Jere Krischel at 07:45, 23 December 2005

2005-12-23T07:45:46Z

Jere Krischel at 04:57, 12 December 2005

2005-12-12T04:57:48Z

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930 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.
Mr. STEVENS. Nothing of the kind. The only interviews in which,
as I have already stated, they asked my assistance to support the
Queen; but they did not put the other alternative, because they Mould
not insult me with that after I had refused the other. I said to them
squarely that the troops were landed for a pacific purpose and could
not take part in any contest.
Senator FEYE. He also says that at a meeting at which J. O. Carter,
Macfarlane, Widemann, and Damon were present, the statement was
repeated that Mr. Stevens unqualifiedly stated that he would by force
of arms sustain the Provisional Government. Did you say anything of
the kind?
Mr. STEVENS. No; just like the other.
Senator FKYE. He also states that the U. S. legation had been at
various times the meeting place of persons who had conspired to overthrow
the Hawaiian Government.
Mr. STEVENS. There never was any such meeting in the four years
that I was there, at the legation. The people who had the entree of
the legation and who dined there and had other attentions there were
royalists quite as many as of their opponents. The dinner party
spoken of was made up by my two parties; the Portuguese charge
d'affaires made one; the French commissioner another; Judge Hartwell
another; Mr. Thurston another, and, I think, one of the officers
of the Boston, besides Capt. Wilts©. My daughter's conversation was
with Mr. Thurston, and 1 talked with the Portuguese charge d'affaires.
The meeting was of such a character that if we had wanted to talk
politics we could not have done so.
Senator FEYE. Mr. Charles T. Gulick testifies that the presence of
the American troops and certain rumors with regard to the attitude of
the American minister, caused the Hawaiian cabinet to confer with
that official before taking action, and that they learned from him in
writing that he recognized the Provisional Government and would support
it with the United States troops. Was there anything of that
kind?
Mr. STEVENS. No. It was all done in the form that came from this
note. The man Hopkins, whom I did not know, and my daughter happened
to know, he returned, but did not have any conversation, did
not speak to him, did not know him until that afternoon. My daughter
happened to know him by sight. He never submitted me any question;
he brought a note, and all he wanted was an answer. I think my
daughtei took the note out of his hand and put it in mine, if I remember
correctly. I was sick at the time. Hopkins was one of those who had
been engaged in the grossest maladministration.
Senator FEYE. Mr. John Lot Kaulukou in his testimony says: "Next
morning I read a letter from Minister Stevens in the newspaper. He
said, 'I recognize the Provisional Government of the Hawaiian Islands,
because it takes the palace, the station house, and the barracks. That
is my reason why I recognize the Provisional Government.'" Did you
write any such letter?
Mr. STEVENS. NO; the only one that I ever wrote on the subject is
in that official lianiphlet published by vote of the Senate last February.
I never wrote any communication to any newspaper about it. Kaulukou
is one of the most corrupt men in the country, formerly one of
Kalakaua's ministers.
Senator FRYE. He says further: "If Mr. Stevens had never sent
any word of that kind, if he had never interfered, you would see these
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 931
people cleaned out in fifteen or twenty minutes and the Queen remain
on her throne till to-day." Did you interfere?
Mr. STEVENS. Not the slightest.
Senator FEYE. DO you think if the troops had been in the United
States of America the Queen would have been on her throne to-day?
Mr. STEVENS. If our troops had remained at Ililo, 260 miles from
Honolulu, and had known nothing of what was going on, it would have
been the same. The Wilcox Jones cabinet was composed of some of
the best men in the islands. The men who were leading this revolution
were irresistible; they had the complete command of the situation.
Wilson knew that, and that is the reason why his associates did not
arrest anybody.
Senator FEYE. DO you know Dr. G. Trousseau?
Mr. STEVENS. I do.
Senator FKYE. IS he regarded in the Hawaiian Islands as a truthful
man ?
Mr. STEVENS. He is so notoriously untruthful that any story going
the round of the capital they would say "That is one of Trousseau's
lies." He is an adventurer who came from Paris. He is a man of a
good deal of genius; he practices medicine in some American families
because of his genius; but there are physicans who have no affiliations
with him, because he has not his diploma. He has already apologized
to Judge Hartwell and others because of statements he made with
respect to them that he thought would not come back to the islands.
Senator FEYE. Trousseau in his statement says that Dole, Charles
Carter, and W. H. Castle, and one or two others, naming them, were
in the habit of meeting at your house, the house of the American
minister, and conspiring for overturning the Queen. Is there any truth
in that?
Mr. STEVENS. Not a particle. One of the parties was Mr. Castle; he
had not been at my house but once for a year. I got acquainted with
him and his venerable father when I first came to Hawaii, and I
wondered why he had not called upon me. William Castle had only
stopped at our house once in the year. Mr. Dole and Mr. Thurston
were men of too much sense to be willing to have a meeting at my
house. Although I was intimate in Mr. Dole's family, I never got a
hint from Mr. and Mrs. Dole that he was to go into the Provisional
Government. He was a man of too much culture to embarrass me with
the knowledge that he was to take part in the revolutionary movement.
It is the fact that he left the bench to which he had been appointed,
with his salary of $5,000 a year, purely as a sense of duty, to take the
responsibilities of the position he now holds. He is delicate, not a
strong man, and the pressure of responsibility and anxiety is liable to
break him down.
The CHAIEMAN. Who comprised the supreme court at the time you
left Hawaii?
Mr. STEVENS. At the time I left it was composed of Chief Justice
Judd, who had been chief justice for nineteen years, and Judge Bickerton
and Judge Frear. Judge Judd was educated in law at Harvard.
Judge Bickerton is English.
The CHAIEMAN. After the revolution occurred there in the executive
government, did that court continue to sit and discharge its functions?
Mr. STEVENS. I so understood it; yes—right along. The Provisional
Government interfered as little as possible with the statutes; they
promptly repealed the lottery act and opium act, and I think that is

Template:930-931 - Revision history

Jere Krischel at 07:45, 23 December 2005

Jere Krischel at 04:57, 12 December 2005