672-673
| Previous Page | Next Page |
|
estimated at 2 per cent per annum. In order to save them, President Dole and his colleagues have elaborated a plan for giving the Kanakas homesteads out of the Crown lands, not transferable, on condition of occupation.
CONSPIRACY OF 1892, THE "LIBERALS."
To return to Col. Blount's report, p. 14, his statement of the three parties in the late Legislature is very wide of the mark. Col. V. V. Ashford's statement might have helped him to understand it, if he had been willing to use it. I have written a brief sketch of Hawaiian politics from 1887 to 1893, but have lent or given away all my copies of it. Col. Ashford's account, which is in the main correct (although colored by personal animosity and disappointed ambition), describes the conspiracies of 1888 and 1889, in which Liliuokalani was an accomplice. Her own testimony shows how reluctantly she took the oath to the constitution, and how little conception she had of constitutional government.
The revolutionary movement of 1892 (in regard to which Mr. Stevens wrote his letter of March 8, 1892, p. 178, Sen. Doc. 77) was not countenanced by the better class of people, who considered it uncalled for, and had no faith in the unprincipled adventurers at the head of it, most of whom are now royalists. Their dream was a Kanaka democracy, in which they would hold the offices. The Queen's faction, who had a coup d'etat under consideration, tried to form an alliance with them, which was rejected. C. B. Wilson then arrested a large number of them and broke up the conspiracy.
The Queen had made it a condition in appointing her ministry in 1891, that her favorite, Wilson, the Tahitian half white, should be marshal of the Kingdom.
LEGISLATURE OF 1892.
He (Wilson) associated on intimate terms with Capt. Whaley, part owner of the schooner Halcyon and King of the opium smugglers, and with other like characters, and collected around the police headquarters a gang of disreputable individuals, while opium joints and gambling-houses flourished with his connivance, as was believed. At the same time it was well understood that his influence in the administration was greater than that of any cabinet minister.
The so-called liberals in the Legislature of 1892 joined hands with the reformers (who lacked a few votes of a majority), in order to break the power of the palace party and opium ring, and to remove their enemy, Wilson. Three cabinets were voted out as representing this latter element, and as being in complicity with the lottery.
The British commissioner took an active interest in the struggle and encouraged the Queen to resist.
After a four months' contest she yielded temporarily, and appointed a cabinet of conservative reformers, highly respected and trusted by the community.
This cabinet declared itself against the lottery bill and a fiat paper money bill, which was killed, but did not choose to act on Wilson's case till after the adjournment of the legislature. This weakness on their part and the fact that the liberals were not represented in this cabinet so exasperated the latter that they united with their enemies, the palace party, and voted for measures which they had denounced."
|
The Chairman. You have prepard a statement in respect of the different constitutions of Hawaii, which statement you have in manuscript?
Mr. Alexander. I have.
The Chairman. And it is correct?
Mr. Alexander. Yes.
Senator Frye. I see Mr. Blount says: "A part of the Queen's forces, numbering 224, were located at the station house, about one-third of a mile from the Government building. The Queen, with a body of 50 troops, was located at the palace, north of the Government building about 400 yards. A little northeast of the palace and 200 yards from it, at the barracks, was another body of 272 troops. These forces had 14 pieces of artillery, 386 rifles, and 16 revolvers."
Are those facts?
Mr. Alexander. I could not state from personal knowledge. I think the other gentlemen who will be here can state.
Senator Frye. You stated that, so far as you had any information, there were 80 soldiers, known as the Queen's Guard, and 60 policemen.
Mr. Alexander. A gentleman will come before you as a witness by and by who was at the station house. My opinion about it would have no weight.
Senator Gray. On page 5 there is a paragraph in Mr. Blount's report which is marked "Not so."
Mr. Alexander. Those are not my marks.
Senator Gray. As your statement was read, my attention having been directed to the marks, I noticed this paragraph, it being the first one. The paragraph is this:
"From it" [that is the reciprocity treaty] "there came to the islands an intoxicating increase of wealth, a new labor system, an Asiatic population, an alienation between the native and white races, an impoverishment of the former, an enrichment of the latter, and the many so-called revolutions, which are the foundation for the opinion that stable government can not be maintained."
That is the paragraph to which you took exception?
Mr. Alexander. It is erroneous in several points.
Senator Gray. Did there come to the islands after the reciprocity treaty "an intoxicating increase of wealth?"
Mr. Alexander. That is one point that is true.
Senator Gray. And was not that the source of a great many evils that followed?
Mr. Alexander. I think it was source of some evils.
Senator Gray. The source of a great many evils?
Mr. Alexander. It led to extravagance on the part of the white people and turned the heads of the natives.
Senator Gray. That increase of wealth which came after the reciprocity treaty was not very evenly or equally distributed over the islands among the population?
Mr. Alexander. Not equally; but it raised wages and increased the rent rolls. The natives as well as the white men profited by it.
Senator Gray. Then you think that paragraph is true?
Mr. Alexander. Yes; I did not except particularly to that. In my history I refer to that.
Senator Gray. Then, with regard to the "new labor system and Asiatic population?"
Mr. Alexander. In regard to the labor system, it dates back to the sixties.
S. Doc. 231, pt 6----43
| Previous Page | Next Page |