Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-11-30

prepared for and stimulated to II by tn,
| accomplished and thoroughly American
statesman who occupied the Department o.
| State most of the period of President Harri
| sons administration. 1t is sufficient 10 say
| that this expressed surmise is utterly with
! out foundation. What / know md state or
| this point accordS with what ex-Secretary
Tracy has evidently asserted in tina, regard
Still more. l may properly add, that the
| lines of official duty as followed by myself
and Capt Wiltse and the course of the
administration and of the Senate commit.
tee on foreign relations. in the critical Ha-
waiian days of January and February last
were exactly on the lines marked out by
Secretary Marcy in 1854. and by Secretary
Bayard in his dispatch to Minister Merrill
July II, 1887.
Marcy's instructions and draft of treaty
provided for annexation. Bayard's instruc-
tons of 1887 held the United States minister
and naval commander at Honolulu respon-
sible for the protection of American life
and property and the preservation OF pub
lie order"
MOunt "n Neophyte in Diplomacy"
So much as a necessary introduction to
my consideration of Blounts report Not
wishing to be severe on a neophyte in
diplomacy. with but little knowledge of the
worlds affairs outside of his own country.
sent on a very peculiar errand amid cur
rents and qucksands entirely unknown to
him, he has been partly the victim of cir
cumstances having been caught in the
meshes and snares adroitly prepared for
him by the cunning advisers of the fallen
Liliuokalani and by the shrewd sharp
long-eXperienced British diplomatic agent
whose aims and hopes Blount has served so
well, and without the least suspicion that
he was aiding ultra-British interests, even
more than he was helping the Hawaiian
monarchistS and the justly dethroned queen
1t is clear enough from Blount's manner on
the day of his arrival at Honolulu, as Well
as by his letter to the Department of State
written shortly after, that he designed at
whatever cost, to repudiate the views and
action of the recently terminated admins
tration, and that in order to do so he must
impugn the action of Minister Stevens and
of the commander Of the United States shin
Boston.
A total stranger, it was impossible for Mr.
Blount to know how uniting it was for
him to take up his quarters where he was
certain to be surrounded by royalsts and
where the supporters of the provisional
government would be reluctant to CO. The
hotel was kept by one who had served as
kalakaua's chamberlain, who was one of
the principal persons in IL syndicate that
had cheated the Hawaiian government out
OF nearly 100000, a transaction which Min
lister Merrill had officially reported to Sec
rotary Bayard, and this man was the lead
ing member of firm that sought to do its
chief business with England, a thoroughly
opponent of the provisional
government and of American predominance
III tne ISLANDS. lie appointed as his active
assistant in management of the hotel a
highly educated Englishman of disreputa
BILE character, who had written in the Ha
waiian British newspaper. under ANONYMOUS
signature articles abusive of the United
States, and grossly classifying our govern
ments treatment of the Indians This man
had had most unsavory record while re-
siding in the United States, and has been a
bitter assailant of American officials in
American newspapers. In the paid service
OF the fallen queen, he has written what
ever she and her immoral favorite, Wilson
have asked him to write.
Residing at that hotel, Mr. Blount was
under the constant espionage of the palace
adventures. As a precautionary Safeguard
against thus shutting out the Americans
from ready access to Commissioner Blount
a wealthy and highly respectable widow
lady of the American colony was ready 10
grant the use of her home to Mr. and Ms
Blount, the commissioner to pay the same
amount 1t would cost him to live at the
royalists hotel This private house was
situated near the United States legation. in
the quarter of the city where annexation
SITS and royaliSts could have unobstructed
access to the commissioner and where no
could conveniently avail himself of the le
ga ton records. This polite offer of an
American residence to an American com
missioner did not originate with the pro
'isional government, nor did the provisional
inT"rnmorf Nnre anTthn- whntavrr In 10