Mr. W. C. Elves to Mr. Webster.
Paris , September 12, 1850 .
Sir: I omitted in my last dispatch to acknowledge the receipt of dispatch No. 15 from the State Department, addressed to me by the late Secretary of State, and which was not received here until I had left Paris on my recent excursion. I shall in the exercise of the discretion it commits to me profit of the first occasion which may seem suitable and proper to bring the views and considerations it suggests to the aid of an amicable adjustment of the difficulties between the Sandwich Islands and this Government, without intruding officiously or offensively in the controversy between the parties. The minister of foreign affairs left here ten or twelve days ago to accompany the President in his visit to Cherbourg and some of the neighboring departments, and is not expected back for several days yet to come. I have therefore had no opportunity of personal communication with him since my return to Paris.
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I have the honor, etc.,
We, Kamehameha III, by the grace of God of the Hawaiian Islands, King: By and with the advice of our kuhina nui and counsellors of native chiefs, finding our relations with France so oppressive to my Kingdom, so inconsistent with its rights as an independent State, and [Page 89] so obstructive of all our endeavors to administer the government of our islands with equal justice with all nations and equal independence of all foreign control, and despairing of equity and justice from France, hereby proclaim as our royal will and pleasure that all our islands and all our rights as sovereign over them are from the date hereof placed under the protection and safeguard of the United States of America until some arrangements can be made to place our said relations with France upon a footing compatible with my rights as an independent sovereign under the laws of nations and compatible with my treaty engagements with other foreign nations; or, if such arrangements be found impracticable, then is our wish and pleasure that the protection aforesaid under the United States of America be perpetual.
And we further proclaim as aforesaid that from the date of publication hereof the flag of the United States of America shall be hoisted above the national ensign on all our forts and places and vessels navigating with Hawaiian registers.
[l. s.]