this whole policy with a jolt. The
treaty withdrawn, Mr. Cleveland despatched to Honolulu Hon. James H.
Blount as a special commissioner, with "paramount authority," which he
exercised by formally ending the protectorate, hauling down the flag,
and embarking the garrison of marines. Mr. Blount soon superseded Mr.
Stevens as minister. Meantime the Provisional Government had organized a
force of twelve hundred soldiers, got control of the arms and ammunition
in the islands, enacted drastic sedition laws, and suppressed disloyal
newspapers.

[Illustration: Portrait.]
Albert S. Willis.

So complete was its sway, and so relentless did the dethroned Queen
threaten to be toward her enemies in case she recovered power, that
Minister Albert S. Willis, on succeeding Mr. Blount, lost heart in the
contemplated enterprise of restoring the monarchy. He found the
Provisional Government and its supporters men of "high character and
large commercial interests," while those of the Queen were quite out of
sympathy with American interests or with good government for the
islands. A large and influential section of Hawaiian public opinion was
unanimous for annexation, even Prince Kunniakea, the last of the royal
line, avowing himself an annexationist with heart, soul, and, if
necessary, with rifle.

A farcical attempt at insurrection was followed by the arrest of the
conspirators and of the ex-Queen, who thereupon, for herself and heirs,
forever renounced the throne, gave allegiance to the Republic,
counselled her former subjects to do likewise, and besought clemency.
Her chief confederates were sentenced to death, but this was commuted to
a heavy fine and long imprisonment. After the retirement of the
Democracy from power in 1896 the annexation of the islands was promptly
consummated.

Walter Q. Gresham, Secretary of State in the early part of Cleveland's
second term, died in May, 1895, being succeeded by Richard Olney,
transferred from the portfolio of Attorney General. In a day,
Cleveland's foreign policy, hitherto so inert, became vigorous to the
verge of rashness. Deeming the Monroe Doctrine endangered by Great
Britain's apparently arbitrary encroachments on Venezuela in fixing the
boundary between Venezuela and British Guiana, he insisted that the
boundary dispute should be settled by arbitration.

[Illustration: Portrait.]
Richard Olney.

The message in which the President took this ground shook the country
like a d