Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1893-11-25
THE HAWAIIAN COMPLICATION

Yielding to the pressure of public
opinion, Secretary Gresham has given
out Blount's report ofthe existing condi-
tions in Hawaii, and the part which the
representatives of the United States
took in dethroning the queen and es-
tablishing the present provisional gov
ernment. While the report has had a
tendency to check the wholesale criti-
cism TO which the administration has
been subjected for two weeks or more,
it by no means justifies the adoption of
the policy suggested in the report re-
Gently made by Gresham to the presi-
dent. Blount makes the unqualified
assertion that the American troops were
landed on the island before the abdica-
ton Of the queen, and that their pres
ence, together with the knowledge that
they were in sympathy with the revolu-
tionists, awed the royalists, and made
possible the overthrow Of the monarchy
without war or bloodshed. Blount was
sent 10 the island by the present admis-
istration. late in March last, and his
knowledge of the facts was not derived
| from personal observation, but is based
on reports made to him long after the
revolution had been accomplished, and
by individuals who are doubtless in
sympathy with the deposed queen. On
the other hand Blount's representations
are emphatically contradicted by the
public letters Of Stevens, who was L. $.
minister TO Hawaii when the revolution
occurred. The ex-minister states that
our troops were not landed until forty
eight hours after the revolution began,
and that the authorized representa-
tive Of the United States did not recog-
nlze the new government until after the
royalists yielded everything into the
hands of the revolutionists.
That the administration should accept
as reliable the report submitted by its
own special agent, is natural and proper,
but the sympathies of the great masses
of the American people are with those
progressive and liberty loving citizens
Of Hawaii who have succeeded IN de-
throning corrupt and semi barbarious
monarch, and who are now seeking to
establish government which shall be
of, for, and by the people. Blount does
not attempt to prove that the American
troops or representatives actually parti-
cipated in the revolution, and if his re-
port Of what did occur is admitted to be
! United states should do as Secretary
Gresham suggests, i. e., restore the
Hawaiian queen, peaceably, if possible,
, but by force of American arms if neces
sary. II the Hawaiian revolution could
not have been accomplished without
| the assistance Of American sympathy
and influences, the withdrawal Of that
prestige would presage the fall Of the
provisional government, and the restor-
alton Of the monarchy. In the face of
all the facts il would seem that were
of non-interference in Hawaiian civil
affairs, any wrong that might have been
done in the past would naturally right
itself If the new government is not
favored by majority of the citizens of
the island, the monarchy would in the
natural order Of things restore itself, by
the right of might. IL this government
has erred at all, it was in the cause of
liberty and justice. and the sentiment
which would impel the present admin
istration to force back upon an unwi.l-
ing people, hated and rejected queen,
would be nothing short of an abnormal
sense ofrepentance, induced by desire
to reflect discredit on the preceding ad-
ministration.