Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-03-28
.ak., pe.disx AMI s.bject to nesotiaaioss


talsn pendipg anil subject to negctiaiiess
Is Wellington.
(SimedJ JoHx L. SrEvEss. Envoy Ex.
and Minisesr Fien. Of the United States:
A. this document vas pnblished mainly
for the Hassiisn public 70 put an end to an
increasing panic. Il vss deemed hring to
make Il brief . possible. On the day the
flag was raised IL mail steamer vas to leave
ct IL A. II. for Tie United Stairs. he'd
time TO write the department OF state but
brief and Imperfect account OF the causes
and reasons for raising the q y, and the
mutual understanding Of the provisional
government and the United States minister
q to how far United STATES protection
should 90. Most painfully / am compelled
to state Why wrote 90 hastily and bri fly.
Not thirty minutes had expirei after Captain
Wiltse and myself had acceded to the request
to raise the fisg for the reasons specified,
came the terrible intelligence that be-
loved daughter had persisted BY drowning,
and in tLirty minutes more her remains
we're brought to our home. Amid the ex-
element and suffering this terrible blow
brought to my wife and surviving daughter.
With IN agony which only God and those
who have experienced the like can know.
wrote my dispatch to Secretary Foster,
brief and incomplete % far Is giving full
and circumstantial account Of the reasons
and circumstances Of raising the flag. To
the American public it was impossible and
not allowable for me to give explanations.
It has been said that Secretary Foster,
who had received my brief dispatch in cy-
pher, in his dispatch Of Feb. 18th, 1898,
censured me for raising the flag and pro-
tecting the Hawaiian government building.
| regard this statement erroneous. Let the
facts testify. Not having been fully in
formed of the mutual understanding of the
provisional government and myself a. to
how far American protection should go,
and perceiving that my brief proclamation
was liable to be misunderstood. and was
being Misunderstood by portion of the
American public, Secretary Foster. wrote
an elaborate dispatch d. fining how far the
American minister at Honolulu would be
allowed to 60 and what were bis limitations.
Sufficient to say whit he stated that we
could do, his language expresses precisely
what was done, and exactly that which
President Dole and myself intended by the
action taken. Minister Stevens action must
be Judged by what he did do, and not by what
SOME pSEbVuo DAy MS "Otus A"SuS oAv"
him to do. The following is the language
Of Secretary Foster:
$50 far therefore ~ your action amounts
to according, at the request Of the de f.cto
sovereign government of the Hawaiian
islands, the cooperation of the moral and
material forces Of the United States for the
protection of life and property from ap-
pretended disorders. your action was com.
mended."
..You are accordingly authorized. upon
receipt of these instructions, to arrange with
the commanding naval officer for the con-
tinued presence on shore Of such marine
force as NAV be practicable and requisite
for the security Of the lives and property
Interests of citizens of the United States,
and the repression Of lawlessness and public
distur bance threatening them. whenever in
your judgment it shall be necessary SO to
do, or when such cooperative measures
may be sought for good cause, by the gov
eminent of the Hawaiian islands"
This language quoted from Secretary
Fosters dispatch of Feb. 18th, expresses
precisely what the American minister did
do, and neither he nor the provisional gov
eminent thought of anything else. And it
il proper here to say, that in the Is days
following the raising of the flag the
government of Hawaii never was more
free in it's action, neither the United
States minister nor the naval COM
mander in the least degree interfering
with the public or dome site affairs Of the
islands. And their action of February LIST,
instead of infringing on the sovereignty Of
Hawaii, served to strengthen it and give it
freedom of action. Common justice as
we'll as history, will judge the proceedings
of Minister Stevens and Captain Wiltse by
what they did do, and not by what it might
be said they could have done. That Score
tary Foster did not intend to censure Min
lister Stevens for what he really did do Feb
ruary lst aud the days following. is clearly
evinced by the fact that he never ordere d
him to lower the flag. nor withdraw Il e