Hawaii Holomua, Volume I, Number 75, 15 December 1893 — LILIUOKALANPS STATEMENT. [ARTICLE]

LILIUOKALANPS STATEMENT.

Mr. Blount would bave done better for tbe Administration if be bad not taken tbe statement of tbe deposed Hawaiian Queen; certainly Mr. Gresbam bas not strengtbened ber case by publisbing the document. The story, even as she tells it, goes far toward justifying tbe revolution wbicb detbroued ber. And then iu wbat sbe says about berself as well as in herreference to Mh Cleveland sbe appears and makes bim appear ridiculons before tbe world. Out of her own mouth tbe exQueen is convicted of being tbe first aggressor—of attempting to overtbrow tbe Haw.iiian Constitution wbicb sbe bad sworn to supyort when sbe succeeded to the throne. And ber account of the atfair puts it in the most absurd ligbt. Sbe re!ates, in tbe most naive manuer, how witb I two members of the Legislature she “started in to make tbe new Constitution; how she completed it and placed it in the hands of one of ber Miuisters, wbo afterward insisted that he bad not read it. Tben sbe tells bow. after taking oounsel with Marsbal Wilson to prevent an uprising, she prorogued the Legislature and summoned her Ministers and others to see her sign this new Constitution in tbe “blue room.’’ And she seems to be astonished and indignant that there sbould have been any objection to tbis metbod of procedure. And, by tbe by, we have a curioos and significant storv eoncerning the destruction of this instrument of governraent whieh ; the simple-minded Qaeen had i prepared by the aid, or at least with the knowledge, of two membere of the Legislature. Tbe membere of the Provisional Goyernment bave asserted and their supportere contend that the object of Liliuokalani was to practically exclnde the wbites, who own nearly all of the pro-

ductive weahh of the islands. from all participation in rhe Government. If the Queen and her retainers deny this she has at any rate, on her own confession, put it out of her power to disprove the statemenL In a Ietter addressed bv her to one S. C. Damon and given out by the State Department sbe says that tbe new Constitution and all of the copies bave been destroyed; the original by her own hand and the copies and the draft by her orders. Bv this act she confesses that she wus engaged in a scheme whieh she eannot now justifv. It seems that Lilinokalani has been confident all along tbat sbe would be sustained by President C leveland. is personally acquainted witb him, having met him in 1887 during his first terra. And so she hailed his reaccession as a good omen. So when Mr. Blount arrived at tbe islands he bronght relief. And in all this she recognizes a bigh sense of justice and honor iu the person “whoisthe ruler cf the Ameriean Nation.” The Queen has “caught on,'' to use a vernacular pbrase of the day. She has estimated Mr. Cleveland at his own valuation of his officiaI self. She tberefore did not appeal to the Araerican people, to the Government of the Fnited States, but to the “rnler of the American Nation.” confi dent that she woukl find sym pathy and secure aid. “And I have not been disappointed ’ 8be remarks, while sorae of us wonder, albeit foolisblv perbaps, at her confidence.