ready informed you of the utter impossibility of such provisions as I desired in the second and eighth articles. As they stand they will be regarded as ad referendum so far as the United States are concerned. This, of course, was the only ground upon which I could place my assent to them, especially the last. From the protocols, which are not yet all in a condition to be copied for transmission, the true character of the negotiation and its embarrassing circumstances will more fully appear. I shall probably be able to send them by the next mail.

The provisions of the separate article were made a matter of positive demand by the Hawaiian cabinet. I refused to incorporate them into the body of the treaty, because they contemplate an object which, if effected at all, must be brought about before any final ratification can take place. The ratification of the treaty by this Government would undoubtedly quell any disturbances that might arise from American sources, but a conditional cession, as contemplated by such article, would forever practically settle all questions as to future influence and jurisdiction. The moment our fiag was raised a flood of immigration from California would pour in, sufficient, at least, to make the islands thoroughly American and to secure an equitable and fair arrangement if the terms of the present treaty are deemed unsatisfactory.

The return of Judge Lee from the island of Maui is expected in a few days. It was through his persuasions that the King made advances for annexation, and his influence with the chiefs and native population generally is greater than that of any man on the islands. I learn that he objects to the second article of the treaty on the ground that he does not think it provides explicitly enough for a State government. In this respect I have gone to the utmost limit of what, in my judgment, the Constitution allows, and if his advice leads this Government to exact impracticable conditions I shall, of course, be fully prepared to reject them.

The British consul-general has advised this Government that he will not, for the present, seek the audience which he formerly demanded, as I advised you in my last dispatch.

The effect of the publications in the New York Daily Tribune of July 20 has been unfortunate here in giving to the British consul-general weapons to fight against the United States. I regret very much that any opportunity should have occurred at this juncture to confirm, in the minds of the Hawaiians, the false impressions which are constantly sought to be created in regard to our purposes and policy. If the present negotiations fall through I shall attribute it almost entirely to the effect of such publications as that of the Tribune and other papers of like character.

I have, etc.,

DAVID L. Gregg.

Treaty of annexation concluded between His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands and

the United States of America.

His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands, being convinced that plans have been, and still are, on foot hostile to his sovereignty and to the peace of his Kingdom, which His Majesty is without power to resist, and against which it is his imperative duty to provide, in order to prevent the evils of anarchy and to secure the rights and prosperity of his subjects, and having in conscientious regard thereto, as well as to the general interests of his Kingdom, present and future, sought to incorporate his Kingdom into the Union of the United States, as the means best calculated to attain these ends and perpetuate the blessings of freedom and equal rights to himself, his chiefs, and his people; and the Government of the United States,

being actuated solely by the desire to add to their security and prosperity and to meet the wishes of His Majesty, the King of the Hawiian Islands, and of his Government, have determined to accomplish by treaty objects so important to their mutual and permanent welfare.

For that purpose His Majesty Kamehameha III, King of the Hawaiian Islands, has granted full powers and instructions to Robert Crichton Wyllie, esquire, his minister of foreign relations, his secretary at war and of the navy, member of his privy council of state, member of the house of nobles, and chairman of the commissioners of his privy purse; and the President of the United States has invested with like powers David Lawrence Gregg, esquire, commissioner of said States to the said Kingdom; and the said plenipotentiaries, after exchanging their full powers, have agreed to and concluded the following articles:

ARTICLE I.

His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands, acting in conformity with the power vested in him by the constitution of his Kingdom, and with the wishes of his chiefs and people, and of the heads of every department of his Government, cedes to the United States his Kingdom, with all its territories, to be held by them in full sovereignty, subject only to the same constitutional provisions as the other States of the American Union. This cession includes all public lots and squares, Government lands, mines and minerals, salt lakes and springs, fish ponds, public edifices, fortifications, barracks, forts, ports and harbors, reefs, docks, and magazines, arms, armaments and accouterments, public archives, and funds, claims, debts, taxes and dues existing, available, and unpaid at the date of the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty.

ARTICLE II.

The Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands shall be incorporated into the American Union as a State, enjoying the same degree of sovereignty as other States, and admitted as such as soon as it can be done in consistency with the principles and requirements of the Federal Constitution, to all the rights, privileges, and immunities of a State as aforesaid, on a perfect equality with the other States of the Union.

ARTICLE III.

His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands, his chiefs and subjects of every class, shall continue in the enjoyment of all their existing personal and private rights-civil, political, and religious-to the utmost extent that is possible under the Federal Constitution, and shall possess and forever enjoy all the rights and privileges of citizens of the United States, on terms of perfect equality, in all respects, with other American citizens.

ARTICLE IV.

The decisions of the board of land commissioners made and not appealed from, at the date of the final ratification of this treaty, shall be and remain forever valid and undisturbed, and all titles to real estate which are now, or shall have then been declared valid under the laws of the Hawaiian Kingdom, shall be held to be equally valid by the United States, and measures shall be adopted by the United States for the speedy and final adjudication of all unsettled claims to land in conformity with the laws and usages under which they may have originated.

ARTICLE V.

All engagements of whatever kind, affecting the rights of corporations or individuals, validly contracted, and lawfully incumbent upon the King's Government or the Hawaiian nation to pay and discharge, shall be respected and fulfilled in as prompt, full, and complete a manner as they would have been respected and fulfilled had no change of sovereignty taken place.

ARTICLE VI.

The public lands hereby ceded shall be subject to the laws regulating the public lands in other parts of the United States, liable, however, to such alterations and changes as Congress may from time to time enact. The grants of land for the promotion of education heretofore made by the Government of the King of the Hawaiian Islands shall be confirmed by the United States, which, in addition thereto, shall

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grant and set apart for the purposes of common schools, seminaries of learning, and universities so much of the public lands and of the proceeds thereof as may be equal proportionally to the grants for such purposes in any of the States of the Union.

ARTICLE VII.

The laws of the Hawaiian Kingdom, so far as they are compatible with republican institutions and conformable to the Constitution of the United States, shall be and remain in full force and effect until modified, changed, or repealed by the legislative authority of the State contemplated by this treaty.

ARTICLE VIII.

In consideration of the cession made by this treaty, and in compensation to all who may suffer or incur loss consequent thereon, the United States shall pay the aggregate sum of three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000) as annuities to the King, the Queen, the crown prince, those standing next in succession to the throne, the chiefs, and all other persons whom the King may wish to compensate or reward, to be apportioned as may be determined by His Majesty the King, and his privy council of state, which amounts to be apportioned as aforesaid, shall be paid ratably without deduction or offset on any ground or in any shape whatever, to the parties severally named in such apportionment, at Honolulu, on the first day of July of each successive year so long as they may live. It is, however, expressly agreed upon that on the demise of His present Majesty the annuity of the immediate heir to the throne shall then be increased to the same amount before allowed and paid to the King himself.

As a further consideration for the cession herein made, and in order to place within the reach of the inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands the means of education, present and future, so as to enable them the more perfectly to enjoy and discharge the rights and duties consequent upon a change from monarchical to republican institutions, the United States agree to set apart and pay over for the term of ten years the sum of seventy-five thousand dollars per annum, one-third of which shall be applied to constitute the principal of a fund for the benefit of a college or university, or colleges or universities, as the case may be, and the balance for the support of common schools, to be invested, secured, or applied as may be determined by the legislative authority of the Hawaiian Islands, when admitted as a State into the Union as aforesaid.

Immediately after the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty the President of the United States shall appoint a commissioner, who shall receive in due form, in the name of the United States, the transfer of the sovereignty and territories of the Hawaiian Islands; also all public property, archives, and other things hereinbefore stipulated to be conveyed, and who shall exercise all executive authority in said islands necessary to the preservation of peace and order, and to the proper execution of the laws, until the State contemplated in this treaty can be duly organized and admitted as such State; and until the arrival of such commissioner, all departments of His Majesty's Government shall continue as now constituted.

ARTICLE X.

This treaty shall be ratified by the respective high contracting parties, and the ratifications exchanged at the city of Honolulu within eight months from the date hereof, or sooner if possible, but it is agreed that this period may be extended by mutual consent of the two parties.

In witness whereof, we, the undersigned, plenipotentiaries of His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands, and of the United States of America, have signed three originals of this treaty of annexation in Hawaiian and three in English, and have thereunto affixed our respective official seals.

Done at Honolulu this eight hundred and fifty-four.

day of

SEPARATE AND SECRET ARTICLE.

Whereas it is desirable to guard against the exigencies declared in the preamble to the foregoing treaty, and to secure the King of the Hawaiian Islands, his chiefs, and all who reside under his jurisdiction from the dangers therein referred to and expressed, it is hereby provided and expressly agreed that at any time before the

final exchange of the ratifications of said treaty, if the same shall be duly ratified on the part of His Majesty the King and satisfactory notice thereof given to the commissioner of the United States, it shall be competent for His Majesty, by proclamation, to declare his islands annexed to the American Union, subject to the provisions of such treaty as negotiated; and the commissioner of the United States, for the time being, shall receive and accept the transfer of the jurisdiction of the said islands, in the name of the United States, and protect and defend them by the armed forces of the United States, as a part of the American Union, holding the same for and in behalf of his Government and exercising the jurisdiction provided for in said treaty, with the understanding, however, that in case the said treaty is not finally ratified, or other arrangement made by the free consent and to the mutual satisfaction of the contracting parties, the sovereignty of the islands shall immediately revert, without prejudice, to His Majesty, or his immediate heir, in the same conditions as before the transfer thereof; and it is further understood and agreed that this article shall be as binding for all the ends and purposes herein expressed as if it formed a part of the foregoing treaty.

Mr. Gregg to Mr. Marcy.

No. 54.]

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Honolulu, October 2, 1854. SIR: In my dispatch of the 7th ultimo (No. 41) I mentioned that the British consul-general had demanded an audience of the King for the purpose of communicating to him certain views of his Government. It was first appointed for the 6th ultimo, the same day as that fixed for the audience to the officers of the St. Mary, but the King being unable on account of illness to attend it was then postponed. Subsequently, however, although Gen. Miller at first declined, an arrangement was made to receive him on the 18th, when he made an extemporaneous speech of an hour and a quarter against annexation to the United States and in dispraise of our country, her Government, and people. The substance of his remarks has been stated to me by those who heard them. He deprecated annexation to the United States and represented it to be one of the worst evils which could befall the Hawaiian race, denouncing our institutions as corrupting in their tendency and wholly unequal to protect in security the enjoyment of life and property. As an illustration, he referred to California and described numerous disorders, which he alleged had prevailed there, in the strongest terms, predicting that the introduction of American rule in these islands would be the signal for the commencement of a similar state of things, in which the rights of the natives would be altogether lost sight of and sacrificed. He read at length the articles in the New York Tribune of July 20 and the Herald of a previous date, on the subject of annexation, to show that the designs of our Government were hostile to Hawaiian interests and ought to be regarded in no friendly light. These papers, he insisted, were fair and honest, rising above the corrupting tendency of republican institutions, and entitled to great weight in forming an opinion of the policy of the American nation. He complained of the course of the minister of foreign relations, charging him with a want of openness and candor and stating that he was too much disposed to publish matters which ought to be kept secret. As an instance, he referred to the joint protest of himself and Mons. Perrin, last year, which, he said, had been unnecessarily communicated to Mr. Severance, who had made a long rigmarole of a reply, and that his rejoinder to that reply had been suppressed.

I have the best reason in the world for believing that in this respect Gen. Miller's memory was at fault, as he never made any rejoinder whatever. He also entered into an argument to refute what I took occasion to say on the 4th of July relative to the merits of colonial government and the law of primogeniture, praising the latter as a beneficent institution which gave England a class of gentlemen and statesmen not to be surpassed in the world. When he had concluded the King replied as follows:

I have heard what you have said to me in the name of your Government. I am not sure that I have clearly understood it all, but I shall consider it so far as I may be able to recollect it. I would prefer that in all matters which relate to my sovereignty, in which my chiefs and people have a deep interest, communications should be made in writing so as to prevent misunderstandings and mistakes either by me or them.

The speech of Gen. Miller as I have heard accounts of it from authentic sources, was an outrage upon all propriety and insulting to the United States. An accurate statement of what transpired at the audience was drawn up, as I have reason to believe, by the minister of foreign relations and submitted to Gen. Miller for revision. He promised to write out the substance of his remarks, but as yet has not done so. I have assurances that a copy will be communicated to me at the earliest practicable moment. Had not the audience been what is termed private, I should have requested officially an account of what took place, and shall yet find some just reason for doing so if it is not received as I anticipate through the dictates of a just and proper courtesy, which the minister of foreign relations has on every occasion heretofore been willing to extend.

On Thursday last (September 28) the officers of the Portsmouth and St. Mary had a royal audience by special invitation from the King. The invitation was conveyed to me on the preceding day through the minister of foreign relations. The whole affair may be regared as exceedingly complimentary. Such a thing as an invitation for an occasion of this kind was never before known here. Capt. Dornin is a great favorite among all classes of the Hawaiian people, commanding universal respect and confidence. It is perhaps to this fact, as much as to anything else, that the extraordinary courtesy of the occasion may be attributed. But it may be said undoubtedly in addition that the Hawaiian authorities are especially desirous of cultivating friendly relations with the United States, and look forward to the time when their country may constitute an integral portion of the great North American Republic.

Since my dispatch of the 15th ultimo there has been no progress in regard to the treaty of annexation. The crown prince is absent on the Island of Hawaii, but he has been sent for and his return is daily expected. This step resulted from my letter to the minister of foreign relations of the date of September 12, a copy of which I have already transmitted for your information. I inclose herewith an acknowledgment of its receipt, from which you will preceive the cause of any recent delay that has occurred.

I now feel some confidence that immediately upon the arrival of the prince, the treaty will be signed and ratified. The King is unwilling to have any action taken in his absence, but at the same time anxious to bring matters to a speedy conclusion. Liholiho has alreardy given his formal assent to the negotiations so far, by countersigning with the ministers the protocols and also the draft of the treaty, a copy of which I have sent you. Present appearances indicate that the period of pro