Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen (29 page)

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the early part of May it became necessary for my companion, Mrs. Kia Nahaolelua, to return to Honolulu. Three months was the length of time I had expected to be absent when I asked her to accompany me; but five months had passed away, and her husband and large family of children needed her. So I sent her to San Francisco under the charge of Captain Palmer, where he was to meet Mrs. Joseph Heleluhe, and conduct her to Washington.

During their absence I invited my cousin, Mrs. William Lee, whom, after leaving Boston, I had met in New York on the occasion of the dedication of the Grant mausoleum, to visit me at the Cairo. In her honor I issued cards for a special reception given in the elegant ballroom of that hotel. Manager Sherman spared neither pains nor money to make the occasion worthy of the guest; choice flowers and music, some of it from Hawaiian sources, made the celebration a charming one. Mrs. Lee is a very handsome woman, of commanding presence, brilliant in conversation, cultivated in mind, and of a high order of intellect. During her short stay, for the days sped quickly by, she attracted much attention by her social qualities, and won the hearts of many of those with whom she came in contact.

The synopsis of my social pleasures for the six months or so I was in Washington is necessarily incomplete, and to render it perfect would be to extend these leaves into too much of a volume. With such numberless callers as I have daily received from all parts of the United States, the frequent courtesies from the families of congressional members, and the occasionally accepted invitations to the theatre, the opera, or other public entertainments (many of which invitations, while appreciating the kindly spirit, I was obliged to decline), my leisure moments were much occupied. It was singular, and at times amusing, to notice the question in the public journals, asking, "What is the queen doing in Washington?" and in reply, to read the ingenuity shown in inventing all sorts of political falsehoods, and publishing these as facts.

Besides what has been stated, my time was much engrossed with correspondence and literary labors, in which latter might be included my music. For I have been engaged on two other works besides "Hawaii's Story." During my imprisonment I had nearly translated an ancient poem which has been handed down exclusively in our family from the earliest days. This I completed during my visit to the national capital; and it is now issued from the press of Lee & Shepard, Boston. It is the chant which was sung to Captain Cook in one of the ancient temples of Hawaii, and chronicles the creation of the world and of living creatures, from the shell-fish to the human race, according to Hawaiian traditions. It is not designed for general circulation, but for my friends, and will be placed in the libraries of some scientific societies.

For years my name has been at the head of a list of members of the Polynesian Society, as patron. This organization, with headquarters in New Zealand, is devoted to the study of languages, literature, folk-lore, history, in short, all things connected with the inhabitants of that vast extent of archipelago in the Pacific Ocean known as Oceanica. When I accepted the position as patron, Mr. Alexander assured me that it was tendered to me, not only because of the fact that the Hawaiians were the most highly civilized of any of the ancient people of those seas, but further, because I had been known so long as the friend of education, of art, and of all those refining influences which exalt the nation, and elevate the character of the individual. Therefore it seemed fitting for me to send to this society some,account of our earliest days.

I have had more calls for my music than I could possibly supply. An edition of "Aloha Oe," published by me in Washington this winter, simply for gifts to my friends, is nearly exhausted. No copies have ever been offered for sale; but in response to the very general wish, I have collected a number of my songs, chants, and pieces written or translated by me during the past twenty years or more, and hope soon to put them into the hands of the publisher, so that any stranger desiring to possess samples of Hawaiian music may have that opportunity. Two specially prepared volumes of such compositions were appropriately bound and inscribed in Washington the past winter. One of these was placed in the new Congressional Library; the other was sent abroad as my contribution to the souvenirs of this Jubilee year of Her Majesty, the great and good Queen Victoria.

From this brief sketch of my life at the capital, it would appear that my mind was fully employed, had there been no political questions to interest me. Yet was it natural that I should forget my own people and their misfortunes? Let me, therefore, return to the annexationists and their plots. While I had been no more than an interested observer, quietly awaiting the course of justice, and conscious of the strength derived from truth and right on my side, their commissioners, with such influences as their indomitable assurance could command, had been working very hard to get the present rule in Hawaii out of its political and financial difficulties, by passing over to the United States a country whose hospitality they have betrayed, a, land which they do not and never can own.

My friends in Honolulu had never forgotten me, and the arrival of every mail kept me informed of all that transpired throughout Hawaii. With the advantages which were mine of learning the attitude of men and parties in Washington, there was little that took place with which I was not thoroughly acquainted before it reached the columns of the newspapers. Thus, understanding perfectly the kind of men sent one after another by the so-called Republic of Hawaii to Washington, I was easily able to separate truth from falsehood in the accounts inspired by the missionary party, published by them or their agents in Honolulu, written from thence to the press in America, or invented by enterprising scribblers for the purpose of deceiving the American public.

Having tried in vain to excite the American people against Great Britain, and having wilfully violated treaty obligations with the friendly power of Japan, they then got the Senate into a hopeless quarrel over the reciprocity treaty and the sugar schedule; so that to allay all these disturbances, and yet do nothing decisive, on June 16, 1897, President McKinley sent their annexation treaty to the Senate. Congress had been in session ever since December, and had shown no interest whatever in the troubles of a few adventurers two thousand miles from California, claiming to be both Americans and Hawaiians.

Nothing was done by me in the matter until the treaty was officially made public in the Senate. These commissioners had often said that there would soon be a treaty signed, and had so often deceived the people that it was well to await knowledge from the proper authority. But just as quickly as I learned that action had been taken upon the proposed cession of Hawaii to the United States, I sent my secretaries, Mr. Joseph Heleluhe and Captain Julius A. Palmer, to the Department of State with the following protest.

"I,
L
ILIUOKALANI
of Hawaii, by the will of God named heir apparent on the tenth day of April,
A.D.
1877, and by the grace of God Queen of the Hawaiian Islands on the seventeenth day of January,
A.D.
1893, do hereby protest against the ratification of a certain treaty, which, so I am informed, has been signed at Washington by Messrs. Hatch, Thurston, and Kinney, purporting to cede those Islands to the territory and dominion of the United States. I declare such a treaty to be an act of wrong toward the native and part-native people of Hawaii, an invasion of the rights of the ruling chiefs, in violation of international rights both toward my people and toward friendly nations with whom they have made treaties, the perpetuation of the fraud whereby the constitutional government was overthrown, and, finally, an act of gross injustice to me.

"Because the official protests made by me on the seventeenth day of January, 1893, to the so-called Provisional Government was signed by me, and received by said government with the assurance that the case was referred to the United States of America for arbitration.

YIELDED TO AVOID BLOODSHED.

"Because that protest and my communications to the United States Government immediately thereafter expressly declare that I yielded my authority to the forces of the United States in order to avoid bloodshed, and because I recognized the futility of a conflict with so formidable a power.

"Because the President of the United States, the Secretary of State, and an envoy commissioned by them reported in official documents that my government was unlawfully coerced by the forces, diplomatic and naval, of the United States; that I was at the date of their investigations the constitutional ruler of my people.

"Because such decision of the recognized magistrates of the United States was officially communicated to me and to Sanford B. Dole, and said Dole's resignation requested by Albert S. Willis, the recognized agent and minister of the Government of the United States.

"Because neither the above-named commission nor the government which sends it has ever received any such authority from the registered voters of Hawaii, but derives its assumed powers from the so-called committee of public safety, organized on or about the seventeenth day of January, 1893, said committee being composed largely of persons claiming American citizenship, and not one single Hawaiian was a member thereof, or in any way participated in the demonstration leading to its existence.

"Because my people, about forty thousand in number, have in no way been consulted by those, three thousand in number, who claim the right to destroy the independence of Hawaii. My people constitute four-fifths of the legally qualified voters of Hawaii, and excluding those imported for the demands of labor, about the same proportion of the inhabitants.

CIVIC AND HEREDITARY RIGHTS.

"Because said treaty ignores, not only the civic rights of my people, but, further, the hereditary property of their chiefs. Of the 4,000,000 acres composing the territory said treaty offers to annex, 1,000,000 or 915,000 acres has in no way been heretofore recognized as other than the private property of the constitutional monarch, subject to a control in no way differing from other items of a private estate.

"Because it is proposed by said treaty to confiscate said property, technically called the crown lands, those legally entitled thereto, either now or in succession, receiving no consideration whatever for estates, their title to which has been always undisputed, and which is legitimately in my name at this date.

"Because said treaty ignores, not only all professions of perpetual amity and good faith made by the United States in former treaties with the sovereigns representing the Hawaiian people, but all treaties made by those sovereigns with other and friendly powers, and it is thereby in violation of international law.

"Because, by treating with the parties claiming at this time the right to cede said territory of Hawaii, the Government of the United States receives such territory from the hands of those whom its own magistrates (legally elected by the people of the United States, and in office in 1893) pronounced fraudulently in power and unconstitutionally ruling Hawaii.

APPEALS TO PRESIDENT AND SENATE.

"Therefore I, Liliuokalani of Hawaii, do hereby call upon the President of that nation, to whom alone I yielded my property and my authority, to withdraw said treaty (ceding said Islands) from further consideration. I ask the honorable Senate of the United States to decline to ratify said treaty, and I implore the people of this great and good nation, from whom my ancestors learned the Christian religion, to sustain their representatives in such acts of justice and equity as may be in accord with the principles of their fathers, and to the Almighty Ruler of the universe, to him who judgeth righteously, I commit my cause.

"Done at Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America, this seventeenth day of June, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-seven.

"L
ILIUOKALANI.

In the matter of providing me with seats in the diplomatic gallery at the ceremonies of the inauguration, I have already expressed my gratitude to Secretary John Sherman. It is but just that I should repeat here my appreciation of the kind, gallant, and courteous treat-ment again received at his official hands. For although it was my directions that this document should be delivered to any person authorized to receive it, yet as soon as Secretary Sherman saw the cards of my commissioners, he at once accorded them a private audience.

My protest, and a like remonstrance made on behalf of the patriotic leagues of the Hawaiian people by Hon. Joseph Heleluhe as their authorized commissioner, were both placed in the secretary's hands by that gentleman; and Mr. Sherman read them both through. He then turned to Captain Palmer, and had an agreeable conversation on the points at issue, after which my commissioners retired. The accustomed tissue of falsehoods was woven about this interview; some stating that Secretary Sherman had refused to see my messengers, others again giving the names of some one or other of his subordinates with whom my commissioners had had an interview, and finally asserting that the protests went into the archives of the department without examination, and were pigeon-holed; all of which statements, it is needless to say, were untrue. Secretary Sherman by his action showed that, a skilled diplomatist, he had not forgotten to remain a gallant gentleman.

I refer to Appendix D for text of the treaty.