Mr. McCook to Mr. Seward.

No. 6.]

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch No. 3, inclosing the opinion of the Attorney-General in the matter of the American ships Josephine and Blue Jacket.

I regard it as a cause for congratulation that the Government has arrived at the conclusion indicated by the opinions of the Attorney-General, for the Hawaiian courts have in the past certainly shown a disposition to unnecessarily annoy American shipmasters, and the Hawaiian Government has invariably refused to redress their grievances.

In examining the correspondence of my predecessors I observe that [Page 138] each one has seen proper to communicate to the State Department his views in relation to the Government and people of these islands. Although I suppose you are already thoroughly informed, yet I desire to call your attention to some points upon which I very materially differ from the ideas expressed by my predecessors.

Before my arrival here I was led to believe that this Government displayed a marked hostility towards the Government and citizens of the United States. The State Department has probably been led into the same error. I am perfectly satisfied that no such feeling does exist. Many of the American residents have rendered themselves obnoxious to the King and his cabinet by personal abuse of the ministers and unwarranted interference in the political affairs of the Kingdom. The natural result of this has been dislike, freely expressed, on both sides. As the feeling is apparently of an entirely personal character, I can see no reason why it should affect my relations or the relations of my Government with His Majesty and his ministers. Another class of Americans, the missionaries, have controlled the political affairs of the country since 1820. They are dissatisfied because within the last few years they have lost their hold upon the Government and its offices. The first class of Americans are generally disappointed adventurers, the second class are religionists, who, having once exercised supreme power in church and state, feel all the bitterness of disappointment at seeing their political power pass into other hands, and knowing that the native population is beginning to listen to a religion preached from other pulpits than their own. The American missionaries have undoubtedly labored faithfully; but it is their own fault if, after forty years’ experience as keepers of the conscience to the natives and their princes, they permit themselves to be driven from the field by an adroit English priest, whose church is a mere political machine, and who possesses apparently neither the intelligence nor the virtue of his more experienced and Puritanical brother missionaries.

So far as I can see, the influence of the American Government is all that it has ever been. The influence of American individuals has been lost through their own want of tact and harmony.

There is still another class—the planters of the country. They are nearly all Americans, both in nationality and in sympathy; they are the better class of the residents of the islands, possess its substantial wealth, control its resources, and annually ship 20,00,000 pounds of sugar to the Pacific coast of the United States. Their pecuniary interests, their political sympathies, their business relations, and their personal attachments are all with the United States and its citizens.

The health of the present King is most precarious. When he dies the race of Hawaiian kings dies with him, and I feel confident that he will not name a successor. His Majesty is superstitious and to a great degree under the influence of a native sorceress, who has predicted that he will die as soon as he names a successor. He has faith in her prophecy and acts accordingly. I mention this fact in order that you may more properly appreciate the enlightened influences which sometimes control His Majesty’s important political measures.

The fact as I state it is undoubted, and in the event that no successor to the throne is appointed the Government of the United States may be called upon to arbitrate the future of this country. For this reason I have felt it my duty to remind you of the condition of affairs here and to call your attention to the value of American interests which do now, and always must, center in these islands.

[Page 139]

They are the resting place, supply depot, and reshipping point of all our American whaling fleet.

They are the sources from which the Pacific States receive all the sugars they consume.

The greater part of the agricultural, commercial, and moneyed interests of the islands are in the hands of American citizens.

All vessels bound from our Pacific coast to China pass close to these shores.

Geographically these islands occupy the same important relative position towards the Pacific that the Bermudas do towards the Atlantic coast of the United States, a position which makes them important to the English, convenient to the French, and, in the event of war with either of those powers, absolutely necessary to the United States. Destitute of both army and navy, the Hawaiian Government is without the power to resist aggression, to compel belligerents to respect the neutrality of her ports. Equally destitute of financial resources, they are without the means of indemnifying those who may suffer through their weakness.

The spirit of this whole people is heartily republican and thoroughly American. The King, his half dozen half-civilized nobles, as many cabinet ministers, and the Lord Bishop of Honolulu (Staley) constitute the entire aristocratic element of the country, either in fact or in feeling. And when this dynasty ends, as end it will probably within the next year, I am sure that if the American Government indicates the slightest desire to test in these islands the last Napoleonic conception in the way of territorial extension you will find the people here with great unanimity “demanding by votes, freely expressed, annexation to” the United States.

I have the honor, etc.,

Edward McCook,
United States Minister Resident.
[Private.—For the Secretary alone.]

Hon. W. H. Seward,
Washington, D. C.:

Sir: I sail to-morrow for Honolulu and desire before leaving to ask you to order me to report in Washington about the time the Hawaiian treaty comes before the Senate for ratification or grant me a leave of absence for that purpose. I will then have in my possession every fact which might influence the favorable consideration of Congress; and it it is unnecessary for me to say how deep an interest I feel in the successful conclusion of the matter with which you intrusted me.

Should the treaty be ratified, I will feel that I have possibly accomplished all I can accomplish in my present position, and will probably wish to return to my home in Colorado, unless you should favor the absolute acquisition of the Hawaiian Islands, in which event I would like to conduct the negotiations. I think their sovereignty could be purchased from the present King, and feel sure that the people of the United States would receive such a purchase with universal acclamation. Will you permit me to suggest that you sound Mr. Harris on the subject?

[Page 140]

I hope you will send me the leave of absence or orders I have asked for; I know it seems like taxing your indulgence too far to ask this favor so soon after, receiving a similar one at your hands; but I certainly have no wish to make the long winter voyage from Honolulu to New York as a pleasure trip, and my only reason for wishing to visit the United States this winter is that I believe it will materially advance the interests of the public service, and I feel sure you will be perfectly satisfied with the result should you permit me to come.

I have, etc.,

Edward M. McCook.