The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1903-04-27
WILL NOT
REPAY CUMMINS
SENATE DECIDES NOT TO TAKE
ANY ACTION LOOKING TO THE
RETURN OF POLITICAL FINE.

J. A. Cummins is not to receive his
$4,000 political fine. This morning the
Senate committee on Ways and Means
to which had been referred the matter
of the resolution asking that the fine be
returned to Mr. Cummins reported,
through its chairman Senator Baldwin,
as follows:
Your committee on Ways and Means
to whom was referred a resolution to
appropriate money to reimburse j. A..
Cummins for a fine of $4,000 for alleged
crime of misprison of treason begs
leave to report that we have had the
same under careful consideration.
The resolution is as follows:' Where
as. the Honorable John Adams Cum
Minis a noble under the late Hawaiian
monarchy and a descendent of one of
the highest chief families of Hawaii
an alii who had sustained intimate
and cordial relations with the kings of
Hawaii, viz: Kamehameha III, Kane
hameha " Kamehameha V, Lunalilo,
Kalakaua and her late Majesty Liliuo-
kalani, and who was once an elective
member of the legislatures by which
two sOvereigns were successfully elect
ed to the throne of Hawaii who for
many years was a member of the
Privy Council of State, and who heH
the high office of Minister of Foreign
Affairs by appointment of his late
Majesty Kalakaua, and
Whereas the said Honorable and
aged John Adams Cummins was ar
rested without warrant on the 10th
day of January, A D. 1905 was confin-
ed in Oahu prison and treated with
great indignity, was arraigned before
military commissioners or court mar
tial which held its sessions at the Pal
ace While the ordinary courts of the
country were pursuing their wOnted
course of procedure in the Judiciary
buildings, and was charged with the
crime of Mis-prison of treason was con-
victed and sentenced to pay a fine of So
600 was confined in oahu prison for a
period of thirty days, did pay such fine
of $1,000 and was thereupon restored to
liberty;
Therefore, be is resolved that the
said sum of $1,000, together with the in
terest threon at the legal rate from
the date of the payment of said fine, is
herey appropriated out of any money
in the Treasury of the Territory not
other wise appropriated, and to be i'm
mediately available for the purpose of
repaying to the said Honorable John
Adams Cummins, the said sum and in
tereSt.'
THE resolution, as moved is some
what severe on the proceedings of the
Republic of Hawaii after the uprising
of 1895 when the country was under
martial law, and to support the resolu-
ton would be, in a way, a condemna-
ton of the acts of the government at
that time.
Your committee understand that the
resolution was introduced on the
ground that J. A. Cummins was the
only one out of a large number SEN
fenced by the court martial who paid
the fine imposed and for that reason, 1t
is but right he should be refunded. We
find on examining the records, that
there were 1870 sentenced of which %
only were sentenced to both fines and
imprisonment while ]. A. Cummins was
the sole person who was sentenced to
only fine and who paid the same.
If it is right and just that ]. A,
Cummins should be reimbursed, then
all who were imprisoned under sentence
by the court martial have Just claims
for damages for having been imprison-
ed
st is not necessary that we should &c