The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1893-11-22

Honolulu, says of the recent revolution
in aletter to the Springfield Republican,
" L saw it all, and 1 know, what time is
is bound to show, that United States
forces did not aid either party, but were
absolutely neutral from first to last"
Professor Alexander-an instructor of
distinction, a man of honor, truth and
fidelity, a man who has no personal in
terest to serve and no personal feeling
to influence him-contradicts ia every
essential particular the assertions on
which President Cleveland has acted.
Thomas l.. Gulick of Oberlin, Ohio, a
native Hawaiian and a lifelong resi-
dent in Honolulu, writes to the New
York Tribune a history of events pre-
ceeding aud attending the revolution in
January. He characterizes the pro-
posed action of the administration as a
step towards barbarism. Following is
au extract from Mr.. Gulick's letter:
" To the Editor Of the Tribune Secretary
tdl - lClItl ~ I Itdlltth CltNtlduu
apparently is intended to convey the inn
preston that last January's revolution at
the Hawaiian Islands was largely the re-
suit OF a plot on the part of Mr.. Stevens, the
American minister, and that the revolution
owed its success chiefly to unwarrantable
use made of United States armed forces.
We who were born at the Islands and we're
living there at the time of the revolution
know how false this impression is, and are
indignant at the injustice done to the wiSest
| ~ - 1 u - fau .. fhaV kaA1f tA f.aI
lover of justice and the truest friend of
Hawaii that America has ever sent to rep.
resent her in that land.
THAT the revolution was not the result
of a plot on the part of any one except the
queen and her interruptions advisers, and,
above all. that 1t was not through a plot on
the partof the American minister, is plainly
shown by the fact that political matters
were so quiet at the capital that the Amer
lean minister took the opportunity to go in
the American-man-of-war hundreds of miles
away from Honolulu to the Islands of Ha-
wall. The queen took this occasion TO
carry out her startling revolutionary meas
ures. She turned out her good cabinet,
which was trusted by the whole country;
put in tools of her own, men of no charac-
ter; pressed the infamous lottery bill
through the legislature by wholesale
bribery, and made haste to sign it against
the protest of the chamber of commerce., the
churches and all her best citizens; then pro-
IORutu DdTlldLutnJ dDu llnmbuldLeIV all
nounced that she should abolish the con-
stitution, which she had taken solemn
oath to maintain, and that she would re-
place it by one to suit herself. The consti-
tuition which she proposed to establish by
her own fiat would have made her a despot,
with complete control over the legislature,
the judiciary, the taxation and over her
ministers. 1t proposed, by one stroke of
the pen, to disfranchise the owners of
from one-half TO three.fourths of the private
property on the islands, from which came
her own revenues and those OF the govern
ment.
Immediately Honolulu and all the
island of Oahu were in intense excitement
and forming plans to revolt against this
royal revolutionist, who, by the way, had
come to the throne, not because she be-
longed to the royal line of the Kamehame-
has, but because her brother had been
elected to the throne, and she appointed by
him as his successor. The only valid foun-
dation to her throne was the constitution
which she had sworn to defend and obey, and
which she was now trampling under foot.
Her subservient but frightened ministers
saw the storm that she was raising, and
begged her to desist, though they had done
everything to help her scheme up to this
very point. She was very angry and openly
announced from the balcony of the palace
that though she was prevented from pro-
claiming the new constitution that day she
would do so very soon. All this took place
the day she prorogued parliament, and that
same day Minister Stevens providentially
returned to Honolulu. The city was full of
threats OF violence. The partisans of the
queen were determined to help her to carry
out her schemes OF revolutionary despotism.
The citizens and property holders were de-
termined that she should not succeed in her
plot. The property and lives OF Americans
in Honolulu were evidently in danger;
everybody was anticipating bloodshed and
incendiarism. Mr.. Stevens had received
the most explicit instructions from Secre-
tary Foster TO protect American lives,
property and at the islands.
These interests were now manifestly in i'm
minent peril, and the United States minis
ter did his unavoidable duty in bringing
ashore troops for that purpose. That the
troops and the minister remained neutral
in the contest between the revolutionary
queen and those who had determined to de-
pose her is plainly proven by the fact that
more than twelve hours after the troops
came ashore, and after the provisional gov
eminent had set Liliuokalani aside, the en-
%issarles OF the ex-queen came by her author
ity to Minister:Stevens, begging him to use
the United States forces to reinstate her,
What better evidence can we ask that Mr.,
Stevens had done his duty fairly? 1t was
American influence, American character,
American institutions and money that had
sustained the title to the throne Of Hawaii
for forty years, before the existence of any
similar monarchy in the Pacific. The rev.
dictionary d%espotism of Liliuokalani having
destroyed it, Minister Stevens certainly was
not called upon and had no right to restore
it,"