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2443 Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. There is no question on earth about it; that is, under the monarchy. Mr. BATE. Then the recent government seized those lands? Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. They took them all. Mr. BATE. They have also taken the rentals annually of those lands and appropriated them to themselves? I Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. Yes, sir. Mr. BATE. And this woman has got none of the rentals and none of the lands? Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. She has none of the lands and none of the rentals. Mr. BATE. The United States Government proposes to take all those lands into its own possession and keep them as property belonging to the United States? Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. Yes; that is the proposition exactly. Mr. BATE. And offers to her $230,000 for them as a bonus. I suppose. Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. Well -- Mr. BATE. As compensation, then. But she has not been consulted about that matter. Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. Not that I know of, by the Government. If she is willing to take it, as the amendment proposes, that ends all claims she has upon the Government of the United States or upon the Territory of Hawaii in regard to this matter. Mr. BATE. It seems to me, upon that kind of a showing, it is not very creditable to this Government that it should be done. Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. It is not creditable to the Government the way it is now. Mr. KYLE. Will the Senator from Wyoming allow me? Were these lands the personal property of the Queen? Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. They were not the personal property of the Queen in the sense that she could alienate them. They were the personal property of the Queen or the reigning sovereign in the sense that the revenues of these lands went to the reigning sovereign. Mr. KYLE. The annual income from these lands was set aside by the monarchy for the support of the Queen. Was not that all? Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. Yes. Mr. KYLE. The same as it is in Great Britain? Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. Yes, sir; that is right. Mr. KYLE. But they were not her personal property at all? Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. Not in the sense that she could give any deed in fee simple. Mr. KYLE. She had no other right to them than any other woman who might have been upon the throne as queen. Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. The Senator is right. Mr. KYLE. It was not her property at all, as I understand. Mr. PETTIGREW. What is the income derived from these lands? Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. I can not give the exact figures, but the income at present is between one hundred and one hundred and fifty thousand dollars per annum. Mr. PETTIGREW. What was it at the time the Queen was deposed? Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. Fifty thousand dollars. Mr. PETTIGREW. She was deposed in 1893? Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. Yes, sir. Mr. PETTIGREW. She is still living? Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. Yes, sir. Mr. PETTIGREW. It seems to me we can not afford to pass this bill without providing for the Queen, inasmuch as we dethroned the Queen. Nobody else did it. The United States did it. We landed our troops there. Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. The Senator is perfectly right. Mr. PETTIGREW. We took her government away. No other forces did it than the forces of the United States. Then we made a treaty with the puppets we set up for title to that country. Therefore, it seems to me, it would be shameful to pass this bill without making some such provision. Mr. JONES of Arkansas. Mr. President -- The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Does the Senator from Wyoming yield to the Senator from Arkansas? Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. If I have the floor. The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Wyoming has the floor. Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. I yield to the Senator from Arkansas. Mr. JONES of Arkansas. One difficulty about this, it occurs to me, is that this provision in the bill seems to be a recognition In the Queen of the ownership of these lands. It is on that ground that we propose to make a one-sided trade, without her consent, and to give her $250,000. So if she does not take it, she can come back and say that we having recognized that she owns these lands, she is entitled to the million and a half or two millions and a half that they are worth. Now, if these lands belonged to the Queen, that is one thing. If they belonged to the crown, it is another thing. Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. I should like to ask the Senator to state the difference, as he understands it, between belonging to the Queen and belonging to the crown. Mr. KYLE. There is a great difference. Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. There is no difference. Mr. JONES of Arkansas. One belongs to the office: the other belongs to the person. The office was organized by the government that existed there, and this was the means of supporting the office which those people had organized and continued until they chose to abolish it, and the property which they had sot apart to maintain that office was not needed to maintain an office that did not exist. Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. May I ask the Senator a question? Is he aware of the fact that the reigning sovereign of the country by the law of the land was entitled to name his or her successor? Mr. JONES of Arkansas. That made no difference. It did not give the person the ownership of property which belonged to the office. That cuts no figure whatever in it. The Queen of the Sandwich Islands is no more the owner of the Crown lands than the President of the United States is the owner of the Executive Mansion during his term. Mr. MORGAN. Or of the public lands. Mr. JONES of Arkansas. Or of the public lands of the United States. The public lands of the United States belong to the people, the body of the people, the whole people. Whatever they may be set aside for, they belong to the body of the people, the whole people. The sovereign of the United States would not be the owner if we had a sovereign. The President is not the owner when wo have a President. It seems to mo the Senate ought to be cautious about taking a step of this kind. While I am opposed generally to the whole of this legislation, and believe it is a mistake from the beginning, and agree fully with the Senator from South Dakota [Mr. PETTIGREW] about the action of our Government in overthrowing that government, still I think we had better look a little carefully before we put our foot down in a case of this kind. Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. Mr. President, I do not care at this late hour to take any time on this question; but I believe that a great wrong has been done. Mr. JONES of Arkansas. I believe that. Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. We all know that revolutions, if successful, are just; they are legal; and the successful power has the right to do what it pleases. It is not often that I agree with the Senator from South Dakota on political questions, but there is no man in this Chamber, if you get him out in a corner of the cloakroom, who will not acknowledge that the revolution in Hawaii was made possible only by the arms of the United States of America. Now, can we not afford to be at least equitable and just and honest in this matter? We took those islands? They had to go somewhere. I do not regret that we took them. I am very glad of it, because I think that of all the domain over which the American flag flies to-day the Sandwich Islands are the fairest and give promise of the most in the future. But, Mr. President, there was a great wrong perpetrated. It may not be news to any Senators, but at the time of the revolution which displaced the monarchy and displaced the Queen there was not a thing that was not sequestered and confiscated - not only the Crown lands, to the revenue of which she was entitled, but everything in her household from the blue china on the sideboard to the tin dipper in the kitchen. Mr. KYLE. I have no objection to setting apart something for the Queen. That is not my objection at all, but I take exactly the position occupied by the Senator from Arkansas [Mr. JONES] , that she has no right whatever to the Crown lands. Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. She has no right? Mr. KYLE. No. I put it upon a different ground. Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. I put it upon the ground of equity and good conscience, that a great Government like this taking possession of those islands can afford to be generous and just and equitable. I do not go into the law side of the court to urge this claim. I come into the equity side of the court. We took all these lands, and the minute this bill passes we get a hundred or a hundred and fifty thousand per annum from them. Mr. PLATT of Connecticut. For the benefit of the people of the Hawaiian Islands, however. Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. That is all right. It may be for the benefit of the people, but can the Senator from Connecticut say that in equity and good conscience something ought not to be done for the government that has been revolutionized? Mr. PLATT of Connecticut. If the Senator wishes a reply, I will say that I think whether we shall donate something to the Queen is one question. The question whether we should recognize her title to the lands and admit that we have been to blame about that revolution is an entirely different thing. I am not disposed to do that. Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. My amendment does not meet the remarks of the Senator from Connecticut. It simply provides that we shall pay her $250,000 upon her relinquishment of all claims that she may have or claim to have upon those lands. That is all.