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Hawaii Organic Act: Congressional debates on Hawaii Organic Act

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2444
I was not aware of the enormity of section 101 of the bill when it 
came out of the committee of which I have the honor to be a 
member; but it not only says that she shall not now have any 
right, but that she shall be forever debarred from all claim of 
right in any court or in any tribunal that may now exist or may 
hereafter be constituted,   1 have spoken longer than I cared to, 
and I should like to have a vote on the amendment, and upon that 
vote will depend whether or not I will call up another amendment I 
have submitted. Mr. CULLOM.   Mr. President, 1 have never been 
able, so far as I am concerned, to satisfy myself entirely whether 
or not the late Queen of the Hawaiian Islands had any interest after 
she was overthrown which would give her a right to recover 
anything from the United States, but I supposed that if she had she 
would not undertake to get it by a direct appropriation by 
Congress.   I presumed she would pursue her remedy, if she had 
one, in the courts of the United States, and the courts, if she had 
any title and interest in the Crown lands, so called, would render 
such a verdict as would be just to her.   I still think that that is the 
right course and that it is not a good thing to come in here with 
an amendment proposing to appropriate $250,000 for her without 
knowing whether she is entitled to half that much or twice that 
much.   Everybody knows that if we adopt the amendment it will 
not be two years before she will come for another installment, more or 
less. Mr. CLARK of Wyoming.   If the Senator will read the amend-
ment he will see that she could not.   She is barred absolutely. Mr. 
CULLOM.   If she is barred absolutely, she perhaps would not take 
the money unless she thought it was all she was entitled to or 
more.   She had no title to those lands at all, but she had a sort of 
arrangement by which she got rentals, from year to year, under the 
old system that existed for years back. Mr. JONES of Arkansas.    
Will the Senator from Illinois permit me to interrupt him? Mr. 
CULLOM.   Certainly. Mr. JONES of Arkansas. The provision of 
this amendment is that this amount is to be paid to the "late Queen  *  
*  *  for all right, claim, or interest she may have or claim to have 
in or to the said Crown lands herein mentioned;" and the Senator 
himself admitted that she had no personal right in the land - that it 
belonged to the crown.   His idea is to make this provision by way 
of compensation for the wrong of the Government of the United 
States in overthrowing her and depriving her of this power; but the 
trouble, it occurs to me, is that we are recognizing the right of 
ownership in her personally to these lands which never did exist. Mr. 
CLARK of Wyoming.   The Senator from Arkansas is splitting hairs 
there. Mr. CULLOM.   I hardly understand the temper of the 
Senate or of any body apparently on these questions.   After we have 
gone on and recognized what took place there and after we have 
finally accepted the cession of the islands, Senators in this body 
turn around and begin to abuse the Government of the United 
States for everything it has ever done with reference to those 
islands, when all of us in this Chamber pretty nearly voted for the 
annexation of the Hawaiian Islands. Mr. JONES of Arkansas.   I 
did not.   I beg pardon.   I was paired against the joint resolution. 
Mr. BACON.   1 did not. Mr. CULLOM.   A great majority of the 
Senate did, as I remember. Mr. BACON.   I did not. Mr. CULLOM.   
But whether they did or not, after it is finished, after we have 
accepted the islands, it seems to me there ought to be some time in 
our history when we will talk about something else and stop 
abusing the people or the Congress or the country for accepting the 
islands or the manner of their acceptance.   There ought to be a 
statute of limitations, it seems to me, which would run to estop 
Senators and Representatives and other people from finding fault 
eternally with what the Government does after it has been done 
for years and years, especially when in the judgment of the people 
of the United States we did right. So far as I am concerned, I do 
not want to abuse the Queen. She was overthrown.   She 
substantially abdicated, as a matter of fact, voluntarily, by her 
own act.   But I am not going to discuss that.   The question is 
now what we ought to do, whether anything, for her now that she 
has become a private citizen.   I happen to know that she is here 
in this city now. or has been until recently.   I do not know 
whether she is actually here now. But she has been consulting 
lawyers in the District of Columbia to know what her rights are. 
Now, we propose to appropriate $250,000 for her to live on.   If the 
Senate wants to do it, it can do so; but in my judgment there ought 
to be a more intelligent way of determining whether she has any 
rights, and then what those rights amount to. Mr. TELLER.   What 
section is this? Mr. CLARK of Wyoming.   Section 101. 
Mr.TELLER.   I should like to ask the Senator a question.   Why did 
the committee see fit to put in section 101 and cut off any right

she might have?   Why do they not let her go to the courts, if she has 
any chance? Mr. CULLOM.   That was my idea; that she should go 
to the courts. Mr. TELLER.    Strike out section 101. Mr. CULLOM.   
The Senator from Alabama [Mr. MORGAN] and one or two others 
explained that section the other day, and I should be glad to have 
the Senator from Alabama explain it again for the satisfaction of the 
Senate.   I confess that I have always felt that it was not right to 
insert it, because it deprives her of the opportunity to do what I 
think she has a right to do, if she has. any interest in the land, and 
that is to find out what it is through the courts of the country. Mr. 
PETTIGREW.   Mr. President, in January, 1893, there was a friendly 
government existing in the Hawaiian Islands, possessing treaty 
relations with the United States and maintaining itself, preserving 
order, life, and property.   About that time 18 men, some of whom 
were citizens of Hawaii, some of them citizens of the United States, and 
some subjects of Germany, met in an office in Honolulu and 
conspired together to overthrow the established friendly 
government.   These revolutionists sent one of their number to the 
United States minister and told him what their plans and purposes 
were and made an arrangement with, him by which the marines of 
the United States on the war ship Boston in the harbor of Honolulu 
were to land and protect the conspirators and help to overthrow this 
friendly government.   The marines did land.   These men addressed 
a letter to our minister, asking him to land the marines and troops to 
protect life and property, and they fixed the hour at 5 o'clock in the 
afternoon. After they had made the request for the landing of 
troops and he had arranged for their landing, these 13 men sent 
one of their number to our minister asking him to defer the 
landing until the next day.   If there was danger to life and property, 
why did they want to defer the landing until the next day?   There 
was no danger to life and property.    Life and property were being 
protected, and peace and quiet and safety existed.   The troops 
were to be landed to enable the conspirators to overthrow a friendly 
government. The minister had already ordered the landing of the 
troops, and while their emissary was at the office of our minister the 
troops were put ashore from the vessel, a hundred and eighty of them, 
and they marched not to any point in the city where they could 
protect life and property, not to the American consul's office or the 
resident minister's office, not to the heart of the business section of 
the city of Honolulu, but to Arion Hall, a little building 75 yards 
from the government building.   Why did they march to that point? 
Simply because our minister had agreed that if these 13 con-
spirators would take possession of the government building and 
there read their proclamation declaring the government over-
thrown, he would recognize them. The next day these 13 men 
marched to the government building in two squads, so as not to 
attract attention, marched on two different streets, and having 
come to the government building, where there was no armed force, 
no revolutionists, nobody but the janitor and the clerk inside, they 
proceeded to read their proclamation declaring the government of 
Queen Liliuokalani overthrown. The marines in the meantime had 
been drawn up in line with their Gatling gun within 75 yards of the 
scene. The Senator from Illinois [Mr. CULLOM] said the Queen abdi-
cated; that she surrendered her government.   What are the facts? 
Immediately upon reading this proclamation, without any armed 
force to protect them except the marines of the United States, they 
went to the American minister and secured a recognition of the 
government instituted by the 13 men, and sustained by nothing unless 
it was the marines of the United States.   The marines had assumed a 
threatening attitude.   The committee also sent an emissary - Mr. 
Damon -  to the Queen.   Here is what she said.   Here is her letter 
upon this subject:
I, Liliuokalani, by the grace of God and under the constitution of the Hawaiian 
kingdom, Queen, So hereby solemnly protest against any and all acts done 
against myself and the constitutional government of the Hawaiian kingdom by 
certain persona claiming to have established a provisional government of and for 
this kingdom. That I yield to the superior force of the United States of America, 
whose minister plenipotentiary, His Excellency John L. Stevens, has caused 
United States troops to be landed at Honolulu and declared that he would 
support the said provisional government. Now, to avoid any collision of armed 
forces and perhaps the loss of life, I do, under this protest and impelled by said 
force, yield my authority until such time as the Government of the United States 
shall, upon the facts being presented to it, undo the action of its representatives 
and reinstate me in the authority which I claim as the constitutional sovereign 
of the Hawaiian Islands. Done at Honolulu this 17th day of January, A. D. 1893.
LILIUOKALANI, R.
SAMUEL PARKER,
Minister of Foreign Affairs. WM. H. CORNWELL, Minister of Finance. JNO. F. 
COLBUBN, Minister of the Interior. A. P. PETERSON, Attorney-General.

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