930-931
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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 would 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 Frye. 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 Frye. 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. Wiltse. My daughter's conversation was with Mr. Thurston, and I 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 Frye. 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 daughter 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 Frye. 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 pamphlet 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
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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 Frye. 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 Hilo, 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 Frye. Do you know Dr. G. Trousseau?
Mr. Stevens. I do.
Senator Frye. 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 Frye. 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 Chairman. 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 Chairman. 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
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