ng profound attention, not only in this country, but
in Great Britain and Germany. While supporting the amendments
proposed by the committee on foreign relations, reported now from
the committee on appropriations, I think it is due to the Senate
and the people of the United States that I should state, in a
skeleton form, the chief facts in regard to this matter, and that,
too, without any feeling whatever, without any desire to interfere
with our diplomatic negotiations, or to disturb the harmony of our
relations with Germany or Great Britain. I hope that the action
of the Senate will be unanimous upon the adoption of these amendments,
and that a frank and open debate will tend to this result."

It is not worth while to follow the line of events that resulted
in making Great Britain, Germany, and the United States the guardians
of these far distant, half-civilized, mercurial, and combative
orientals. The only interest the United States had in these islands
was the possession and ownership of the Bay of Pago-Pago, acquired
by a treaty in 1878 between the United States and the King of Samoa.
The repeated wars on a small scale that have occurred since that
time, and the complications and expense caused by the tripartite
protectorate of the islands, furnish another example of the folly
of the United States in extending its property rights to lands in
a far distant sea. Our continental position ought to dissuade us
from accepting outside possessions which in case of war would cost
the United States more to defend than their value.

On the 24th of February, 1889, my youngest sister, Fanny Sherman
Moulton, the widow of Colonel Charles W. Moulton, died at her
residence at Glendale, Ohio, after a brief illness. Her husband
died in January, 1888. She was buried by his side in Spring Grove
Cemetery, near Cincinnati. In the hurry of the close of the session
I could not attend her funeral. She was always kind and affectionate,
not only to her children, but to all her kindred. I felt her death
keenly, for as the youngest of our family she had lived with me
until her marriage, and was regarded by me more as a daughter than
a sister.

The called session of the Senate convened on the 4th of March,
1889. President Harrison's message was well delivered and well
received. It was longer than the usual inaugural. It was free
from any studied rhetoric, but was sensible, logical and satisfactory.
The nominations of the cabinet