Home: The Annexation Of Hawaii: A Collection Of Document
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200 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. the legation and the consulate, where they occupied inner courts and a private hall rented for their accommodation. Beyond a sentry at the floor of each post, and the occasional appearance of an officer passing from one post to another, no demonstration whatever was made by the landed forces, nor was the uniform of the United States visible upon the streets. They thus remained, isolated and inconspicuous, until after the success of the Provisional Government and the organization of an adequate protective force thereunder. At the time the Provisional Government took possession of the Gov- ernment buildings, no troops or officers of the United States were present or took any part whatever in the proceedings. No public recognition was accorded to the Provisional Government by the United States minister until after the Queen's abdication and when they were in effective possession of the Government buildings, the archives, the treasury, the barracks, the police station, and all the potential ma- chinery of the Government. Then, and not until then, when the Provisional Government had ob- tained full de facto control, was the new order of things recognized by the United States minister, whose formal letter of recognition was promptly followed by like action on the part of the representatives of all foreign governments resident on the Hawaiian Islands. There is not the slightest indication at any time prior to such formal recog- nition in full accord with the long-established rule and invariable pre- cedents of this Government, did the United States minister take any part in promoting the change, either by intimidating the Queen or by giving assurance of support to the organizers of the Provisional Gov- ernment. The immediate cause of the change is clearly seen to have been the unconstitutional and intemperate acts of the Queen herself, in attempt- ing to coerce her responsible ministers and to annul the existing con- stitution and replace it arbitrarily by another of her own choice. The Provisional Government of the Hawaiian Islands is, by all usual and proper tests, in the sole and supreme possession of power and in control of all the resources of the Hawaiian nation, not only through the Queen's formal submission, but through its possession of all the armed forces, arms and ammunitions, public offices, and administra- tion of law, unopposed by any adherents of the late Government. On the first instant, subsequently to the departure of the Hawaiian special commissioners, the United States minister at Honolulu, at the request of the Provisional Government, placed the Hawaiian Govern- ment under the protection of the United States to insure the security of life and property during the pending negotiations at Washington and without interfering with the administration of public affairs by the said Government. An instruction has been sent to the minister, commending his action in so far as it lay within the purview of stand- ing instructions to the legation and to the naval commanders of the United States in Hawaiian waters, and tended to cooperate with the administration of affairs by the Provisional Government, but disavow- ing any steps in excess of such instructions whereby the authority and power of the United States might appear to have been asserted to the impairment of the independent sovereignty of the Hawaiian Govern- ment by the assumption of a formal protectorate. In this condition of things, the five commissioners named by the Provisional Government of the Hawaiian Islands reached Washington on the 3d instant, bearing authentic letters from the Hawaiian Govern- ment accrediting them to the President, and conferring upon them full