906-907
| Previous Page | Next Page |
|
the Austro-Hungary the Portuguese, the Japanese. The Chinese are only represented by a commercial agent. I think he recognized the Provisional Government in some form.
The Chairman. You do not know?
Mr. Stevens. I think he did.
The Chairman. Did you have any official information as minister of the United States from these respective Governments that their representatives there had recognized this Provisional Government?
Mr. Stevens. It was published in the papers the next morning. I heard of it the night before.
The Chairman. I am not speaking of that; I am asking whether you had any official information from the officers of these respective Governments?
Mr. Stevens. They did not call upon me to notify me; but they authorized the publication of their recognition in the paper of the next morning.
The Chairman. Is there an official paper?
Mr. Stevens. There is a paper the royal Government had used, "The Bulletin," which is the English organ, and the Provisional Government used "The Daily Advertiser," and they published that in the Advertiser. And I think the Bulletin got it too.
The Chairman. Was it understood by you that the publications in this gazette were official ?
Mr. Stevens. I understood that they were duly signed by the officials, and I learned that evening they were recognized by all in thirty minutes except by the English minister; he did not do it until the next morning. But he got ahead of me in calling on the Provisional Government. I was too ill, and did not call for several days; and he called within forty minutes after they were constituted.
The Chairman. Did these foreign governments officially communicate their recognition to the Provisional Government?
Mr. Stevens. Yes; and it was published in the papers the next morning. That was the way I got at it.
The Chairman. You say that the English minister---
Mr. Stevens. Mr. Wodehouse.
The Chairman. Was he the minister?
Mr. Stevens. Yes.
The Chairman. You say he withheld his written recognition until the next morning?
Mr. Stevens. Until the Claudine sailed for Washington.
The Chairman. What time did you make official recognition of this Government.
Mr. Stevens. I could not say positively, because the legation was thronged all the afternoon, and I was sick on the couch; but probably not far from 5 o'clock. My wife and daughter think it was a little later.
The Chairman. What day?
Mr. Stevens. The day they were constituted—perhaps three hours after they were sworn in and took possession of the buildings and were conducting the Government.
The Chairman. You were at the legation?
Mr. Stevens. At the legation.
The Chairman. And lying sick on a couch?
Mr. Stevens. Yes.
The Chairman. How did you get information that this Provisional Government had been established?
Mr. Stevens. There were messengers coming from both sides.
|
The Chairman. I am speaking of official information from the Provisional Government.
Mr. Stevens. I can not say now, because I received it in so many ways. I can say that the ministers of the Queen had access to me all that afternoon, and others, and it was borne to me in various ways.
The Chairman. What did you regard as the official information of the Government on which you, as the American minister, were authorized to act in recognition of that Provisional Government?
Mr. Stevens. I could not say; but there is probably a note on file in the legation in Honolulu; I presume there is—stating that they were constituted. But I learned it in very many ways outside of that. There was a complete want of government, an interregnum, from Saturday afternoon, and my purpose was to recognize the first real government that was constituted; and if Mr. Wilson had gone forward and shown any force and organized a government I should have recognized that.
The Chairman. You received a note informing you of the organization of the Provisional Government?
Mr. Stevens. Probably I did; I can not swear to that.
The Chairman. You wrote a note?
Mr. Stevens. Oh, yes; I wrote a note.
The Chairman. When did you write that note?
Mr. Stevens. In the afternoon.
The Chairman. What time in the afternoon?
Mr. Stevens. I could not say. I got up off the couch---
The Chairman. About what time?
Mr. Stevens. I could not swear to that. I prepared a note before; had it in readiness, because it was open as any railroad meeting would be in your city or mine; and I probably got the note ready without signature beforehand.
Senator Gray. A note to whom?
The Chairman. To the Provisional Government.
Mr. Stevens. I looked up the matter of form in the legation, and got it ready.
The Chairman. To whom did you send that note?
Mr. Stevens. My impression is I sent it by Mr. Pringle. I might have sent it by Mr. Carter. I had not been asleep for four nights; I could not sleep on the Boston, all this excitement going on, and about 1 o'clock I was violently attacked. I took my couch. A medical man would have said, "Don't speak to a man this afternoon;" but under the excitement they keep coming; I had no clerk, and my daughter— consequently, in this state of my health I could not stop to look at the clock when every man who came—the Queen's messenger this minute and another messenger another minute. I went over it, and I think, as I recall the incident, it was about 5 o'clock. Mrs. Stevens and my daughter afterward said they thought it was half past 5, because they knew when the messenger went.
The Chairman. During that afternoon, while you were still on the couch sick, as you say, some members of the recent cabinet of Liliuokalani came in to see you?
Mr. Stevens. Yes.
The Chairman. I wish to know who they were?
Mr. Stevens. They were Mr. Peterson, Mr. Parker—the whole four. But I was too ill, so that I received them one at a time, and only two at all.
| Previous Page | Next Page |