Kamehameha III to the President.
Kamehameha III, native King of the Sandwich Islands, to his excellency John Tyler, the President of the United States of America:
Great and Good Friend: In trouble and difficulty we present for consideration to the President the unfortunate situation in which we and our Government are placed.
Demands upon us unsustained by the acknowledged laws of nations and unfounded in justice were for the first time presented by Lord George Paulet, captain of H. B. M. ship Carysfort, then lying in the harbor of Honolulu, with a threat of coercive measures in case of noncompliance within nineteen hours. Our proposals for discussion and negotiation through our principal adviser were declined with rudeness and we were compelled without a hearing to yield to demands which we believed to be arbitrary and unjust as regards ourselves, oppressive and illegal as regards foreign residents.
We have been compelled to acknowledge an acting consul of Her British Majesty against whom there were positive objections, susceptible of explicit proof, without the grounds of our refusal being heard or considered. The acknowledged consul of Her British Majesty had suddenly and secretly withdrawn from these islands without soliciting an interview or giving us any sort of notice of his intentions previous to his departure. After his departure we received notice that he had delegated his consular functions to Alexander Simpson, who was a known and declared enemy of our Government, who had openly insulted the chief magistrate of this island and other high officers of our appointment, who had publicly threatened to involve us in difficulties, and whose recognition as consular agent was protested against by two British subjects who represented the chief commercial interests of Great Britain in these islands.
[Page 109]Compliance has been compelled with demands violating the obligations of contracts and contravening laws for the collection of debts which have been established for the general benefit in accordance with the statutes of civilized nations, by compelling us to annul the decisions of juries after the cases had been dismissed, and to grant new trials contrary to law, and by compelling us to remove attachments levied by one British resident upon the property of another in due course of law and under the usual formalities.
Precluded from negotiation and unable to repel by force, we yielded to these requisitions under protest of embracing the earliest opportunity of representing them more fully to Her Britannic Majesty.
Compliance having been thus procured to the foregoing demands, others were successively preferred by Her Britannic Majesty’s acting consul (now acknowledged), more unjust, exorbitant, and arbitrary; claims for heavy indemnities where no damage was proven and only-alleged on frivolous pretexts and demands for damages in a case still pending under the previous protest to Her Britannic Majesty. We were called upon to violate every principle of equity by setting aside the decision of juries in several cases without any just cause being pretended why new trials should be granted. These demands were enforced at private interviews between ourselves, his lordship, and Her Britannic Majesty’s acting consul. The subject was only verbally canvassed, written negotiations were positively refused, and even written statements and proof and copies of the claims preferred were denied. The only alternatives offered us were immediate resolve to violate the laws by acts illegal and oppressive, immediate admission and payment of claims to indemnity so loosely supported, or immediate hostilities. Without force to resist hostilities, without resources to meet the payment of the heavy indemnities demanded, and firmly resolved to support law and justice, we adopted the only peaceful alternative left, to throw ourselves upon the generosity of the British nation by a conditional cession of these islands to Her Britannic Majesty. To have awaited hostilities would have been to expose to destruction the-property and jeopardize the lives of a large number of foreign residents who are American citizens; to have complied with the demands urged would have been to sanction oppressive and illegal acts affecting the rights and prospects of American citizens also and an open violation of the stipulations with the United States in 1826.
Placed in difficulties from which we could not extricate ourselves with honor and justice, compelled to immediate decision, and threatened with immediate hostilities, we have, with the advice and consent of our chiefs, signed with a heavy heart and many tears the deed of provisional cession and have permitted the British flag to be planted in all our islands, but under the guns of a frigate and at the point of the bayonet.
Belying on the magnanimity and firmness of the United States, we appeal to the President to interpose the high influence of the United States with the Court of England to grant us an impartial hearing and procure us justice, to induce Her Britannic Majesty to withdraw from the sovereignty of these islands and leave us as we have been, an independent Government supported in our right.
We have labored to civilize and improve our islands, we have adopted the laws of the United States and of Britain, we have appointed upright and capable American citizens and British subjects to offices of trust and responsibility, in order that their functions might be exercised [Page 110] with energy and fidelity, we have adopted all suggestions which would tend to put the commercial intercourse of American citizens with us upon the best footing. We have been gratified with the large and increasing number of American residents. We confidently appeal to the Americans on these islands engaged in mercantile and commercial pursuits to testify to the honesty of our intentions and our capabilities for self-government, and we acknowledge them to have been the most consistent and efficient supporters of our Government.
We look to the United States with peculiar feelings of respect and gratitude. To the benevolence and enterprise of that great people we owe the introduction of the Christian religion, of civilization and laws, of commerce and agriculture, and the large and respectable number of our foreign residents.
We ask of you to secure and preserve the great interests common to us and you, and arrest the course of events so prejudicial to both, and we shall never cease to be grateful for your aid.
And we pray the Almighty God to have your excellency, our great and good friend, in His most holy keeping.
By your good friend,
[l. s.]
Premier.