nal Government of Hawaii,
was organized on Saturday, the 14th day of January; that on Monday, the
16th, the United States forces were landed at Honolulu from a naval
vessel lying in its harbor; that on the 17th the scheme of a Provisional
Government was perfected, and a proclamation naming its officers was
on the same day prepared and read at the Government building; that
immediately thereupon the United States minister recognized the
Provisional Government thus created; that two days afterwards, on the
19th day of January, commissioners representing such Government sailed
for this country in a steamer especially chartered for the occasion,
arriving in San Francisco on the 28th day of January and in Washington
on the 3d day of February; that on the next day they had their first
interview with the Secretary of State, and another on the 11th, when the
treaty of annexation was practically agreed upon, and that on the 14th
it was formally concluded and on the 15th transmitted to the Senate.
Thus between the initiation of the scheme for a Provisional Government
in Hawaii, on the 14th day of January, and the submission to the Senate
of the treaty of annexation concluded with such Government the entire
interval was thirty-two days, fifteen of which were spent by the
Hawaiian commissioners in their journey to Washington.

In the next place, upon the face of the papers submitted with the treaty
it clearly appeared that there was open and undetermined an issue of
fact of the most vital importance. The message of the President
accompanying the treaty[4] declared that "the overthrow of the monarchy
was not in any way promoted by this Government," and in a letter to the
President from the Secretary of State, also submitted to the Senate with
the treaty, the following passage occurs:

At the time the Provisional Government took possession of the Government
buildings no troops or officers of the United States were present or
took any part whatever in the proceedings. No public recognition was
accorded to the Provisional Government by the United States minister
until after the Queen's abdication and when they were in effective
possession of the Government buildings, the archives, the treasury, the
barracks, the police station, and all the potential machinery of the
Government.

But a protest also accompanied said treaty, signed by the Queen and her
ministers at the time she made way for the Provisional Government, w