, and to whom trial by jury had been denied by the local governor. The treaty with France, above alluded to as secured by Capt. Laplace at the mouth of his guns, contained a stipulation (Article v1) that No Frenchman accused of any crime whatever shall be judged otherwise than by a jury composed of foreign residents, proposed by the consul of France and accepted by the Government of the Sandwich Islands. On the 12th of February, 1844, a convention with Great Britain had been entered into by the King's Government which contained (Article III) the same provision in identical phrase, mutatis mutandis. This treaty had been secured very much after the fashion observed by Laplace. Within less than one year before its signature the islands had been seized by Great Britain and had been adequately advised of the power of England. The King's embassy was still absent, and the newly arrived British consul-general had communicated the fact that he was without discretion to alter terms. The treaty was itself, in still other respects, objectionable to the American commissioner by reason of apparent discrimination in favor of England and against the United States, and it had already been the subject of an earnest protest on his part. And now, there being no treaty with the United States, the King's promise made in his speech to that commissioner, as he understood it, had been ignored by advice of the attorney-general-au American citizen—a law1 yer of New York, of the name of John Ricord, who had been invited to |