594	HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.
center of a 2-acre lot. In it the legislature and supreme court hold their sessions and the cabinet 
ministers have their offices.
In one corner of this lot in the rear is an ordinary two-story structure containing eight rooms. This 
building was used by the tax assessor, the superintendent of waterworks, and the Government survey 
office. In another corner is a small wooden structure containing two rooms used by the board of 
health.
These constitute what is termed in the correspondence between the Provisional Government and 
the American minister and the Government of the United States "government departmental 
buildings."
Whatever lack of harmony of statement as to time may appear in the evidence, the statements in 
documents and the consecutive order of events in which the witnesses agree, all do force us to but one 
conclusion - that the American minister recognized the Provisional Government on the simple fact that 
it had entered a house designated sometimes as the Government building and sometimes as Aliiolani 
Hale( sic), which had never been regarded as tenable in military operations and was not so regarded by 
the Queen's officers in the disposition of their military forces, these being at the station house, at the 
palace, and at the barracks.
Mr. Stevens consulted freely with the leaders of the revolutionary movement from the evening of 
the 14th. These disclosed to him all their plans. They feared arrest and punishment. He promised them 
protection. They needed the troops on shore to overawe the Queen's supporters and Government. This 
he agreed to and did furnish. They had few arms and no trained soldiers. They did not mean to fight. 
It was arranged between them and the American minister that the proclamation dethroning the Queen 
and organizing a provisional government should be read from the Government building and he would 
follow it with a speedy recognition. All this was to be done with American troops provided with 
small-arms and artillery across a narrow street within a stone's throw. This was done.
Then commenced arguments and importunities to the military commander and the Queen that the 
United States had recognized the Provisional Government and would support it; that for them to per-
sist involved useless bloodshed.
No soldier of the Provisional Government ever left the 2-acre lot.
The Queen finally surrendered, not to these soldiers and their leaders but to the Provisional 
Government on the conviction that the American minister and the American troops were promoters 
and supporters of the revolution, and that she could only appeal to the Government of the United 
States to render justice to her.
The leaders of the revolutionary movement would not have undertaken it but for Mr. Stevens's 
promise to protect them against any danger from the Government. But for this their mass meeting would 
not have been held. But for this no request to land the troops would have been made. Had the troops not 
been landed no measures for the organization of a new Government would have been taken.
The American minister and the revolutionary leaders had determined on annexation to the United 
States, and had agreed on the part each was to act to the very end.
Prior to 1887 two-thirds of the foreigners did not become naturalized. The Americans, British, and 
Germans especially would not give up the protection of those strong governments and rely upon that 
of the Hawaiian Islands. To such persons the constitution of 1887

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