No. 14. The Hawaiian special commissioners to Mr. Foster. WASHINGTON, D. C., February 4, 1893. (Received February 4.) SIR: In accordance with the statement this day made by you to us that, by order of the President, you had confirmed the recognition of the Provisional Government of the Hawaiian Islands already extended to such Provisional Government by his excellency John L. Stevens, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States of America at Hawaii; and in accordance with your further statement, then made, that you accepted the credentials presented by us as special commissioners from the said Provisional Government to the Government of the United States of America for the purpose of negotiating a treaty between the said two governments by the terms of which full and complete political union may be secured between the United States of America and the Hawaiian Islands, and that you are now prepared to receive from us as such commissioners proposals in connection with the formation of such treaty for your consideration, we have the honor to state that, although we are invested by our Government with full discretionary power as to the terms of such treaty, subject to its final ratification, it is the desire of our Government that certain terms and conditions shall be incorporated in such treaty, and we hereby submit to you a general outline of such terms and conditions, viz: (1) That such treaty may secure full, complete, and perpetual political union between the United States of America and the Hawaiian Islands. (2) That the form of local government to be established in the Hawaiian Islands shall be substantially the form now existing in Territories of the United States, with such modifications, restrictions, and changes therein as the exigencies of the existing circumstances may require and as may be hereafter agreed upon. (3) That all appointments to office in the Hawaiian Islands shall be made from among persons who have lived in said islands for a term of not less than five years. (4) That the payment of the Hawaiian national debt, including the amounts due by the Government to depositors in the Hawaiian Postal Savings Bank shall be assumed by the Government of the United States of America. (5) That the lands located at the said Hawaiian Islands heretofore known as government lands and crown lands and all other government property, and all the proceeds thereof and receipts therefrom shall continue to be the property of the local government of the said islands, under whatever form it may be established, and all the proceeds thereof devoted to the purposes and uses of such local government. (6) That within a given period, say one year, or such other period as may be mutually agreed upon, the Government of the United States of America shall lay and thereafter maintain a telegraphic cable between the Pacific coast of the said United States of America and the Hawaiian Islands. (7) That the United States Government shall, so soon as is reasonably practicable, open the entrance to Pearl Harbor and establish a coaling and naval station adjacent thereto. (8) That articles, the produce or manufacture of the Hawaiian Islands, shall in all respects be treated and considered as products of the United States. (9) That the United States laws now or hereafter to be enforced in the United States of America shall not be taken to prohibit at any time the introduction into the Hawaiian Islands of laborers who may be introduced exclusively for the purpose of agricultural labor and domestic service, and who by appropriate legislation shall be confined to such employment and to the Hawaiian Islands. (10) That contracts for labor under the Hawaiian labor-contract laws now existing, or which shall be entered into prior to the promulgation of notice of the final ratification of such treaty, shall not be abrogated, but shall continue in force to the end of the several terms thereof. That with the exception of such labor contracts no labor contracts shall hereafter be penally enforcible. (11) That all laws and the system of criminal and civil jurisprudence in force at the Hawaiian Islands at the date of the ratification of such treaty, which are not specifically abrogated or modified by the terms of such treaty, or which are not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, shall remain in force until the same are regularly repealed by the appropriate authority. (12) That appropriate financial provision be made for the support of the ex-Queen Liliuokalani and the ex-heir presumptive Kaiuloni as long as they shall in good faith submit to the authority and abide by the laws of the government established by virtue of this treaty. We have, etc., L. A. THURSTON, J. MARSDEN, WM. R. CASTLE, Special Commissioners of the Provisional Government of the Hawaiian Islands. No. 15. The Commissioners of the Hawaiian Provisional Government to Mr. Foster. WASHINGTON, D. C., February 11, 1893. (Rec'd Feb. 11.) SIR: The ex-Queen of Hawaii, Liliuokalani, having sent to the President of the United States a protest against the action of the Hawaiian Provisional Government, we beg to make a brief reply to the statements contained in such protest. The protest sets forth as the two main grounds of complaint the fact that certain of her subjects had revolted against her, aided by United States troops, and, secondly, that the Provisional Government had chartered the only available steamer at Honolulu, upon which they had sent commissioners to Washingtor and had refused to allow a representative from the Queen to come forward by the same steamer. Before replying to these two statements we call attention to the fact that the protest entirely suppresses the fact that the Queen herself had been guilty of an illegal act; that she had herself initiated violence, and that the action taken by the subjects who had, as she says, revolted against her was in resistance to her own attempted subversion of the constitution and laws of the land. As the fact that she did make such an attempt with threats against her legal advisers, and with a show and preparation, is not denied by the Queen or anyone on her behalf, we submit that the omission of any reference to such undoubted facts, so radically essential to a proper understanding of the matter, properly tends to throw discredit upon the Queen's statements. In reply to the charge that United States troops assisted in the overthrow of the monarchy, we deny the statement most emphatically. A brief recital of the facts, without argument on our part, is amply sufficient to show the incorrectness of the charge made. Such facts are briefly these: First. At the time of the initiation of the trouble by the attempt of the Queen to submit the constitution and promulgate a new one, the American minister and the American ship-of-war Boston were both absent from Honolulu and had been for ten days previously thereto. Second. The first exhibition of force was made by the Queen on Saturday, the 14th of January, by the public parading of the entire military force, armed with repeating rifles and carrying a full supply of ball cartridges. The members of the police department were also armed. In addition thereto there were located at the palace and barracks and the police station an additional body of armed men to the number of 540 according to their own statement. This additional body of armed men was not authorized by law and was assembled contrary to a specific law of the Kingdom. Third. The first call to arms in opposition to the Queen was issued by the cabinet on the afternoon of January 14. Fourth. Although on Saturday, the 14th, Sunday, the 15th, and Monday, the 16th, the most intense feelings of hostility were publicly inanifested between the adherents of the Queen on the one hand and the promoters of the movement for the establishment of a Provisional Government on the other, with every indication of an armed conflict which might be precipitated at any moment, it was not until 5 o'clock on Monday afternoon, the 16th of January, after the request had been made to the American minister by many American citizens, that the United States troops were landed. Fifth. Upon landing, a guard was posted at the American consulate and legation, and the remainder of the troops were quartered that night in a public hall hired for that purpose. Up to the time the commissioners left Honolulu at 9 o'clock on the morning of the 19th of January, all of the American troops had remained upon the premises where they were respectively located. No demonstration was made by the troops in any manner whatever. The uniform of the United States was not seen upon the streets, except upon the persons of the individual officers passing between the points at which troops were located in the execution of their own business. Sixth. At the time the Provisional Government took possession of the Government buildings, no American troops or officers were present or took part in such proceedings in any manner whatever. No public recognition was accorded the Provisional Government by the American minister until they were in possession of the Government buildings, the archives, and the treasury, supported by several hundred armed men, and after the abdication by the Queen and the surrender to the Provisional Government of her forces. It is submitted that the foregoing statement of facts amply meets the charge made by the Queen that American troops coerced her action in abdication. In reply to the second statement of the Queen, that the Provisional Government took the only vessel available to go to San Francisco and refused to allow her representative to come to San Francisco thereon, we beg to state that the charge is entirely incorrect. As a matter of fact, the Inter Island fleet of steamers consists of twenty vessels, all of which, with two exceptions, were built abroad and navigated to the islands. Of such vessels at least ten are as fully capable of making the trip to San Francisco as was the vessel chartered and dispatched by the Provisional Government. As the Provisional Government had allowed a mail to be sent by the chartered steamer, they did not consider that there was any reason for financially assisting the Queen in forwarding to Washington an agent hostile to the Government and its objects. So far as is known to the commissioners, there is no reason why the Queen should not have chartered a steamer at Honolulu and forwarded an agent to San Francisco thereon if she had desired so to do. Certainly there was nothing done by the Provisional Government to prevent her doing so. With assurances of the highest consideration, etc., L. A. THURSTON, CHARLES L. CARTER, Commissioners of the Hawaiian Provisional Government. No. 16. Mr. Carter to Mr. Foster. WASHINGTON, D. C., February 11, 1893. (Received February 11, 1893.) SIR: In response to your request for information on the subjects of the resources of the ex-Queen and the Princess Kauilani, the public lands, and the islands and dependencies of the Hawaiians, the inclosed statements have been prepared from such sources of information as were available to the commission, and are submitted for the use of your Department. With assurance of esteem, I am, etc., CHARLES L. CARTER. [Inclosure 1.] RESOURCES OF THE QUEEN AND PRINCESS KAIULANI. The Queen. The private recourses of the ex-Queen are not definitely known, further than that she has some valuable lands, productive and unproductive, and that she was the sole devisee of her late husband, John O. Dominis, whose estate was appraised at $20,000 in the probate court; probably her private income is in the neighborhood, per annum, of.... The public supplies for the sovereign for the current biennial period ending March, 1894, were as follows: Her Majesty's privy purse Her Majesty's household expenses. $5,000 33, 332 10,000 4,000 The Crown lands.-The agent of the commissioners of Crown lands informed The ex-Queen was born on the 2d day of September, 1838, and is now in her fifty-fourth year. The Princess Kaiulani (born October 16, 1875, and now in her eighteenth year).-The accounts of the guardian of this lady, filed annually in the probate court, to the best recollection of the commissioners, show an annual income from private sources of The public supplies appropriated for the current biennial period were: Direct allowance.. Traveling expenses $60,000 4,000 10,000 4,000 [Inclosure 2.] STATEMENT OF PUBLIC LANDS. Crown lands.-These lands are those set apart for the maintenance of the royal state of Hawaiian sovereigns. They have been the subject of legislation from time to time. Three commissioners are empowered to lease them for terms not to exceed thirty years. The net revenue is paid to the sovereign. These lands are situated on all of the main islands and comprise some of the finest tracts in the country. Total area, 876,000 acres. (See Report Minister of the Interior, 1890, p. 293.) Government lands. These lands were set apart to assist in defraying the expense of maintaining organized government. They have been in the care of the minister of the interior, subject to sale or lease at his discretion, with checks providing for publicity, due notice of disposal, etc. Total area, 875,500 acres. School lands.-These were set apart for industrial purposes, and were for the greater part supplanted by Government bonds, as set forth in note to statement of public debt. There remain about 200 school sites of from one-fourth of an acre to 5 acres, and two tracts of about 2,000 acres. And all outlying and adjoining reefs, atolls, islets, and unnamed islands. |