HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS.	785

requires a good deal of consideration, and I am well convinced that this matter has been weighed and considered for 
more than a, day "by the Queen, and that there was no acting on the spur of the moment under the stress oilier native 
subjects about it. It was her well premeditated conclusion that she would change the constitution, so as to suit 
herself, on the day of prorogation of the Legislature. Many people knew this several days ago, but there have been 
so many rumors about all sorts of things that not very much attention was paid to it; it was expected that she might 
change her mind before that day would come. But she did not change her mind as soon as that; she told the native 
people that she was ready to give them a new constitution right then and there, hut that she could not do it because 
her ministers would not let her. Now she has changed her mind; she mates a sort of excuse for what she did, and 
says she will never do it again. It seems to mo that the question that your committee has to ask now, and which is for 
you gentlemen here in the meeting to decide, is this: Are you satisfied with the assurance given in today's 
proclamation signed by the Queen and the four ministers, and will you consider this matter ended, or do you desire 
greater and stronger guarantees for the safety and preservation of your life and liberty and property ? I am one of the 
citizens' committee of public safety; my views on the situation are expressed in the resolutions which have just been 
read, and I trust that you will show that you are of the same mind as the committee by adopting these resolutions.
Hon. H. P. Baldwin. I fool with the rest of you that actions of the Queen have put the country in a very critical 
situation. Before this revolutionary act of Her Majesty we were getting along. A ministry had been appointed which 
would probably have been able to pull us through. The McKinley bill had put the whole country into a - critical 
situation. We were, working up new industries. Mr. Dillingham is trying to build a railroad around this island. The 
Queen seems to have blinded herself to all these things. She has followed a whim of her own - a whim of an 
irresponsible body of Hawaiians - and tried to establish a new constitution. We must stop this; but we must not go 
beyond constitutional means. I favor the resolution, but think the committee should act within the constitution. There 
is no question that the Queen has done a revolutionary act - there is no doubt about that. The Queen's proclamation 
has not inspired confidence; but shall we not teach her to act within the constitution? [Loud calls of "No."] Well, 
gentlemen, I see that you do not agree with me; I am ready to act when the time comes.
J. Emmeluth wished to say a few words on the situation. He had heard the, Queen's speech at the palace, and noted 
the expression of her face. It was fiendish. When the petitioners filed out he reflected on the fact that thirty men 
could paralyze the business of .the community for twenty-four hours. It was not they that did it, but the schemers 
behind them, and perhaps a woman, too. It was not the Hawaiians that wanted the new constitution; not those who 
worked. This was the third time that he had shut his doors, let his men go, and come up to this building, It would be 
the last time. If we let this time go by we would deserve all we would get. An opportunity came once in every 
lifetime. It had come to us, and if we finished as we should, a repetition of last Saturday would never occur in this 
country again. [Applause.] We must stand shoulder to shoulder. There wan but one course to pursue, and we would 
all see it. The manifesto of this morning was bosh. "I won't do it any more; but give me a chance and I'll do it again." 
That is the real meaning of it. If the Queen had succeeded last Saturday myself and you would have been robbed of 
the privileges without which no white man can live in this community. " Fear not, be not afraid," was written in my 
Bible by my mother twenty-five years ago. Gentlemen, I have done. As far as the Hawaiians are concerned I have an 
aloha for them, and we wish to have laws enabling us to live peaceably together.
R. J. GREENE. Fellow citizens, among the many things I never could do was to make an impromptu speech. I have 
tried it over and over again and never succeeded but once, and that was after five weeks' preparation. Our patience 
has been exhausted. We all agree about the case. The quest ion is the remedy. John Greene, of Rhode Island, entered 
the war of the Revolution and served throughout. His son, my father, served through the war of 1812, until that little 
matter was settled. In 1862 John Greene, my father, stood before a meeting like this, and said he had four sons in the 
war, of whom I was the youngest, and would serve himself if he was not too old. This experience has biased my 
judgment as to some matters of civil government. It is too late to throw obstacles across the path of its progress here. 
I have adopted this flag and am loyal to it, but I am not willing to go one step back in the matter of civil liberty, and 
I will give the last drop of Rhode Island blood in my veins to go forward and not back. [Cheers,]
Chairman Wilder read the latter part of the resolution.
It was passed by a unanimous standing vote, without a dissenting voice and amid tremendous cheers, after which the 
meeting broke up.
F R 94-APP II --50

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