The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-06-09
SOME RARE
OLD PAPERS
Documents of Value
Found Among Terri
tor;aI Archives.

We'll. it has been a task said
Clerk of the Archives Commission
Robert Lvdecker, but 1 have got the
old papers so arranged that 1 begin to
see daylight in my work az last. There
ARE us trunks and chests and boxes
5 full of papers here. and 1 have got
kind of general arrangement OF them
completed so that 1 know, broadly
speaking, the character of the contents
tof the several boxes. But that is about
Iau And it has been a task. You see,
the keys of these chests. or most of
them were lost long ago"
| He waved his hand, as he spoke, over
an array of camphor chests and iron
boxes and old leather covered trunks
that seemed to nearly fill the Capitol
loft And many of the locks had teen
| broken before as you see by the pad
locks on them. And then there are
| three more rooms full of documents in
the basement. The papers, 1 find, have
been jumbIed into the boxes, heller
SHELTER. and if there was ever an ar
lrangement and codification of them.
there is nothing here to show for it
now l found two boxes literally jam
med with state papers, correspondence
and that, and these L have sorted out
first
Then" putting his hand upon a
small fat camphor chest. this chest is
filled to the brim with the correspond
ence of kings and queens and presi-
dents, and copies of the replies sent to
the rulers of all lands from the kings
of Hawaii. There are letters here, with
the signatures, of all the rulers of the
earth for many years-among them
authentic signatures of Dom Paul and
Leo XIII. 1t would be a rich find for
an autograph collector, this chest and
it's contents"
Among the most interesting things
found by Mr.. Lydecker are the original
copies of many treaties entered into
between the Hawaiian kingdom and the
nations of the earth, these dating from
the earliest times, and running down
to the last treaty made by Grover
Cleveland with ex-Queen Liliuokalani.
These treaties are upon parchment, in
velvet cases, and are marked by the
great seals of the nations making
them, enclosed in round silver or gold
boxes. deliberately chased with coats of
arms. And from the seal boxes hang
golden or silver cord and tassels. They
do things sumptuously between ma
tions
But the most valuable parts of the
treaties are the signatures of the
crowned heads and the presidents and
things appended to the documents. 1t
is noticeable, by the way. that the
President of the Swiss Confederation
puts his great seal in carved wooden
box, a very beautiful bit of art work,
leaving the gold and silver to the big
one treaty, of Zachary Taylor, Presi-
dent of the United States. with that
of his Secretary of state, John NJ
Clayton. This treaty is dated 1850.
Queen Victoria signs treaty in 1876.
in the tenth year of her reign. Louis
Napoleon signs one in 1857, and he does
not use the Louis" and does not write
his name very legibly. either Louis
Philippe, the Citizen King of the
/ French entered into a treaty with the
Kingdom of Hawaii in 1916. The names
, of Oscar of Sweden and Christian of
Denmark are there also. and William I
/ of Germany. who was crowned in the
palace of Versailles and in whom Gull
minated the glory of the Hohenzolleris,
made a treaty with Hawaii in 1879
Louis Napoleon was out of it. then.
The name of Grover Cleveland ap-
pears on treaty signed in 1887.
amending a treaty signed by L. s
Grant and his Secretary of State.
Hamilton Fish. in 1875.
! Priceless autographs these. to say
nothing of the documents to which they
are appended. Evidently. the Archives
Commission was not created too soon.
The historical value of these things
cannot be over-estimated, and every
day that they were neglected was a
day of danger to them.