Jere Krischel at 08:57, 20 December 2005

2005-12-20T08:57:28Z

Jere Krischel at 04:42, 12 December 2005

2005-12-12T04:42:44Z

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754 HAWAIIAN. ISLANDS.
qualification; they thought it was educational. I put it in my report
because this man Peterson is a pretty bright lawyer, and I thought
they would be much more likely to recollect correctly than the Queen.
I never talked with the Queen about it at all.
The CHAIRMAN. That is all the information you got about the terms
of the constitution which the Queen had proposed?
Mr. BLOUNT. Except later. Sometime afterward a gentleman came to
me,I think a Mr. Carter or a Mr. McFarlane, with a paper, which you
gentlemen have here, containing a statement of the Queen; I looked over
it. My first impression was that 1 ought not to use it; that she was
disclosing a great many secrets in her feelings toward her political
allies calculated to create feeling between her and them. She was a
woman. Then it occurred to me after thinking the matter over, "I
have nothing to do with that; 1 am here representing the Government
of the United States, and I will put that with the other evidence."
Those are all the communications on the constitution.
The CHAIRMAN. Did that paper purport to emanate from theQueen?
Mr. BLOUNT. Oh, yes; there is no question about that.
The CHAIRMAN. YOU say there is no question about that?
Mr. BLOUNT. I have no question about that.
Senator GRAY. Was that sent in with your report?
Mr. BLOUNT. Yes; I have put everything in the bundle and sent it.
Senator GRAY. You sent everything?
Mr. BLOUNT. I sent everything.
Senator GRAY. It is a statement signed by the Queen, is it?
Mr. BLOUNT. Yes.
Senator GRAY. There is but one statement from her, a sort of history
of the revolution?
The CHAIRMAN. It was her version of the affair?
Mr. BLOUNT. Her version. I never spoke to her about it at all.
The CHAIRMAN. During your stay in Hawaii did you have any official
communication with Liliuokalani or her cabinet as in any sense
representing an existing government?
Mr. BLOUNT. NO; not the slightest, not the slightest.
The CnAiRMAN. What communication you had wTith them at all was
for the purpose of obtaining information that you thought would be
useful to the Government of the United States?
Mr. BLOUNT. Yes. I took opinions from both sides of people who
were connected with public affairs at the time. For instance, if you
will allow me, there was Mr. Damon, the Vice-President, who went to
the station house to negotiate for the surrender of the station house,
and went to the Queen. I took him, Mr. Bolte, who went with him to
the station house; Mr. Waterhouse, who was on the committee of safety,
and at whose house the final determination of the dethronement of the
Queen occurred. I mention those persons, and I attempted to get the
testimony of Mr. Smith and the statement of Mr. Cooper, who read the
proclamation establishing the new Government; I went in that direction,
and I found from Mr. Damon's testimony and Mr. Bolte's that
they had gone to the station house and found certain persons connected
with the Queen's Government, and I naturally took members of the
cabinet, and so it led along as circumstances were.
The CHAIRMAN. AS the question opened up to your mind you proceeded
to investigate things that you thought would be useful to the
Government here?
Mr. BLOUNT. I did.
The CHAIRMAN. Before you left Hawaii did you receive any communication,
statement, or information from the Government of the United
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 755
States of any purpose to reinstate Liliuokalani on any terms or conditions
whatever?
Mr. BLOUNT. I never dreamed of such a thing as the reinstatement
of Liliuokalani; I never heard it suggested until my return to the
United States. I had a talk with the Secretary of State, and the inclination
of his mind was that the circumstances created a moral obligation
on the part of the United States to reinstate her. I gathered from
the Secretary of State that the President had not any opinion—was
thinking the matter over.
The CHAIRMAN. That the President had not formed his opinion?
Mr. BLOUNT. Had not formed his opinion. I had never heard anything
from the President indicating any opinion until the public had it.
The CHAIRMAN. Then at the time you left Hawaii nothing had been
developed in the direction of a movement to reinstate Liliuokalani on
the throne?
Mr. BLOUNT. I never heard of it except as 1 heard of it in the American
papers.
The CHAIRMAN. The papers that would find their way to Hawaii?
Mr. BLOUNT. Yes; nothing from the Government. You asked m«
a moment ago about my having communication with the Queen.
Those people down there are the most consummately brutal and unconscionable
people I ever saw—on both sides; they say almost anything.
On one occasion the attorney-general came to me at my office, and
the Queen's name was mentioned. I said, " What sort of a person is
she; I never saw her." He was surprised. He said, " You have never
seen her?" I said, "No." He said, "That is very strange; the Government
was informed that you called to see her, and she got on her
knees, and pressed your hands, and cried," etc. Some time after
that an attack was made in the Star, in which the writer was urging
the deposition of the Queen, charged she was conspiring against the
existing Government, and said she should be deposed, that she might
have treasonable communications with public ministers, as witness
her unhindered interviews with Commissioner Blount. That was the
annexation organ. I thought it was very discourteous, and I wrote
Mr. Dole a letter. Probably it appears in the published correspondence.
In that letter I set forth that I had never called upon the Queen at
all except as indicated in an interview with him, in which it was
agreed that there was no impropriety in my doing so, and that I felt
this attack was an outrage on me as the American representative. He
seemed to appreciate the situation, and an apology was brought about,
a very poor one. But I think President Dole regretted it. The attorney-
general, in referring to the article, said to me that this man Smith,
of the annexation organ, had been to the Government (that is to say
the President and cabinet), and said that he had the unquestionable
proof that I had three long interviews with the Queen. He did not
believe Smith. I never had any communication with the Queen looking
to her protection or aid in any form.
The last interview I had with her came about in this way: I was going
off from the islands; I made up my mind to leave; I thought everything
was quiet. I felt I was taking some responsibility by leaving if
anything should happen and I should not be there—that I would have
to suffer the criticism. I talked with members of the Provisional Government;
talked with some two or three gentlemen of character and
standing on the royalist side as to whether there was any danger in my
leaving, and then it occurred to me perhaps I had better go and see the
Queen and ascertain just what she thought of the peacefulness of her
people I went to her and told her my purpose of leaving; all of which

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Jere Krischel at 08:57, 20 December 2005

Jere Krischel at 04:42, 12 December 2005