Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1893-11-30
MINISTER STEVENS
Replies to the Report Of Commits
SiOner BlOunt.
HE DEVOTES MOST OF HIS SPACE
To an Effort to Discredit the
People Upon Whose Evidence
Commissioner Blount Bases
the Statements of His Report.

Inc OGdG0n6uGS VI Lib @SSPO -
AUGUSTA, MAINE, November %
Ex-Mnister Stevens answer to Com
missioner Blount:
1t is clear enough from Blounts man
ner on the day Of his arrival at Homo
lulu that he designed at whatever cost
to repudiate the action Of the recently
terminated administration.
The hotel where Mr.. Blount stayed
was kept by one who had served as
Kalakaua's Chamberlain, thoroughly
unprincipled opponent of the provision
al government and OF American pre-
dominance in the islands.
All insinuations and implications In
Blount's report, that l was averSe to
his access to the legations record is a
shameless perversion Of facts. Blount
sQuarely asserts that promised TO aid
the Committee OF Safety by force.
This is emphatically and cateRor-
ically untrue. In reply 20 differ
ent parties at different times,
whether the representatives OF the
Queen or her opponents, my answer was
always the same, that the force should
not land until danger should be plainly
imminent and then only to protect
American life and property, and to no
one did | ever hint that l could or
would recognize any but the defacto
government. whether monarchial or
republican, as | said in my letter TO
Secretary Gresham, l here reaffirm that
royalists and their opponents had equal
access TO the legation aud its official
head.
The best answer to the bascless
charge that l promised to use force
against the queen, is the order OF Cap
tain Wiltse to his officers and men "to
remain passive" and that no force was
used, though the queen, through her
ministers, strongly requested it hours
before the provisional government was
recognized by me and all the other dip
omatiC representatives in Honolulu.
A copy Of the call Of the Committee
OF Safety, which Blount inslnuateS that
| wished TO conceal from him, had been
promptly forwarded to Washington in
January, and was in the printed pamph-
let of the State Department documents,
ordered published by the Senate, copy
Of which / suppose Blount must have
brought with him when he came to the
islands.
So far as the af1idavits of John f. Col
bonrn and A. p. Peterson and Charles
L. Hopkins and the letter of W. H.
Cornwell conflict with any writing or
act of mine, will not multiply words.
The first named is a notorious cOTrlp-
zionist, with some amiable qualities,
who aided in bribing the legislative
members to vote out the Jones-WilCox
ministry and TO pass the lottery bill
As TO Samuel Parker, whose testi-
mony is used to discredit my action,
would gladly say little. Good natured,
free hearted, ignorant, fond OF Iuxur-
ious living, a notorious spendthrift he
has wasted a large fortune left him by
his grandfather and uncle. He was a
ready tool in the hands OF Peterson and
Cornwell in the palace conspiracy which
precipitated the fall Of the monarchy.
Hopkins belonged to the same gang
as Cornwell and Peterson. Cornwell
had been one Of the intimate police as
sociates of Ka!akaua in his bestial,
leCneTOuS lllb dnu
tions. He was one Of the most active
in aiding Peterson and ColbOurn TO
bribe the Legislature in forcing ont the
Jones-Wicox ministry whom all the re-
sponsible men of the Islands wished TO
continue. He had been repeatedly
voted out of the ministry after very
briet stay by large majorities.
The testimony OF hundreds OF such
would not counterbalance the words OF
Minister Thurston, President Dole and
Henry Waterhouse among honest men
who know the respective parties. As
to Wilton, the Queens favorite Tor
many years, whom Blount attempts to
white-wash, | will not soil these pages
by giving even the notorious facts in
his regard.
As to recognition OF the provision
al government, reafirm what / said
in my recent letter TO Secretary
Gresham:
Queen Liliuokalani inaugurated the
revolution by attempting 70 destroy the
constitution by revolutionary means.
From Saturday afternoon January IA
to January 10, there was no govern
ment In Honolulu except in the united
and self possessed attitude Of the citi-
zens who assembled in great mass
meeting on January 16 and consum-
mated the efforts OF the law and order
by the establishment OF the provisional
government on the 18th, which was
promptly acknowledged by ali the for
eign representatives who were familiar
with the circumstances Of its creation.
1t was nearly fifty hours after Lillino-
kalani and her favorites had destroyed
her throne by revolutionary outbreak
when the men OF the Boston landed.
[Signed JOHN l.. STEVENS.
AuyllStd, 3fdine, November %, 1898.
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