Jere Krischel at 07:12, 23 December 2005

2005-12-23T07:12:18Z

Jere Krischel at 04:56, 12 December 2005

2005-12-12T04:56:16Z

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918 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.
understood, contrary to the attitude of the Government of the United
States at that time?
Mr. STEVENS. Yes. And he thought that the whole thing was a
mistake; but when he was conferred with by some of the citizens he
denied it. So that I could not say what his real position was.
The CHAIRMAN. We do not want to go into tliat. When Mr. Blount
arrived, did he communicate to you any of the special instructions
that he had received!
Mr. STEVENS. Not his instructions; but he gave me a copy of the
instructions from Washington, by which his authority was paramount
over mine, and that I should keep on with the ordinary duties of the
legation. But he never showed me his instructions nor gave me a hint
as to what they were.
The CHAIRMAN. YOU had only a conjecture as to what they might
be?
Mr. STEVENS. Only a conjecture.
The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Blount was cautious in withholding his instructions,
was he? Did you ask to be informed of his mission there?
Mr. STEVENS. Oh, no; I introduced him to the Provisional Government,
and was courteous as I could be to him.
The CHAIRMAN. Did you demur, dissent, to hi-s coming there as minister
of the United States with authority paramount to your authority
there?
Mr. STEVENS. NO. I kept that locked up in my breast.
The CHAIRMAN. SO that, whatever his mission was, it was not a
matter to arouse your antagonism?
Mr. STEVENS. Not the slightest. On the other hand, I treated him
with the utmost kindness. I knew that he came with a great deal of
prejudice, and I was careful
The CHAIRMAN. How do you know that he came with prejudice?
Mr. STEVENS. By his conduct. It was very brusque with me in the
start. It was brusque in his refusal to accept the offer of the American
citizens that he should take a house rather than go the royalist hotel.
The CHAIRMAN. That offer was made by whom?
Mr. STEVENS. That was a committee of American citizens. I can
give you who they were and what they were.
The CnAiRMAN. Was it the committee of safety?
Mr. STEVENS. They were not members of it. The chairman of it was
Judge Hartwell, who had nothing to do with the revolution whatever,
and the next member was Mr. Scott, a Kentucky gentleman, who has
had charge of the high school for many years—not connected with the
Government or even with politics.
The CHAIRMAN. HOW came the citizens to provide a house for Mr.
Blount any more than for you as minister?
Mr. STEVENS. For the reason that they knew that the Hawaiian
Hotel was organized in the interest of the Queen's supporters and
organized in a very corrupt way.
The CHAIRMAN. Was there no other hotel there except the one at
which Mr. Blount stopped?
Mr. STEVENS. That was the principal hotel. There were other good
hotels.
Senator GRAY. That was the principal hotel?
Mr. STEVENS. Yes. There were other hotels.
Senator GRAY. Mr. Blount says he went there because it was the
leading hotel, and that he never saw its proprietor to speak to him for
many weeks after he had been there, and he saw no men who were
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 919
royalists, except they came for the purposes of examination. Do you
know anything to the contrary?
Mr. STEVENS. I know altogether to the contrary. The Hawaiian
Hotel had been for many months as complete a lodge for all the
Queen's supporters, to the extent that they watched every boarder
who was brought there. The man who kept that hotel was of a firm
that cheated the Government out of $80,000. One of the firm was
sent to Washington as Kaiulani's counsel. The active manager of that
hotel at the time is a graduate from the Oxford University, England.
He was divorced from his wife in the United States. He wrote those
vile letters in behalf of the Queen attacking me and Judge Dole.
Senator GRAY. DO you know that Mr. Blount had any association
with those people?
Mr. STEVENS. That I can not swear to. I was giving the character
of the hotel, the reasons why these citizens suggested that he go to a
private house.
Senator GRAY. DO you know that Mr. Blount associated with the
people whom you have described on terms of intimacy or otherwise?
Mr. STEVENS. I think it would be impossible for Mr. Blount to know,
because they were strangers to him.
Senator GRAY. DO you know that he did?
Mr. STEVENS. I know that when I called at the cottage that they
were generally there.
Senator GRAY. Where?
Mr. STEVENS. At the cottage where he stopped, close to the hotel.
I found some of those parties were there.
Senator GRAY. Who were some of those parties?
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. Peterson was one. You asked me why these citizens
made this offer. It was because while he was at the hotel he
would be under espionage of the royalists.
Senator GRAY. DO you say that Mr. Blount when he arrived went
to the Hawaiian Hotel, and he there associated intimately or otherwise
with those objectionable characters?
Mr. STEVENS. I do not believe that he did.
Senator GRAY. I will ask you whether or not that hotel is where all
American tourists and strangers would go?
Mr. STEVENS. More likely to go.
Senator GRAY. Did not the tourists all go to that hotel?
Mr. STEVENS. More or less. But so soon as they had been there any
length of time, they generally left it. A good many Americans left it
because of its anti American character.
The CHAIRMAN. NOW, as I understand your statement, this body of
citizens undertook to provide quarters for Mr. Blount in order to prevent
him from falling under what they conceived to be and you conceived
to be evil influences?
Mr. STEVENS. I will state it my own way. These citizens were of
the highest respectability. This lady offered it because it was more
convenient to the legation, and where both parties would have access
without espionage, as the American citizens knew that they could not
go to the royalists hotel without espionage. And I had to caution Mr.
Blount that his papers would be seen by the representatives of the
royalists. I think he regarded that caution.
Senator GRAY. Did he make any objection to accepting the hospitality
of any one, or simply that he preferred to go to the public hotel
where he could pay his own expenses?
Mr. STEVENS. I think he said Mr. Mills had arranged to go to the
hotel. At that time he did not mean anything out of the way.

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Jere Krischel at 07:12, 23 December 2005

Jere Krischel at 04:56, 12 December 2005