Polynesian. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu], Hawaii) 1844-1864, 1855-05-12
REIGN OF HIS MAJESTY KAAIEHANlEHA ".
REPORT
Of the Minister Of Foreign Relations 10 III
Legislature of 1855 -.l~s| rod

!,
Legislature Of 1855. ~, .-
We all have reason to be thankful to God
for the great benefits conferred upon the
Hawaiian people, during the late reign, and
for the peaceable succession to the throne OF
a Prince, highly gifted, and so well qualified
to render the new Reign still more glorious
and benefcent.
Our present King has ascended the throne,
amid the plaudhs of his subjects and of for
eign residents-with his rights of sovereign
ty fully recognized by the governments OF
the greatest nations Of the world, and with
all the advantages Of the official pledges of
the moral and physical support, under dan
gers to the kingdom, present or future, by the
Representatives of nations, willing and able
10 shield the Hawaiian Throne from all vio-
lence. These pledges were gratefully accept
ed by the late King, in his Proclamation of
the Sth Dec. last. His Majesty adding, en-
phatically, the declaration that his indepen-
dence was thereby more firmly established
than ever before. | append a copy of that
Proclamation, marked No. l. The terms in
which those official pledges were given, and
the vast naval preponderance of the mighty
nations, in whose name they were made, JUS
tify that declaration of the late King, as well
as the confident reliance 0pon them. of the
present Sovereign, although, in truth and in
Justice to the Honorable Representative OF
the United States, and to the gallant Captain
Bailey of the United States Sloop-ofwar % ST.
Mary'S," the official pledges made, on the
part of the government of the United States,
could not, and were not construed, as bind
ing upon that government, beyond the dan
gers which had been brewing against the
government of the late King and Hawaiian
independence since March 1853, and which
were represented, on the highest and most
credible authority, as about to nsrst upon US,
IN November last, with force irresistible by
our own means of delence-nOr binding be-
yond that Just protection TO the lives and prop
critics of their own citizens in every part of
the world to which the government of the
United States confines the application of their
naval forces.
All my previous Reports TO the Legisla-
lture, and all my diplomatic correspondence,
will bear me witness, when ! say, that it has
neither been my disposition nor my habit TO
reserve from you the public, either prin-
c:pes or details; but, in the opinion of those
whose pleasure and whose Judgment | am
bound to respect, cannot in my present Re-
port, pursue the same course, without preiu-
dice to the Kings service, IN the highest in
lteress of his Crown, whether we look 10 his
own rights, or the rights, the very existence,
aud the welfare of the people whom God has
committed TO his charge. When important
diplomatic negotiations, arising out Of the
events of 1853 and 1854, are brought to 4
conclusion, which, hope, will be one of
which you will all approve and consider just
and honorable, IN the sight of God and man,
| shall, if still on these Islands, and if per-
mitted by the King, inform you of the origin
and progress of the danger from which we
have happily escaped of the means by which,
under Providence and the generous support
tof great nations, we have escaped and of
our success, Il sincerely hope and believe)
in placing the Kings Throne, ona basis OF
absolute security, from all such dangers, at
any time hereafter.
In my first Repor; under the new Reign,
so happily commenced, | am naturally, and,
as think, properly led to advert to that poll
ICY and those measures adopted by the late
King, during the late Reign, by which he
gained the full recognition of his independent
sovereignty by the greatest and most civilized
nations of the universe. In this country, as
in every other, emerging from state OF bar
barism, from which every nation has had TO
emerge al periods more or less remote, the
admission of the King into the family of SOW
ereigns, ard the recognition by them of his
equal rights of sovereignty, has been the
achievement of his late Majesty's treaties
with foreign governments, founded on their
conviction that Hawaiian civilization under
the late King Kamehameha Ill, had so far
advanced, as that his government could con-
duct his foreign relations. with regularity
In illustration of the consistency of his late
Majesty in pursuing that policy, and of the
great difficulties he had to contend with,
respectfully call your attention TO the con-
yentions and treaties with foreign nations,
originating with those governments, or with
naval officers, in their service, and to the
lconventions and treaties, offered by his late
; Majesty, or by his political agents, acting un-
der his command, all arranged in chronology
cal order 3
j FIRST, let me call your attention to the con-
vention between Kaahumanu the first Kutind
.Nui (.4ngEce Royal Vice-Getent) and four
leading chiefs on behalf of the late King (then
a minor and Capt. Thomas AP Catesby
Jones of the United States ship Peacock,
on behalf of the United States of America,
concluded in Oahu on the 23d December,
1926. / annex copy of that convention,
marked No. 2. In framing ihe With article. oi
THAT convention, the brave Captain may have
had the humane intention of preventing 9th
er commanders of foreign ships of war, from
following his example, IN taking the law in