University of Hawaii at Manoa Library

Home: The Annexation Of Hawaii: A Collection Of Document



hawnpac@hawaii.edu
(808) 956-8264

Blount Report: Affairs in Hawaii

[ Previous Page ] -- [ View PDF ] -- [ View in MS Word ] -- [ Next Page ]

                             586	HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.
recognition. It was not a point of any strategic consequence. It die? not involve the employment of a single 
soldier.
A building was chosen where there were no troops stationed, where there was no struggle to be made to 
obtain access, with an American force immediately contiguous, with the mass of the population impressed 
with its unfriendly attitude. Aye, more than this - before any demand for surrender had even been made on the 
Queen or on the commander or any officer of any of her military forces at any of the points where her troops 
were located, the American minister had recognized the Provisional Government and was ready to give it the 
support of the United States troops!
Mr. Damon, the vice-president of the Provisional Government and a member of the advisory council, first 
went to the station house, which was in command of Marshal Wilson. The cabinet was there located. The vice-
president importuned the cabinet and the military commander to yield up the military forces on the ground that 
the American minister had recognized the Provisional Government and that there ought to be no blood shed.
After considerable conference between Mr. Damon and the ministers he and they went to the government 
building.
The cabinet then and there was prevailed upon to go with the vice-president and some other friends to the 
Queen and urge her to acquiesce in the situation. It was pressed upon her by the ministers and other persons at 
that conference that it was useless for her to make any contest, because it was one with the United States; that 
she could file her protest against what had taken place and would be entitled to a hearing in the city of 
Washington. Alter consideration of more than an hour she finally concluded, under the advice of her cabinet 
and friends, to order the delivery up of her military forces to the Provisional Government under protest. That 
paper is in the following form:
I, Liliuokalani, by the grace of God and under the constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Queen, do 
hereby solemnly protest against any and all acts done against myself and the constitutional Government of 
the Hawaiian Kingdom by certain persons claiming to have established a provisional government of and for 
this Kingdom.
That I yield to the superior force of the United States of America, whose minister plenipotentiary, His 
Excellency John L. Stevens, has caused United States troops to be landed at Honolulu and declared that he 
would support the said provisional government.
Now, to avoid any collision of armed forces and perhaps the loss of life, I do, under this protest, and impelled 
by said force, yield my authority until such time as the Government of the United States shall, upon the 
facts being presented to it, undo the action of its representatives and reinstate me in the authority which I 
claim as the constitutional sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands. Done at Honolulu this 17th day of January, A. 
D. 1893.
LILIUOKALANI, R. 
SAMUEL PARKER,
Minister of foreign Affairs. 
WM. H. CORNWELL,
Minister of Finance. 
Jno. F. Colburn
Minister of the Interior. 
A. P. PETERSON,
Attorney-General.
All this was accomplished without the firing of a gun, without a demand for surrender on the part of the 
insurrectionary forces until they had been converted into a de facto government by the recognition of the 
American minister with American troops, then ready to interfere in the event of an attack.

Return to Top

Terms of Use  |  UH Mānoa  |  UH System  |  Ask Us
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Library  |  2550 McCarthy Mall  |  Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 USA
808-956-7214 (Reference)  |  808-956-7203 (Circulation)  |  808-956-7205 (Administration)
808-956-5968 (fax)  |  library@hawaii.edu
Library Digital Collections Disclaimer and Copyright Information