Template:882-883

-p882-

The Chairman. Who preceded him?

Mr. Stevens. MacFarlane was the chamberlain when I went there.

The Chairman. Was Mr. Carter ever chamberlain?

Mr. Stevens. I think not. The brother of Chief Justice Judd was, and my impression is that no one was between him and McFarlane. When Liliuokalani came in she wanted this favorite of hers to be in the cabinet as minister of the interior, which was an important place, and he could not get any responsible person to serve with him. Then they compromised it by allowing him to be made marshal, which is an office of great power and patronage, under which Chinese and Japanese lottery gambling can be carried on. It requires a man of great integrity, lest there be abuses, and the office was one having the most power under the administration. Wilson wanted that, and he was made marshal and installed in the palace.

There is a good deal of history between that, and contained in my despatches, of wrangling, by which the different ones were put in. I have the legislative votes that took place prior to that. Three cabinets had been voted out in the course of a few weeks. Parker, Spencer, Wideman, and Paul Neuman voted out August 30,1892, by 31 yeas to 10 nays. Parker, Maefarlane, Gulick, and Paul Neuman appointed September 12, 1892, and voted out October 17, 1892, by 31 yeas and 15 nays. November 1, 1892, Queen appointed Cornwell, Nawahi, Gulick, and Creighton, who were voted out the same day by 26 yeas to 13 nays.

The Chairman. Have you named all the persons?

Mr. Stevens. Peter C. Jones, W. L. Wilcox, Mark P. Robinson, and Cecil Brown. Jones and Wilcox were two strong financial men, worth more than $200,000 each; were not politicians; but they accepted their offices as a matter of duty to the country. Mark P. Robinson was a prominent business man, and Cecil Brown was a lawyer. All four of this Cabinet are gentlemen of integrity, having the confidence of the financial public. We were away from the Hawaiian capital but ten days.

The Chairman. Just there, if you please. In reference to what expected difficulty or complication of political affairs in Hawaii do you speak when you say that it was for the first time safe for you to leave the islands?

Mr. Stevens. The first time I deemed it safe for me to be away?

The Chairman. Yes; why?

Mr. Stevens. For the reason that there was liable to be trouble.

The Chairman. Do you mean it was safe for the interests of the United States?

Mr. Stevens. Safe for the interests of the United States.

The Chairman. Do you not mean safe for the opposing power to the then government?

Mr. Stevens. I mean the American interests in the islands, the commercial interests. In general terms that means nearly the whole, so far as commercial interests are concerned.

The Chairman. Proceed.

Mr. Stevens. It came to us.

The Chairman. You say it came to us. Whom do you mean?

Mr. Stevens. Capt. Wiitse and to me. They sent out in boats. We got into the harbor about half past 10, and it took sometime to get to the wharf, and they came out in boats.

The Chairman. Who were the persons who informed you?

Mr. Stevens. We were informed.

The Chairman. Any official information given to you?

-p883-

Mr. Stevens. No official communication, as I remember now.

The Chairman. Who was your aid-de-camp at that time?

Mr. Stevens. I had none; there was no person allowed me.

The Chairman. Did any person come from the legation or the United States consulate to give you information of the situation there?

Mr. Stevens. My impression is that Mr. Severance, the consul, sent a verbal message as soon as possible. And others sent verbal messages. There would be perhaps twenty boats to come off.

The Chairman. Was any message sent to you by the United States consul, Mr. Severance, or anybody else?

Mr. Stevens. I do not know that there was; but I know that I received the information at once. My daughter with my carriage met me at the wharf with the most full information.

The Chairman. Well?

Mr. Stevens. In spite of protests and earnest remonstrances by the Chamber of Commerce and a number of financial men of the country, the Queen immediately signed the iniquitous bills. Both she and the ring of adventurers who surrounded her expected there would thus be established a scheme to rob the people of millions of money.

The Chairman. Those expressions are intense and liberal. Do you mean that they are your personal conclusions, based upon your knowledge of the affairs there?

Mr. Stevens. Knowledge of the bills before the Legislature and common rumor that had been going on all winter. The men in the lottery charter were, one man from St. Louis, another from Chicago, and several in Honolulu.

The Chairman. Did you, as the American minister resident in the Hawaiian Islands, receive any information in regard to the state of affairs which you have stated, and the purpose which actuated the Government, upon which you based the conclusions which you as minister came to as against the Queen's Government.

Mr. Stevens. The information came to me from all sources. I will say here that my many years' experience prior to these three years in revolutionary countries, had taught me that it was absolutely necessary to keep myself informed, and in order to keep myself informed I had to have somebody in the different cliques or parties on whom I could rely to get information. I kept myself constantly posted.

Senator Gray. And were you in communication with such persons?

Mr. Stevens. Yes. There was a contest about this lottery charter. It was controverted in the newspapers for months and months, and all the facts were as notorious as facts would be in Washington about any great national measure here.

The Chairman. In seeking information about these matters, did you confer also with members of the Queen's Government, or persons officially connected with the Queen's Government?

Mr. Stevens. From the time I went to Honolulu to the time I left, the adherents of the Queen, the royalists, had access to the legation more freely than anybody else.

The Chairman. Did you converse with them?

Mr. Stevens. I conversed with them. Of course, I had to exercise a good deal of caution in conversing with anybody, and had to pick out those I conversed with.

The Chairman. You have stated that your conclusions were reached after conferences and consultations with the persons you have mentioned, and also from the debates as printed in the newspapers?

Mr. Stevens. Upon debates. The newspapers published the debates