I am not able now to report a definite change in the actual
situation, I am convinced that the difficulties lately created both
here and in Hawaii, and now standing in the way of a solution through
Executive action of the problem presented, render it proper and
expedient that the matter should be referred to the broader authority
and discretion of Congress, with a full explanation of the endeavor
thus far made to deal with the emergency and a statement of the
considerations which have governed my action.

I suppose that right and justice should determine the path to be
followed in treating this subject. If national honesty is to be
disregarded and a desire for territorial extension or dissatisfaction
with a form of government not our own ought to regulate our conduct, I
have entirely misapprehended the mission and character of our Government
and the behavior which the conscience of our people demands of their
public servants.

When the present Administration entered upon its duties, the Senate
had under consideration a treaty providing for the annexation of the
Hawaiian Islands to the territory of the United States. Surely under our
Constitution and laws the enlargement of our limits is a manifestation
of the highest attribute of sovereignty, and if entered upon as an
Executive act all things relating to the transaction should be clear and
free from suspicion. Additional importance attached to this particular
treaty of annexation because it contemplated a departure from unbroken
American tradition in providing for the addition to our territory of
islands of the sea more than 2,000 miles removed from our nearest coast.

These considerations might not of themselves call for interference with
the completion of a treaty entered upon by a previous Administration,
but it appeared from the documents accompanying the treaty when
submitted to the Senate that the ownership of Hawaii was tendered to us
by a Provisional Government set up to succeed the constitutional ruler
of the islands, who had been dethroned, and it did not appear that such
Provisional Government had the sanction of either popular revolution or
suffrage. Two other remarkable features of the transaction naturally
attracted attention. One was the extraordinary haste, not to say
precipitancy, characterizing all the transactions connected with the
treaty. It appeared that a so-called committee of safety, ostensibly the
source of the revolt against the constitutio