Ex-Queen Liliuokalani negotiates with President Dole for an annuity of $25,000 in return for her abdication

Mr. Charles L. MacArthur, a former New York state senator and current editor of the local newspaper in Troy N.Y., reports that while visiting Honolulu he personally served as go-between for negotiations between Liliuokalani and President Dole. Paul Neuman, holding power of attorney for Liliuokalani, was offering the ex-queen's formal abdication in return for a $25,000 per year annuity for her. Here are excerpts from pages 1063-1065:

The CHAIRMAN: Were you personally acquainted with the Queen? Mr. MACARTHUR: I met her in California. She was at the same house that I was. I knew her husband in California, and I should not have been able to see her but for a previous acquaintance. She was not receiving anybody. The CHAIRMAN: What year was it that you first met the Queen? Mr. MACARTHUR. I think it must have been in 1887. I was in California three or four times. I am not quite sure of the year; I think it was in 1887. The Queen's husband was over there trying to float some Government bonds. ... Before her accession. She was Mrs. Dominis then ... I spoke to them frequently at the hotel in California. ...The CHAIRMAN: When you returned to Hawaii after this revolution had been inaugurated, did you see her again? Mr. MACARTHUR: Yes. The CHAIRMAN: Did you have any conversation with her? Mr. MACARTHUR: Yes. The CHAIRMAN: On political topics? Mr. MACARTHUR: Not very much; I did to a small extent.

The CHAIRMAN: I would like to know what you know in respect to Paul Neuman's authority to represent Liliuokalani, and of any overtures that were made by him, with her consent, or, as he asserted, with her consent, to surrender her crown to the Provisional Government, her royal authority, for a moneyed consideration. Give us your knowledge about that, and you can go on and state the whole affair in your own way.

Mr. MACARTHUR: I went to Mr. Dole. I had trouble in my own mind as to whether the Queen had not some personal rights in the crown lands, for the reason that the treasury department had never asked her to make a return on the income, which was about $75,000 a year, from these lands and which she had received, and as the treasury had never asked her for a return I thought she had an individual right in the lands. I said to the people, "She has individual rights, and you have not asked her to make a return to the treasury of what she has received and what she did not receive." The President explained it all to me, the grounds of it. When Mr. Neuman indicated that they were willing---- I had made the suggestion and others had---- that they ought to buy her out, pay her a definite sum, $25,000 or some other sum per year for her rights. Her rights had been shattered, but I thought they ought to pay for them, and so I went, in accordance with Mr. Neuman's suggestion, or by his consent, to see President Dole. Mr. Neuman said he wanted to talk with President Dole about this matter, but he had not been there officially, and he could not go there publicly to his official place. I talked with Mr. Dole, and Mr. Dole said he could not officially do anything without consulting his executive committee, but he said he would be very happy to meet Mr. Neuman and see what they wanted---- see if they could come to any terms about this thing by which the Queen would abdicate and surrender her rights. Then he said, "Where will Mr. Neuman like to meet me?" After we talked it over we thought Mr. Neuman would not be willing to come there publicly, and so it was suggested that Mr. Neuman could call on Mr. Dole at his house on a given evening and bring his daughter along. ... And in accordance with that, Mr. Neuman and his daughter called, nominally for the daughter to see Mrs. Dole, so that it could not get out, if they made a call, they could say it was merely a social call, not an official call. Of course, I do not know what their conversation was; but Mr. Neuman, acting on that, called on the Queen. Mr. Dole and Mr. Neuman both impressed on me the importance of not having this thing get out, or the whole thing would go up in smoke. Mr. Neuman said he could bring this thing about if he could keep it from the Queen's retainers---- her people. He said, "That is the difficulty about this thing." This matter went on for three or four days. Mr. Neuman saw the Queen and she agreed not to say anything about it, so Mr. Neuman tells me, and I got it from other sources there which I think are reliable. They came to some sort of understanding; I do not know what it was. They went so far as to say this woman would not live over three or four years; that she had some heart trouble; and if they gave her $25,000 a year it would not be for a long time. ... Mr. Neuman said she assented to it, if she could satisfy one or two of her people. The CHAIRMAN: From whom did you get the understanding that the Queen assented to it? Mr. MACARTHUR: I got it from Mr. Neuman, who was her attorney, and others. The CHAIRMAN: Was any provision included in that proposed arrangement in favor of the Princess Kaiulani? Mr. MAC ARTHUR: No; in fact, they were a little bit antagonistic. The CHAIRMAN: Was Mr. Neuman acting as the agent of Kaiulani? Mr. MACARTHUR: No; As I understand, he never was the agent of Kaiulani, but of Lilioukalani.