I transmit herewith a letter from the Secretary of State of the 15th
instant, covering a report with accompanying correspondence respecting
relations between the United States and the Hawaiian Islands from
September, 1820, to January, 1803.
The President:
In farther relation to the subject, and as being of interest in
conjunction with the papers submitting the treaty concluded and
signed at Washington on the 14th of February, instant, and sent to
the Senate with a message on the 15th instant, the undersigned,
Secretary of State, has the honor to submit the accompanying report
by Andrew H. Allen, chief of the Bureau of Rolls and Library of this
Department, upon the relations between the United States and the
Hawaiian Islands from 1820 to 1893, supplemented by an appendix and
copies of considerable correspondence involved in the narrative.
This report shows that from an early day the policy of the United
States has been consistently and constantly declared against any
foreign aggression in the Kingdom of Hawaii inimical to the
necessarily paramount rights and interests of the American people
there, and the uniform contemplation of their annexation as a
contingent necessity. But beyond that it is shown that annexation
has been on more than one occasion avowed as a policy and attempted
as a fact. Such a solution was admitted as early as 1850 by so
far-sighted a statesman as Lord Palmerston when he recommended to a
visiting Hawaiian commission the contingency of a protectorate under
the United States or
[Page 6]
of
becoming an integral part of this nation in fulfillment of a destiny
due to close neighborhood and commercial dependence upon the Pacific
States.
Early in 1851 a contingent deed of cession of the kingdom was drawn
and signed by the king and placed sealed in the hands of the
commissioner of the United States, who was to open it and act upon
its provisions at the first hostile shot fired by France in
subversion of Hawaiian independence.
In 1854 Mr. Marcy advocated annexation and a draft of a treaty was
actually agreed upon with the Hawaiian ministry, but its completion
was delayed by the successful exercise of foreign influence upon the
heir to the throne, and finally defeated by the death of the king,
Kamehameha III.
In 1867, Mr. Seward, having become advised of a strong annexation
sentiment in the islands, instructed our minister at Honolulu
favorably to receive any native overtures for annexation. And on the
12th of September, 1867, he wrote to Mr. McCook, “that if the policy
of annexation should conflict with the policy of reciprocity,
annexation is in every case to be preferred.”
President Johnson in his annual message of December 9, 1868, regarded
reciprocity with Hawaii as desirable, “until the people of the
islands shall of themselves, at no distant day, voluntarily apply
for admission into the Union.”
In 1871, on the 5th of April, President Grant in a special message
significantly solicited some expression of the views of the Senate
respecting the advisability of annexation.
In an instruction of March 25, 1873, Mr. Fish considered the
necessity of annexing the islands in accordance with the wise
foresight of those who see a future that must extend the
jurisdiction and the limits of this nation, and that will require a
resting spot in midocean between the Pacific Coast and the vast
domains of Asia, which are now opening to commerce and Christian
civilization.” And he directed our minister “not to discourage the
feeling which may exist in favor of annexation to the United
States,” but to seek and even invite information touching the terms
and conditions upon which that object might be effected.
Since the conclusion of the reciprocity treay of 1875, it has been
the obvious policy of the succeeding administrations to assert and
defend against other powers the exclusive commercial rights of the
United States and to fortify the maintenance of the existing
Hawaiian Government through the direct support of the United States,
so long as that Government shall prove able to protect our paramount
rights and interests.
On December 1, 1881, Mr. Blaine, in an instruction to the American
minister at Honolulu, wrote:
It [this Government] firmly believes that the position of the
Hawaiian Islands, as the key to the dominion of the American
Pacific, demands their benevolent neutrality, to which end
it will earnestly cooperate with the native government. And
if, through any cause, the maintenance of such a position of
benevolent neutrality should be found by Hawaii to be
impracticable, this Government would then unhesitatingly
meet the altered situation by seeking an avowedly American
solution for the grave issues presented.
Respectfully submitted,
John W. Foster.
Department of
State,
February 15,
1893.
