the Islands in the capacity of "agent of the United States for commerce and seamen." It was a sentiment which every administration had recognized and adopted, from President Monroe to President McKinley, save only that administration in which Mr. Bayard himself had occupied a position.

It is not, perhaps, to be regarded as a cause of wonderment, then, that Minister Stevens saw, as he fully believed, a rapidly approaching fruition after more than seventy years of careful nurture. He had seen the long-continued corruption that had centred about the palace. He had seen the attempts of the queen to put the reins of power into hands regarded as unworthy. He had seen her efforts to force upon the country meas ures which must, by their results, hold up her country to the scorn of Christian civilization. He had seen the dark storm-cloud which was rapidly gathering about the Hawaiian throne. As an onlooker, painfully interested in the outcome, he feared for the effect upon the interests of his countrymen of the cloud-burst which he well knew must come. The correspondence of Mr. Stevens, carefully pre

served in the archives of the Department of State, show that for more than a year he had foreseen the inevitable result of the trend of affairs. When, therefore, the crisis had come and the monarchy had fallen, who would not have thought that the hour had at last arrived to which Mr. Bayard and his predecessors in office had looked forward with such confidence? "Language can hardly express the enthusiasm," wrote Minister Stevens, in formally notifying the Department of State of the revolution, "and the profound feeling of relief at this peaceable and salutary change of government. The underlying cause of this profound feeling among the citizens is the hope that the United States government will allow these Islands to pass to American control and become American soil." Again a little later he wrote, employing a simile whose aptness so appealed to exSecretary Bayard that he himself adopted it, in his remarks already quoted. "The Hawalian pear," wrote Minister Stevens, "is now fully ripe; and this is the golden hour for the United States to pluck it. If annexation does not take place promptly, and all is held in

doubt and suspense for six or ten months, there certainly will be a revulsion to despair; and these people, by their necessities, might be forced toward becoming a British colony."

"It has been the policy of the administration," said President Harrison, in transmitting to the Senate the completed treaty of annexation, "not only to respect, but to encourage the continuance of an independent government in the Hawaiian Islands, so long as it afforded suitable guarantees for the protection of life and property, and maintained a stability and strength that gave adequate security against the domination of any other power. The moral support of this government has continually manifested itself in the most friendly diplomatic relations, and in many acts of courtesy to the Hawaiian rulers. The overthrow of the monarchy was not in any way promoted by this government, but had its origin in what seems to have been a reactionary and revolutionary policy on the part of Queen Liliuokalani, which put in serious peril not only the large and preponderating interests of the United States in the Islands, but all foreign inter

ests, and, indeed, the decent administration
of civil affairs and the peace of the Islands.
"It is quite evident that the monarchy
had become effete, and the queen's govern-
ment so weak and inadequate as to be the
prey of designing and unscrupulous persons.
The restoration of Queen Liliuokalani to her
throne is undesirable, if not impossible, and,
unless actively supported by the United
States, would be accompanied by serious dis-
aster and the disorganization of all business
interests. The influence and interest of the
United States in the Islands must be in-
creased, and not diminished. Only two
courses are now open,- one the establish-
ment of a protectorate by the United States,
and the other annexation full and complete.
I think the latter course, which has been
adopted in the treaty, will be highly promo-
tive of the best interests of the Hawaiian
people, and is the only one that will ade-
quately secure the interests of the United
States. These interests are not wholly self-
ish. It is essential that none of the other
great powers shall secure these Islands.
Such a possession would not consist with our
safety and with the peace of the world."

It was on the fifteenth day of February, 1893, that President Harrison submitted the draft of this treaty to the Senate for ratification. The Provisional Government of the Hawaiian Islands had then been in full control of the affairs of the Islands for a month. But seventeen days remained of the administration of President Harrison, at the expiration of which time President Cleveland, for the second time, was to assume control.

A few days after the inauguration of President Cleveland, at the opening of his second term, Minister Stevens forwarded his resignation to Washington. He continued, however, to occupy his official position until relieved by his successor. On the fifteenth day of March he wrote to Secretary of State Gresham, explaining in detail the operation of the provisional protectorate over the Islands. In a despatch to Minister Stevens, transmitted upon receiving notice of the declaration of the provisional protectorate and the raising of the flag over the government building at Honolulu, Secretary Foster had written :

"So far as your action amounts to accord