Hawaii Holomua, Volume II, Number 45, 23 February 1894 Edition 02 — Muddled Stevens. [ARTICLE]

Muddled Stevens.

Hawaiian Affaiis h<ve now been submiited by the Pres;dent of the United States to the dec;sion of Congress, and the two Honses do not seem in the least iu?'incd to entertain the qnestioa of seizing the “rich mtritime pnze“ of the Hawaiian Islands r; present. Tue puhlie mind h:us apparent!y sett!eddown to this as the best possible soluiion of the controversv, whieh was hpiJly becoming emb;ttered. About t.s able a pa'>>-r on the Cleve1and side of the discussioo as we have seen. defvnding h’m on all the points for whieh be has been severely criticised. is one by Hon. John E. Bacoa, fonuer!ly secrtt iry of the Ameriean Leg:itiou !.t St. Petersbnrg aml minister to Paragaay and Uru guay under tbe last Clevel:iua administration. It will appear in the Febru>\iy number of tlie Southen Magazine, published at LouisiviiIe. Ky. We ean ouly allow space for the following j extracts. as showing the vigor of ’ the proc.action; Why were the troops landed? Mr. Stevens has evidently mad3 a serious raist ike iu this matter, either through his intense dt-sire and ardent zeal for annexation, , ;or from a “vaulting ambition j that overieaps itself.” Tndeed, he seems about tbat time to have been :aboring under several mistakes, botb of law and facts. For instance, in his reply (news- | paper version) to Mr. Gresham, he states tb it Q ieeu Liliuokalani I inaugurated the revolutiou by i attempting to destroy the consti tutiou by revolutionary raeans.’ That is, by determming to issue a proclamation of her intention to change the constitution; forthere is no pretense of her having done anything else. And, according the authonties above cited she bad the absolute right to do tbat, ar.d therefore it was far from being “revolutionarv.” The first revolut.ouary steps, iudeed, was that of tlie Committee of Safety in oppcsing tbe Queen's right in this regard; and the second and greates: was that of tlie United States min;ster in landing iinueel troops. Agaiu, he says that there was ■ ‘no governmeut in Hono luh from Jan. 14 to Jm. 16, except iu the self-possessed attitude ot citizens.” Why not? AVhere was the Qneeu's Government< She did not yield until the 17th according to his own statement and lie had actually received and answered notes from lier ministei-s and the governor of the islands on those days. And wliat sort of government, pray, is that i of the “self possessed attitude of j citizen>?” None snch had ever ! been heard of before, and most certainly uone such is alhnle.l t<in anv work on interoational !aw. — Bo*ion Tra n <cript.