The Coconino weekly sun., 1893-11-23
BRANDED AS A CRIME.
Ex.Minister Stevens Opinion of Greshsm's
 Hawaiian Policy.

Hawaiian Policy.
 In reply to the report of Secretary of
 State Gresham regarding the intentions
 of the president to permit the reinstate-
 ment of Queen Liliuokalaui at Honolulu ex-Minister j. l.. Stevens, of the Harri-
 son administration, in an article in the Kennebec (Me. Journal severely scores
 Secretary Gresl n and strongly con-
 demns the actionof the president In
 the course of his article MT. Stevens
 says:
 According to authentic reports from Wash'
 ington, public crime of startling import is
 about to tc committed under the authority or
 the American goverpment A public crime or
 less proportions, bat in it's moral type similar
 to the siihinS of paIional life anl the reform
 aspirations of Poland and Hungary, q few years
 ago. by the imperial despots, and to the crush
 ing out Of .Ne newly-formod republic of Rome
 by the usurped powers of Louis Napoleon All
 that American piety, American benevocuco.
 American schools and Atsorican patriotism
 hayU accomplished in Hawaii ia the past sey-
 enty ycarl are TOW centralized in Ire provi.
 sonal government and stand ir It's support IL
 is n governnan. honestly and ably admin.
 istered and the best government that Hawaii
 ever had. l know not the influences
 which induced Secretary Gresham to become an active agent In attempting such a great Of.
 fense againt American civilization, justice and law. His intense hostility to ex.President liar
 rison and 10 the illustrious ex-seeretary Of state, who passed to his grave in January last,
 k well known It was that which caused him
 to betray and desert the great political party whose honors he had shared and brought him
 10 his present attitude toward his former asso
 cla tes and their work So far a3 his recent naar n Ion, on my official action l care little except to the degree that the cruel md untruthful words strike at the band of noble men aud women who have for months stood so devotedly and unitcdly in defense of American civilization. The remarks made by me before tho chamber of commerce in San Francisco June and be- lore the citizens of Augusta June l9 repuO. liGhed in the Xennebec Journal of to-day, are answers to most of the shanefully unjust impu tations on my ofllcial action, under circum- stances requiring my deepest anxiety 10 faith. fully serve my country and the cause Of human. ity.
 Secretary Gresham assumes that the friends Of annexation made the revolution provisional and that the private government wBen ac. kuogledgeG by the United States minister ex- is led only on paper. Queen Llliuok llani in augurated the revolution by attempting to de- stroy the leeislation by revolutionary means. From Saturday afternoon, January i4, to Janu. ary 10 there was no government in Honolulu except in the united and self.possessed att. tudc of citizens who assembled in q great mass. meeting on January lG and eonsummated :heir efforts for law aud order by the establishment of the provisional government on the l7lh, which was promptly acknowledged by all the foreign representatives who were fami- far with Liliuokalanl, and her favoriles had destroyed her throne by revolutionary outbreak when the men of the Boston landed In the exciting hours preceding and following her fall her representatives ss well as those who formed the provisional government. had equal access 10 the legation. To all proper inquiries my answer was that the United States marines could not take sides but whatever de facto government might exist would have to be When I did recognize it. late in the afternoon Of the l7th, the provisional Gov- was complete master Of the situation had fuli control Of the city and Of the govern. ment archives, the police station being surren. dered and at the mercy of the provisional gov. ernmenL It was small building in which the and powerless followers Of The fallen queens paramour. Marshall, took refuge and they must have surrendered in few hours by the mere force of hunger
 The provisional government knew It's power to possess the station at once, but wished not 10 take life of it's occupants. It deemed it wiser to await their surrender Had the queens supporters dared to resis: the organi- zation Of the new government then he only possible chance to do so was during Sunday and Monday, the 18th and i6th, while the citl- zens were attending their mass meeting, se- ccting their committee of public safety and preparing to organize a government as openly as public meetings are held fin any American city They did not dare to attempt to arrest pr interfere with the aroused white citizens. It was united and irresistible movement of ~asN. that took away the despotic powers of King in 1887 and crushed the Wilcox re- volt in 1880 They gathered at the armory with their rifles in hand, which were in- creased by other arms openly carried 10 a carriage from a gun store with oniy three men in charge. The only govern ment that existed or could exist under the was the.provisional government denies this has no other basis for his denial than periured afildavits, hundreds Of which arc obtainable in tho slums O. Honolulu ll two dollars each. An effort has been made to damage my recognition of the provisional government by dispute a s to the hour Of the rloJk with which gave recognition. That is 1f essential Importance, for in fact all resist ance to the formation of new government practically ceased more than two days before, the committee of public safety and the pro- visional government dc fdcto existing for
  the monGrchial government having completely several days before All unjust mputations on Capt. Wiltze and myself will vanish into thin air and the crime of attempt .ng to crush out the supporters of the Hawaiian provisional government will stand out in bold relief to American shame"
 In addition to Mir. Stevens rebulke comes vigorous protest from Il, U. Castle, former journalist and resident of Honolulu who took an active part in the revolution. Mr. Castle feels keenly what he declares is the Injustice of Sec retary Gresham to the Hawaiians in his report upon the matter to Mr. Cleveland. In speaking of the matter he said:
 "We were completely thunderstruck when we learned that Secretary Gresham had been holding a brief for Q decayed monarchy Ali the pretended findings Of fact are so partisan, so monstrously unjust, 1t is difficult 10 see how a sane man, let alone judge, could ever have come to any such conclusion. The article con- tains few facts, but only enough to give 1t the appearance of plausiDility. It is not true that the queen was deposed by the American minis ter or the American forces. The American forces were passive spectators ol the conflict from beginning to end l was an eyewitness, and only testify to what every other eyewit- ness knows.
 ''The men who put the queen of the throne knew that it was in bitter earnest: they knew that they took .thelr lives in their hands: that