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18/ Burns, p. 158.
19/ Mellen, P. 75.
20/ Ibid.
21/ Bailey, P. 278.
22/ Burns, p. 165.
23/ Ibid., p. 168
24/ Ibid.
25/ Ibid., p. 170.
26/ With respect to the statement that Celso Moreno and the king called "for Hawaiians to throw out or kill the planter sympathizers and foreign interests groups on the Islands," Congressman Daniel Akaka commented: "It is difficult to believe Kalakaua capable of such intrigue and scheming" (Akaka's Comments, p. 5).
Shortly after Celso Moreno was installed as a member of the Hawaiian Cabinet with the title of Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1880, posters in his support came out in all parts of Honolulu. They were addressed to "All true-born citizens of the country" and asked them to support Moreno: "His intention is to cast down the foreigners and put in their places the true Hawaiians..." (K. D. Mellen, An Island Kingdom Passes,p. 91 (1958); Copy of entire poster in Blount Rept., H. Ex. Doc. No. 47, 53rd Cong., 2d Seas., p. 183 (1893).
Robert W. Wilcox, a Hawaiian who supported Moreno and attended a mass meeting of citizens to discuss the Moreno appointment, proclaimed that "foreigners were stirring up confusion for their own evil purposes..." (E. M. Damon, Sanford B. Dole, p. 156 (1957)). Sanford Dole, who attended the mass meeting, reported his feelings to his brother George. Dole wrote: "Robert Wilcox...probably egged on by the king...appears to wish the destruction of white men..." (Ibid., p. 157).
A first-hand account by James M. Comly, the U.S. Minister Resident to Hawaii (1877-1882), discusses the Moreno incident of 1880 in some detail, particularly in Dispatch No. 122, dated 21 August 1880 from Honolulu. Comly reports that the British, American, "Hawaiian citizens who were natives of the United States," and German residents of Hawaii presented memorials "to interfere for the protection of [their] interests, and demand the dismissal of the new Cabinet, as a menance to [their] capital invested here." Comly, who had informed the king of strong opposition to Moreno, mentions a discussion held by him and others in which "the general impression seemed to be that Moreno intended personal violence if I did not give way."
With respect to the role of the king it appears that at the very least he was highly sympathetic to Moreno's points of view. Kalakaua stated to Minister Comly: "Mr. Moreno had shown himself to be a very entertaining companion, a man of large and novel views in political and state affairs; that he had been frequently surprised to find out how exactly Mr. Moreno's views coincided with his own; and that he [had] put him in office because of this harmony and sympathy..." (Comly Dispatch, No. 122).
The dispatches of Minister Comly pertaining to the Moreno affair and its sequel include Nos. 104, 113, 121, 122, 131, 136, 141 and 149. "The Moreno affair of 1880 is one of the most curious and at the same time one of the most important incidents in Hawaiian history...These dispatches of General Comly are an important contribution to the history of the reign of Kalakaua" (Hawaiian Diplomatic Correspondence, Historical Commission of the Territory of Hawaii,
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