Mr. Gregg to Mr. Marcy.
Honolulu, December 19, 1854.
Sir: The King of the Hawaiian Islands, Kamehameha III, died on Friday last, the 15th instant, after an illness of about two weeks. He was born on the 17th of March, 1813, being in his forty-second year. By his subjects he was universally beloved, and among them the manifestations of grief are universal and striking. With scarcely an exception the resident foreigners respected him and confided in his justice and generosity. His partiality to Americans has always been strong, and it will be universally conceded that by his decease they have lost a faithful and honorable friend.
As soon as his death was known, minute guns were fired from the fort on shore and by all the vessels of war in the harbor.
On the same day the accession of the Prince Royal Alexander Liholiho to the throne, under the style of Kamehameha IV, was proclaimed and received universal acquiescence. The young monarch will be 21 years of age on the 9th of February next. By the Hawaiian laws the age of majority for males is fixed at twenty, so that he becomes at once ruler de facto of the Kingdom.
But few young men of his years have more ability or intelligence. His general education is good and for sometime past he has been accustomed to take part in the management of public affairs. A few years since, with his older brother, he visited the United States and Europe, and evidently derived much profit from the opportunity thus placed within his reach. His manners and habits are plain and simple, in consistency with the American education he has received.
[Page 132]The cabinet ministers and members of the privy council placed their offices at the disposal of the new sovereign yesterday, but he desired them to remain for the present in the discharge of their several functions.
The King’s confidential and most influential adviser is the Hon. William L. Lee, chief justice of the supreme court, a thorough American and a man of undoubted integrity. On the 2d instant he resigned his office on account of ill health, but his resignation was not then accepted, and the present King absolutely refuses to allow him to quit his position, promising to have such an arrangement made as will relieve him of his most burdensome duties.
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The salute at sunrise on the 16th, referred to in my letter to the minister of the 18th, was participated in by the St. Mary, but not by the English and French ships in port, probably for the reason that they were not prepared to follow the Hawaiian and American salutes. “The royal salute of etiquette” appears to have been arranged for the purpose of giving them an opportunity of making up for the omission of the morning.
I have, etc.,