Difference between revisions of "402-403"
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Latest revision as of 21:07, 8 December 2005
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U.S. Flagship Mississippi,
Anton Lizardo, May 8, 1847.
Sir: I have received by Mr. Trist your confidential communication of the 15th instant, and in a personal interview with that gentleman have made the requisite arrangements for carrying out the wishes and intentions of the Department.
It is highly necessary that I should no longer delay a visit to the eastern coast as far as Laguna and Campeche. This I can do before any communication of interest can be received from Mr. Trist, and we both agree that it is better for me to make the visit now, that I may be at Vera Cruz about the time he shall have been informed of the result of his mission; but to prevent any inconvenience I shall leave a steamer at Vera Cruz to bring me any communication that Mr. Trist might transmit during my absence.
The Potomac will also be left at Vera Cruz.
With great respect, I am, sir, your most obedient servant,
M.C. Perry,
Commanding Home Squadron.
Hon. John Y. Mason,
Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D.C.
III. Also the following treaty of annexation made in the time of kamehameha iii, which failed of the king's signature by reason of his death, the original being on file in the office of the secretary of state.
[Confidential.]
Treaty of annexation concluded between His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands and the United States of America.
His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands, being convinced that plans have been and still are on foot hostile to his sovereignty and to the peace of his Kingdom, which His Majesty is without power to resist and against which it is his imperative duty to provide in order to prevent the evils of anarchy and to secure the rights and prosperity of his subjects, and having, in conscientious regard thereto as well as to the general interests of his Kingdom, present and future, sought to incorporate his Kingdom into the Union of the United States as the means best calculated to attain these ends and perpetuate the blessings of freedom and equal rights to himself, his chiefs, and his people, and the Government of the United States, being actuated solely by the desire to add to their security and prosperity and to meet the wishes of His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands and of his Government, have determined to accomplish, by treaty, objects so important to their mutual and permanent welfare.
For that purpose His Majesty, Kamehameha III, King of the Hawaiian Islands, has granted full powers and instructions to Robert Chrichton Wyllie, esq., his minister of foreign relations, his secretary at war and of the navy, member of his privy council of state, member of the house of nobles, and chairman of the commissioners of his privy purse, and the President of the United States has invested with like powers David Lawrence Gregg, esq., commissioner ot said States to the said Kingdom; and the said plenipotentiaries, after exchanging their full powers, have agreed to and concluded the following articles:
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Article I.
His Majesty, the King of the Hawaiian Islands, acting in conformity with the power vested in him by the constitution of his Kingdom, and with the wishes of his chiefs and people and of the heads of every department of his Government, cedes to the United States his Kingdom, with all its territories, to be held by them in full sovereignty, subject only to the same constitutional provisions as the other States of the American Union. This cession includes all public lots and squares, Government lands, mines and minerals, salt lakes and springs, fish ponds, public edifices, fortifications, barracks, forts, ports, and harbors, reefs, docks, and magazines, arms, armaments, and accouterments, public archives, and funds, claims, debts, taxes, and dues existing, available, and unpaid at the date of the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty.
Article II.
The Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands shall be incorporated into the American Union as a State enjoying the same degree of sovereignty as other States, and admitted as such, as soon as it can be done in consistency with the principles and requirements of the Federal Constitution, to all the rights, privileges, and immunities of a State as aforesaid, on a perfect equality with the other States of the Union.
Article III.
His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands, his chiefs and subjects of every class, shall continue in the enjoyment of all their existing personal and private rights, civil, political, and religious, to the utmost extent that is possible under the Federal Constitution, and shall possess and forever enjoy all the rights and privileges of citizens of the United States on terms of perfect equality, in all respects, with other American citizens.
Article IV.
The decisions of the Board of Land Commissioners, made and not appealed from at the date of the final ratification of this treaty, shall be and remain forever valid and undisturbed, and all titles to real estate, which are now or shall have then been declared valid under the laws of the Hawaiian Kingdom, shall be held to be equally valid by the United States, and measures shall be adopted by the United States for the speedy and final adjudication of all unsettled claims to land in conformity with the laws and usages under which they may have originated.
Article V.
All engagements of whatsoever kind, affecting the rights of corporations or individuals, validly construed and lawfully incumbent upon the King's Government or the Hawaiian nation to pay and discharge, shall be respected and fulfilled in as prompt, full, and complete a manner as they would have been respected and fulfilled had no change of sovereignty taken place.
Article VI.
The public lands hereby ceded, shall be subject to the laws regulating the public lands in other parts of the United States, liable, however,
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