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Blount Report: Affairs in Hawaii

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608	HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS.
The U. S. S. Vandalia, Capt. Gardner, was in port at the time. The deed of cession was accepted lay Mr. 
Severance provisionally, and referred to his Government. Mr. W. C. Park, the marshal, was directed to have the 
Hawaiian and American flags sewed together, and kept in readiness to he hoisted at a moment's notice. He 
remained in the fort night and day, on the watch, during the 15th and 16th of March. By some means, the British 
consul-general learned of what had been done, and informed M. Perrin, who thereupon withdrew the most 
obnoxious of his demands; and a joint declaration, comprising four articles, was signed by both parties March 25.
It appears, however, that M. Perrin used language in his later dispatches which threatened to reopen questions 
that had been supposed to be closed. An appeal to the President of the United States was therefore drawn up and 
presented to Mr. Severance, which was taken to Washington by Hon. E. H. Alien, then United States consul, who 
sailed on this mission April 4. M. Perrin left for Paris May 24 to obtain fresh instructions, and did not return until 
January 8, 1853. Nothing more was ever heard of the rest of the ten demands. Mr. Webster, the United States 
Secretary of State, made strong representations to the French Government on the subject, but directed Mr. 
Severance to return to the Hawaiian Government the deed of cession, which had been placed in his keeping.
A joint resolution was passed by both houses of the Hawaiian Legislature Jun" 21, 1851, confirming the action 
of the privy council, and empowering the King and privy council to place the Kingdom under the protection of 
some friendly power, if necessary, "to shield it from insult and oppression."
In the following year, in framing the new constitution, a clause was inserted in Article 39, which empowered the 
King, by and with the approval of his cabinet and privy council, to even alienate his Kingdom '' if indispensable to 
free it from the insult and oppression of any foreign power." This shows that the apprehension of Borne 
impending danger was still present to the minds of the King and his advisers.
FILIBUSTERS.
The discovery of gold in California in 1848, which led to the speedy settlement of that State and to the opening 
of new routes across the American continent, ushered in a new era in the history of the Hawaiian Islands. It 
opened a new market for their productions, and brought them into closer commercial relations with the United 
States. Communication became frequent between them and California, and American capital began to be largely 
invested here.
At that time California was resorted to by numerous lawless adventurers, who planned a number of raids or 
filibustering expeditions into the neighboring countries. The notorious Gen. Walker headed a raid of this kind into 
Lower California in 1853, and others into Nicaragua in 1855 and in 1861, in the last of which he was taken 
prisoner and shot.
The Hawaiian Government received many warnings in the fall of 1851 that a band of filibusters was being 
organized to invade this Kingdom. At the request of the cabinet the U. S. S. Vandalia, Capt. Gardner, was kept at 
Honolulu ready to seize any suspicious vessel, and a body of 100 native troops was drilled for several months by 
Lieut. Read of the Vandalia.
About 25 suspicious characters, headed by Sam Brannan, came down from San Francisco in. November 1851, in the 
ship Game Cock. During the voyage the mail bag was rifled by members of the party and the letters thrown 
overboard. They were under the false impression that this country was ripe for revolution, and that the King was 
ready to sell his Kingdom and to retire from the cares of state. But they soon found that they had been deceived in 
regard to the feeling of the natives, and that the officers and men of the whaling fleet were also hostile to them. 
They were closely watched; the King declined to see them, and the expedition ended in a fiasco.
During the years 1853-'54 the country was disquieted by frequent rumors of filibustering expeditions being fitted 
out, and British and American ships of war were kept in port much of the time as a safeguard. Mr. Wyllie strongly 
advocated the plan of organizing a force of 5,000 militia, to consist of natives armed with pikes, and a small 
contingent of cavalry, together with 100 regular troops, for defense against filibusters, but it was rejected by the 
privy council.
THE POLITICAL AGITATION OF  1853.
During the years 1851-'54 a considerable immigration from California took place. It embraced many restless, 
ambitious spirits, some of whom came for the purpose of exciting revolution. They found the foreign community 
already split into factions, between which bitter fends existed of long standing. Many of the newcomers naturally 
joined the opposition party, which claimed to b" the liberal and progressive element in the country.

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