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Blount Report: Affairs in Hawaii

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               HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.				1179

Mr. Foster to Mr. Stevens.

[Telegram.]

Department State.
Washington, January 28, 1893,
Your dispatch, telegraphed from San Francisco, announcing revolution and establishment of a Provisional 
Government, was received today. Your course in recognizing an unopposed de facto government appears to have 
been discreet and in accordance with the facts. The rule of this Government has uniformly been to recognize and 
enter into relation with any actual government in full possession of effective power with the assent of the people. 
You will continue to recognize the new Government under such conditions. It is trusted that the change, besides 
conducing to the tranquility and welfare of the Hawaiian Islands, will tend to draw closer the intimate ties of amity 
and common interests which so conspicuously and necessarily link them to the United States. You will keep in 
constant communication with the commander of the United States naval force at Honolulu, with a view to acting, if 
need be, for the protection of the interests and property of American citizens and aiding in the preservation of good 
order under the changed condition reported.
John W. Foster.

Mr. Foster to Mr. Stevens.

No. 71.]								Department of State,
Washington, February 11, 1893.
Sir: Your cipher telegram, dated the 1st instant, and transmitted through the Navy Department's good offices, was 
received here at 4:30 p. m. on the 9th instant.
You therein make the following important statement:
   today, at 9 a.m., in accordance with the request of the Provisional Government of Hawaii, I have placed 
Government of Hawaii under the United States protection during negotiations, not interfering with the execution, of 
public affairs.
The precise character and scope of the act thus announced by you do not appear from this brief recital. The press, 
however, prints full details of the occurrences of the 1st instant, as telegraphed from San Francisco on the arrival of 
the mail steamer Australia at that port on the morning of the 9th, and I therein find what purports, with appearance 
of general correctness, to be the text of a proclamation issued by you on the 1st instant, which reads as follows:
     By authority, to the Hawaiian people:
     At the request, of the Provisional Government of the Hawaiian Islands, I hereby, in the name of the United States 
of America, assume protection of the Hawaiian Islands for the protection of life and property, and occupation of the 
public buildings and Hawaiian soil, so far as may be necessary for the purpose specified, but not interfering with the 
administration of public affairs by the Provisional Government. This action is taken pending and subject to 
negotiations at Washington.
John L. Stevens, 
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States.

United States Legation, February 1, 1893.
Approved and executed by C. C. Wiltse, captain U. S. N., commanding U. S. S. Boston.

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