2006-06-02 Arlan D. Melendez Fact Check

Back to Correcting Akaka

In reponse to the majority report by the USCCR which recommended against the Akaka Bill, two of the commissioners have filed dissents. In the spirit of our other fact checks, we present to you the statement of Arlan D. Melendez.

Dissenting Statement of Commissioner Arlan D. Melendez

Commissioner Michael J. Yaki joins in this dissent.

In 1893, shortly after becoming President, Grover Cleveland appointed a special envoy to Hawai'i, James Blount, to investigate the circumstances of the overthrow of the indigenous Hawaiian government and the standing of the Provisional Government. Blount delivered a report to President Cleveland later that year finding that representatives of the United States had abused their authority and their participation in the overthrow was responsible for its success.

On the basis of this report, President Cleveland declared that a "substantial wrong has thus been done which a due regard for our national character as well as the rights of the injured people requires we should endeavor to repair," and called for the restoration of the Hawaiian monarchy. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, at the behest of the Provisional Government, also investigated the role of the U.S. in the overthrow.

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The Committee held a series of hearings in which representatives of the Provisional Government were given unfettered access to the process in order to justify and obscure their role and that of the U.S., in what President Cleveland referred to as “an act of war…” against the sovereign Hawaiian nation.

* * * Comment: Being snubbed by Blount during his investigation, members of the Provisional Government were able to testify as to their side of the story for the first time with the Morgan Committee. * * *

The Committee Chair issued his opinion exonerating the U.S. of wrongdoing (now known as the Morgan report), blaming the overthrow on the Native Hawaiian monarch. No other committee members signed the Chair’s opinion and four members of the committee vigorously dissented, finding that the diplomatic and military might of the U.S. was misused to overthrow the government of the Hawaiian people.

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The Apology Resolution approved by Congress in 1993 (attached) officially adopts the accurate account of the overthrow of Hawaii presented in the Blount report and repudiates the Morgan Report.

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Once again the United States government has acknowledged that an injustice has been committed that “our national character… requires we should endeavor to repair” and is considering legislation that would set in motion the process of repairing the illegal actions committed by the United States over 100 years ago. Yet, the Commission recommends that Congress should not pass this legislation. Because I believe that with today’s action the Commission has become a 21st century Morgan Report, I respectfully dissent.