Home: The Annexation Of Hawaii: A Collection Of Document
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584 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. to authorize the committee to take steps to prevent a consummation of the Queen's purposes and to have guarantees of public safety. The committee on public safety had kept their purposes from the public view at this mass meeting and at their small gatherings for fear of proceedings against them by the government of the Queen. After the mass meeting had closed a call on the American minister for troops was made in the following terms, and signed indiscriminately by Germans, by Americans, and by Hawaiian subjects of foreign extraction: HAWAIIAN ISLANDS, Honolulu, January 16, 1893. To His Excellency JOHN L. STEVENS, American Minister Resident: SIR: We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Honolulu, respectfully represent that, in view of recent public events in this Kingdom, culminating in the revolutionary acts of Queen Liliuokalani on Saturday last, the public safety is menaced and lives and property are in peril, and we appeal to you and the United States forces at your command for assistance. The Queen, with the aid of armed force and accompanied by threats of violence and bloodshed from those with whom she was acting, attempted to proclaim a new constitution; and while prevented for the time from accomplishing her object, declared publicly that she would only defer her action. This conduct and action was upon an occasion and under circumstances which have created general alarm and terror. We are unable to protect ourselves without aid, and, therefore, pray for the protection of the United States forces. HENRY E. COOPER, F. W. McChesney, W. C. WILDER, C. BOLTE, A. BROWN, WILLIAM O. SMITH, HENRY WATERHOUSE, THEO. F. LANSING, ED. SUHR, L. A. THURSTON, JOHN EMMELUTH, WM. E. CASTLE, J. A. MCCANDLESS, Citizen's Committee of Safety. The response to that call does not appear in the flies or on the records of the American legation. It, therefore, can not speak for itself. The request of the committee of safety was, however, consented to by the American minister. The troops were landed. On that very night the committee assembled at the house of Henry Waterhouse, one of its members, living the next door to Mr. Stevens, and finally determined on the dethronement of the Queen; selected its officers, civil and military, and adjourned to meet the next morning. Col. J. H. Soper, an American citizen, was selected to command the military forces. At this Waterhouse meeting it was assented to by all that Mr. Stevens had agreed with the committee of safety that in the event it occupied the Government building and proclaimed a Provisional Government he would recognize it as a de facto government. When the troops were landed on Monday evening, January 16, about 5 o'clock, and began their march through the streets with their small arms, artillery, etc., a great surprise burst upon the community. To but few was it understood. Not much time elapsed before it was given out by members of the committee of safety that they were designed to support them. At the palace, with the cabinet, amongst the leaders of the Queen's military forces, and the great body of the people who were loyal to the Queen, the apprehension came that it was a movement