The Portland daily press., 1893-11-30

of the Favorites of Liliuokalanis Disso-
lutte Court-Blount, from First to Last,
Was Surrounded by Royalists, His
Chosen Advisers.
Augusta, Me-, November 29.-Hon.
John L. Stevens eX-minister to Hawaii,
makes the following reply to the report
of Hon. James H. Blount, the special
commissioner sent to Honolulu by Presi-
dent Cleveland. Mr.. Stevens's reply fol-
lows:
A deep sense of obligation to my
counry and an Americans duty to de-
fend an insulted, threatened struggling
American colony, planted as righteously
and firmly on the North Pacific Isles as
selves on Plymouth Rock, demand that
shall make an answer to the astounding
| Misrepresentation and untruths of Com
| missioner Blount's report on Hawaiian
| affairs, a copy of which | first obtained
with difficulty, Saturday evening,
| Nov. 25th. 1t is proper for me to preface
my answer by briefly alluding to the
| fact that those familiar with international
| rules and proceedings and have had
| diplomatic experience, must be aston
ished that Secretary Gresham and his
commissioner should make, before the
world, such a persistent effort to discredit
the recent agents of the department. they
now represent, and which was once rep
resented by Thomas Jefferson, William
! l.. Marcy, William H. Seward and
James G. Blaine The general adoption
OF such a policy, by ou1 department of
foreign affairs could not fail to weaken
| greatly our influence with foreign
| countries in any future effort and serve
| to MAKE the American diplomatic SER
vice contemplate in the eyes of the
world. Not only is the course of Gresh-
| am and Blount extremely un-American
in it's form and spirit but it is also IN
direct opposition to the civilizing and
Christianizing influence on the Hawaiian
Islands, while it is playing into British
hands in direct opp osition to the efforts
of the American Board of Missions and
to the American government for more
than sixty years in all of which period
there has been a uniform, continuous and
patriotic American policy.
1 / may also make u preliminary remark
regarding the repeatedly asserted opinion
of those who have assailed my official ac-
tion that [ was prepared for and stimu-
lated to it by the accomplished and
thoroughly American statesman who Oc-
cupied the Department of State most of
the period of President Harrison's Ad-
ministration. 1t is sufficient to say that
this expressed surmise is utterly without
foundation. What know and state on
this point accords with what ex-Secre-
tary Tracy has recently asserted in that
regard. Still more, / may properly add
that the lines of official duty as followed
by myself and Captain Wiltse and the
course of the Administration of and. the
Senate Committee of Foreign Relations
in the critical Hawaiian dayssof January
and February last were exactly on the
lines marked out by Secretary Marcy
in 1854 and by Secretary Bayard in his
despatch to Minister Merrill July 18th,
1887. Marcy's instructions and draft of
Treaty provided for Annexation. Bay
ards instructions of 1887 held the United
States Minister and Naval Commander at
Honolulu responsible for the protection
of American life and property and the
preservation of public order"
So much as a necessary introduction to
my consideration of Blount's report.
Notswishing to be severe on neophyte
in diplomacy with little knowledge of
the worlds affairs outside of his own
country sent on a very peculiar errand
amid currents and quicksands entirely
unknown to him he has been partly the
victim sof circumstances having been
| caught in the meshes and snares adroitly
prepared for him by the cunning advisers
| of the fallen Liliuokalani, and by the
|
| 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
we'll 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 administration, and that in
order to do so he must impugn the ac-
tion of Minister Stevens and of the Com
mander of the United States ship, Bos-
TON. 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
Inv royalists, and where the supporters
az the Provisional Government would be
reluctant to go. The hotel was kept
hv one who had served as Kalakaua's
| chamberlain, who was one of the prin-
cinal persons in syndicate that had
cheated the Hawaiian government out of
nesrlv one hundred Thousand dollars,
transaction which Minister Merrill had
ofiicially reported to Secretary Bayard,
and this man was the leading member Of
L. y L