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Senator Butler. When?
Mr. Alexander. Monday afternoon, at 5—-without asking permission of the ministers, the cabinet.
Senator Butler. The ministers of the Hawaiian Government?
Mr. Alexander. Yes.
The Chairman. Without the permission of the Queen's Government?
Mr. Alexander. Yes. That is the principal point. As to the right or wrong of it, it is not for me to say.
Senator Frye. The Senator asked you if the United States officials did anything.
Mr. Alexander. Simply landed. They did nothing.
Senator Frye. You were asked if they did anything to aid the Provisional Government or the Queen, or anything else.
Mr. Alexander. Their presence on shore, had a moral effect on the natives. They did not know what was going to happen.
Senator Butler. I think I understood you to say that, in your opinion, the landing of those marines was not necessary for the protection of the lives of American citizens?
Mr. Alexander. I would not be positive about that. I think there was reason enough for apprehension to justify their landing. If those things had happened which justified their landing and they had not landed the United States authorities would have been to blame. There is some difference of opinion about it.
The Chairman. Would you undertake to say that it was the opinion among the better class of citizens in Honolulu that there was sufficient occasion to require the intervention of these troops?
Mr. Alexander. I have heard that opinion generally expressed.
The Chairman. Would you say whether or not that was the general opinion there at that time, at the time of the landing of the troops and before?
Mr. Alexander. I am inclined to think so.
Senator Gray. Among that class of the people described by the chairman?
Mr. Alexander. Yes, they felt the insecurity.
Senator Gray. You say the opinion of that element was in favor of the establishment of the Provisional Government?
Mr. Alexander. Yes.
The Chairman. You spoke about the interference of the officers of the Government of the United States on previous occasions. State to to what occasions you refer.
Mr. Alexander. I had in mind the landing to quell the courthouse riot in 1874, and I had in mind the landing of the marines in 1889, in which they did not take part, however, but at which time the Wilcox insurrection was suppressed.
The Chairman. Those were two occasions. Were there any more?
Mr. Alexander. Those were the only ones prior to this.
The Chairman. Were they the only ones where the Government of the United States landed troops for the purpose of protecting the lives of people or for the purpose of protecting the public peace?
Mr. Alexander. I think so.
The Chairman. Was there more or less apparent interference on the part of these troops which were landed on the two occasions you have mentioned than there was on this last occasion?
Mr. Alexander. There was more; because in 1874 they proceeded to arrest the ring leaders of the mob, and they stood guard over the public buildings for a week.
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The Chairman. That was the mob raised to dethrone Kalakaua?
Mr. Alexander. Yes.
The Chairman. And enthrone Queen Emma?
Mr. Alexander. Yes.
The Chairman. Well, the other occasion?
Mr. Alexander. In 1889 they went further than they did at this time, because they loaned 10,000 rounds of ammunition to the Government troops, the white troops that were putting down this insurrection.
The Chairman. Kalakaua's troops?
Mr. Alexander. Nominally, yes; really, the same men who were upholding the Provisional Government. But at that time they were the legal government.
The Chairman. They were upholding it both as against Kalakaua and Liliuokalaui?
Mr. Alexander. That is what is believed—that they connived at Wilcox.
The Chairman. That is, Kalakaua and Liliuokalani?
Mr. Alexander. Yes.
The Chairman. That is, that they were conniving at the movement against the Wilcox cabinet?
Mr. Alexander. It was in Wilcox's report. I know there was a difference between his case and the other; I know the other two had a form of commission from the other Government.
The Chairman. What other men-of-war were in the harbor of Honolulu when these troops landed in January, 1893?
Mr. Alexander. No other men-of-war except the American man-of war.
The Chairman. No British?
Mr. Alexander. No other nation.
The Chairman. So that there was no chance to appeal to any outside power?
Mr. Alexander. No other nation represented.
The Chairman. Do you know anything about the fact of the recognition of the Provisional Government by the ministers of the other powers then located in Honolulu?
Mr. Alexander. I know by hearsay and what I saw in the papers; that is, that Minister Stevens recognised it the afternoon of the 17th, and the others, the German consul and the Portuguese minister, recognised it the next morning, and Mr. Wodehouse verbally recognized it.
Senator Gray. Who is Mr. Wodehouse?
Mr. Alexander. The British consul general. He verbally told them he recognized it, but he did not send in his official recognition until Thursday afternoon.
NOTES ON COL. BLOUNT'S REPORT.
Prof. W. D. Alexander had several informal conversations with Col. J. H. Blount in Honolulu, which were not taken down by his stenographer.
At Col. Blount's request, Prof. Alexander prepared written papers on the history of the uncompleted annexation treaty of 1854, on the general causes which led to the late revolution, on the political history of Kalakaua's reign until 1888, and on the constitutional history of the country since the beginning of this century.
All of these were printed except the last. He also furnished him pamphlets on the land system, the census, etc.