Blount Report: Affairs in Hawaii
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HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 899
upon the community was becoming too great. It would have given me satisfaction could I have arranged a cabinet to
satisfy a majority of the caucus, but in the limited time given me it was impossible to do so, it being evident that Mr.
Thurston and his friends did not intend to permit the house to be prorogued without having a ministry selected from
their faction. Accordingly I formed a cabinet which I thought would be acceptable to a majority of the assembly and
to the community.
Mr. Thurston and his friends at once attacked the cabinet and immediately brought in a resolution of want of
confidence, which failed to carry. In the meantime an election was called to fill the seats made vacant by the
resignations (on taking cabinet positions) of Mr. Paul Neumann and myself as nobles for the island of Oahu. The
clear-cut issue in this election was to indorse or not to indorse the ministry. The result of the election was the return
of Messrs. Maile and Hopkins, who went before their constituencies as supporters of the ministry, and who were
elected by an overwhelming majority-the cabinet thereby receiving the endorsement of a large majority of the
electors for nobles of the island of Oahu.
No better expression of approval could be asked for by members of a representative government than that thus
accorded to our cabinet, immediately following the defeat of a no-confidence resolution in the house.
This expression of confidence at the polls was the more emphatic, coming from the electors of the island of Oahu,
who are accorded nine noble representatives out of the twenty-four, in deference to their property-and-income
qualification, and might have been expected to lessen the virulence of the opposition.
Despite this verdict of the noble voters for the island of Oahu, which certainly represents the wealth and intelligence
of the Kingdom, the unreconciled minority persistently pursued their tactics to force out the ministry.
As minister of finance, I had arranged with the two local banks for the protection of the depositors in the Postal
Savings Bank, and on October 12 I informed the assembly that on the following Monday I would present the
appropriation bill, outlining the financial policy of the ministry, and at the same time bringing forward additional
revenue measures.
On the Monday morning, October 14, before any opportunity had been given to introduce the promised bills, a vote
of want of confidence was introduced. Following is a copy of the resolution which was introduced by Representative
Waipuilani:
Whereas the present cabinet has not announced or given any intimation or evidence of any financial policy which
will extricate the country from its present dangerous financial situation; and
Whereas it is essential to the commercial progress of the country that more favorable treaty relations with the United
States be obtained, whereby our products can obtain a free market in that country; and
Whereas the present cabinet has shown no disposition to favor any such policy, and the present head of the cabinet
has displayed such conspicuous hostility toward the representative of that country in this Kingdom, and the general
tone of the administration has been and is one of opposition and hostility to the United States of America and
American interests, thereby rendering it improbable that any changes in our treaty relations favorable to Hawaii can
be negotiated by this cabinet; and
Whereas the cabinet has given no evidence of any intention to attempt to remedy existing scandals in the police
department, and have otherwise failed to evince any ability to successfully guide the nation through the difficulties
and dangers surrounding it: Therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Legislature hereby expresses its want of confidence in the present cabinet.
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