thereon his acknowledgment of its receipt. The terms of the
protest were read without dissent by those assuming to constitute the
Provisional Government, who were certainly charged with the knowledge
that the Queen, instead of finally abandoning her power, had appealed to
the justice of the United States for reinstatement in her authority; and
yet the Provisional Government, with this unanswered protest in its
hand, hastened to negotiate with the United States for the permanent
banishment of the Queen from power and for a sale of her Kingdom.

Our country was in danger of occupying the position of having actually
set up a temporary government on foreign soil for the purpose of
acquiring through that agency territory which we had wrongfully put in
its possession. The control of both sides of a bargain acquired in such
a manner is called by a familiar and unpleasant name when found in
private transactions. We are not without a precedent showing how
scrupulously we avoided such accusations in former days. After the
people of Texas had declared their independence of Mexico they resolved
that on the acknowledgment of their independence by the United States
they would seek admission into the Union. Several months after the
battle of San Jacinto, by which Texan independence was practically
assured and established, President Jackson declined to recognize it,
alleging as one of his reasons that in the circumstances it became us
"to beware of a too early movement, as it might subject us, however
unjustly, to the imputation of seeking to establish the claim of our
neighbors to a territory with a view to its subsequent acquisition by
ourselves." This is in marked contrast with the hasty recognition of a
government openly and concededly set up for the purpose of tendering to
us territorial annexation.

I believe that a candid and thorough examination of the facts will force
the conviction that the Provisional Government owes its existence to
an armed invasion by the United States. Fair-minded people, with the
evidence before them, will hardly claim that the Hawaiian Government
was overthrown by the people of the islands or that the Provisional
Government had ever existed with their consent. I do not understand that
any member of this Government claims that the people would uphold it by
their suffrages if they were allowed to vote on the question.

While naturally sympathizing with every effort to establish a republican
form of gov