Jere Krischel at 05:00, 23 December 2005

2005-12-23T05:00:20Z

Jere Krischel at 04:54, 12 December 2005

2005-12-12T04:54:05Z

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890 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.
Mr. STEVENS. Yes; we were there probably two hours.
The CHAIRMAN. Was any representative of a foreign government
missing on that occasion ?
Mr. STEVENS. I do not remember any.
The CHAIRMAN. YOU can state that it was a general conference.
Mr. STEVENS. Oh, they invited the whole of them.
The CHAIRMAN. Who invited them?
Mr. STEVENS. The invitation to come came from the clerk of the
new minister of the interior, who got alarmed.
The CHAIRMAN. Who was the minister of the interior?
Mr. STEVENS. I do not positively remember, but I think Colburn.
The CHAIRMAN. And the invitation came from Liliuokalani's minister
of the interior to you?
Mr. STEVENS. Yes; the chief clerk, Mr. Hassinger, who had been
there for years, brought it to me at the legation.
The CHAIRMAN. Did he ask you to come to the Government building?
Mr. STEVENS. Yes.
The CHAIRMAN. Did he tell you that there was an assemblage of
the foreign ministers at the Government building?
Mr. STEVENS. I am not sure; but T think he did.
The CHAIRMAN. Well, when you got there
Mr. STEVENS. One or two came in after I arrived; but we all left
about the same time. We waited for the denouement at the palace,
but two of the new ministers were afraid to go back to the palace.
The CHAIRMAN. What two ministers were afraid?
Mr. STEVENS. Colburn and Cornwall seemed to be alarmed.
The CHAIRMAN. What made you think they were alarmed?
Mr. STEVENS. Their appearance, and in sending for us. Then it
came out that they were afraid to go to the palace. Their manner
showed it.
The CHAIRMAN. Was there anything that indicated it?
Mr. STEVENS. Only their sending for us and their general appearance—
their going backwards and forwards from and to the palace.
The CHAIRMAN. Were they passing backwards and forwards between
your meeting and the palace?
Mr. STEVENS. Not between us. Finally, when Cornwall and Colburn
left us, the message came from Mr. Parker, the minister of foreign
affairs, and they left us and went to the palace, and I waited perhaps
an hour or more and I went back to the legation and remained.
The CHAIRMAN. On those occasions when Liliuokalani's ministers
were present, was any intimation given or proposition submitted to
the foreign representatives in respect of the protection that should be
extended to American citizens or anyone else?
Mr. STEVENS. They made no intimation to us. They asked us at
first to come there. We went there and waited, and did not confer with
each other what to do.
Senator BUTLER. What day was that ?
Mr. STEVENS. That was on Saturday afternoon, January 14, the same
Saturday afternoon when the Queen was present at the palace with the
mob and the Queen's guard around it, and the chief justice was with
her.
Senator BUTLER. That was the day the Boston returned?
Mr. STEVENS. Yes.
Senator BUTLER. That was the day before this public meeting of
which you spoke?
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 891
Mr. STEVENS. TWO days before.
The CHAIRMAN. YOU spoke of a mob about the palace. Do you
mean a disorganized body of men?
Mr. STEVENS. Disorganized body of natives; retainers who had been
dressed up respectably, and their leader had a constitution on a velvet
cushion.
The CHAIRMAN. I am going into the inquiry whether, in the American
acceptation of the word, that was a mob or an assemblage of the
Queen's supporters.
Mr. STEVENS. That was, in the general acceptation of the word, a
mob; you may call it an assemblage.
The CHAIRMAN. Was there any mob violence?
Mr. STEVENS. The information came to me direct that when the
Queen was baffled, when they learned that the Queen would not proclaim
that constitution at that time, they swore they would kill her. I
suppose that was a temporary outbreak. While I was not in that
crowd, I received more reliable information from the chief justice of
what took place, and of the wrangle between the Queen and Peterson
about the constitution—of the Queen turning upon him and stating,
"You have had that in your pocket for two or three weeks." I am not
positive that I received these words from the chief justice. It came
to me in such a form that I took it as correct.
The CHAIRMAN. Who was it informed you!
Mr. STEVENS. Several parties.
The CHAIRMAN. Can you name them?
Mr. STEVENS. The strongest testimony came from the chief justice.
Whether he used that specific language or not, or I received that specific
language from the chief justice, I could not say, because there
were so many talked to me on the subject. But information as to the
scenes in the palace and the revolutionary state of things came from
the chief justice, who was there four hours.
The CHAIRMAN. All of which transpired before you went to tho
palace?
Mr. STEVENS. NO; all that transpired while we were over at the
Government building and after we had left.
The CHAIRMAN. Before you went to the palace?.
Mr. STEVENS. I did not go to the palace that day. The officals were
at the palace at 12 o'clock.
The CHAIRMAN. At the palace?
Mr. STEVENS. Where the scenes took place.
The CHAIRMAN. I was going to ask the question, where the mob was
assembled?
Mr. STEVENS. Yes. It was at the palace that this constitution wan
expected to be proclaimed.
The CHAIRMAN. You did not enter into that crowd?
Mr. STEVENS. Not at all. I went home to dinner, and this invitation
of the minister of the interior was for us to come at half-past our.
We went over to the Government building, and were there from one to
two hours.
The CHAIRMAN. My point is that you did not go to the palace that
afternoon.
Mr. STEVENS. No; I attempted to go, but failed, as I have before
testified, owing to it being too late.
The CHAIRMAN. Are you able to state from information that came
to you, beside that from the committee of safety, that you would be

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Jere Krischel at 05:00, 23 December 2005

Jere Krischel at 04:54, 12 December 2005