Difference between revisions of "Template:Nhsc-v1-299"

Latest revision as of 03:00, 24 April 2006

though at first not officially relieved, by Blount. Blount's instructions read, in part:

To enable you to fulfill this charge, your authority in all matters touching the relations of this Government to the existing or other government of the islands, and the protection of our citizens therein, is paramount, and in you alone, acting in co-operation with the commander of the naval forces, is vested full discretion and power to determine when such forces should be landed or withdrawn. 201/

By this time, Captain Wiltse had been relieved as senior officer on the Pacific Station by Rear Admiral Joseph Skerrett. Wiltse was detached and ordered home on February 28, 1893. Blount ordered the Marines to return to the Boston (one company of sailors had already been withdrawn, the other remained on shore) and he ordered that the American flag be hauled down. On May 24 he officially replaced Stevens as Minister.

Blount remained in Hawaii until August 9 when he returned to Washington without waiting for a replacement. His lengthy report (nearly 700 pages) laid the blame for the revolution squarely on Stevens and recommended a restoration of the former government. Based on this recommendation, and at the urgings of Secretary of State Walter Gresham, the President ordered the new Minister to offer to aid Liliuokalani to regain her throne with the expectation that she would grant full amnesty to those who had opposed her. Liliuokalani's refusal to meet this requirement, coupled with the Provisional Government's emphatic refusal to consider such a move, negated the attempt. 202/ Meanwhile, it was noted that Blount interviewed neither the members of the Committee of Safety nor the officers of the Boston. There were complaints from those who were interviewed by him that their testimony was slanted in the final report. 203/

After receipt of this report, in a message to Congress on December 18, 1893, President Cleveland said, in part:

...The lawful government of Hawaii was overthrown without the drawing of a sword or the firing of a shot by a process every step of which, it may safely be asserted, is directly traceable to and dependent for its success upon the agency of the United States acting through its diplomatic and naval representatives.

But for the notorius predilections of the United States Minister for Annexation, the Committee of Safety, which should be called the Committee for Annexation, would never have existed.

But for the landing of the United States forces upon false pretexts respecting the danger to life and property the committee would never have exposed themselves to the plans and penalties of treason by undertaking the subversion of the Queen's government.

But for the presence of the United States forces in the immediate vicinity and in position to afford all needed protection and support the committee would not have proclaimed the provisional government from the steps of the Government building.

And finally, but for the lawless occupation of Honolulu under the false pretexts by the United States forces, and but for Minister Stevens' recognition of the provisional government when the United States forces were its sole support and constituted its only military strength, the Queen and