ts, increasing the
exportation of gold to settle the unfavorable balance of trade, and so
on in ceaseless round.

The Democratic management of foreign affairs was severely criticised.
Our extradition treaty with Russia, a country supposed to pay little or
no regard to personal rights, and our delay in demanding reparation from
Spain for firing upon the Allianca, a United States passenger steamer,
were quite generally condemned. There were those who thought that Cuban
insurgents against the sovereignty of Spain might have received some
manifestation of sympathy from our Government, and that we should not
have permitted Great Britain to endanger the Monroe Doctrine by
occupying Corinto in Nicaragua to enforce the payment of an indemnity.

The President offended many in dealing as he did with the Hawaiian
Islands' problem. Most did not consider it the duty of this country to
champion the cause of the native dynasty there, a course likely to
subserve no enlightened interest. Whites, chiefly Americans, had come to
own most of the land in the islands, while imported Asiatics and
Portuguese competed sharply with the natives as laborers. Political
power, even, was largely exercised by the whites, through whose
influence the monarchy had been reduced to a constitutional form.

[Illustration: Portrait.]
Princess (afterwards Queen) Liliuokalani.

In January, 1893, Queen Liliuokalani sought by a coup d'etat to reinvest
her royal authority with its old absoluteness and to disfranchise
non-naturalized whites. The American man-of-war Boston, lying in
Honolulu harbor, at the request of American residents, landed marines
for their protection. The American colony now initiated a counter
revolution, declaring the monarchy abrogated and a provisional
government established. Minister Stevens at once recognized the
Provisional Government as de facto sovereign. Under protest the Queen
yielded.

[Illustration: Portrait.]
James H. Blount.

The new government formally placed itself under the protectorate of the
United States, and the Stars and Stripes were hoisted over the
Government Building. President Harrison disavowed the protectorate,
though he did not withdraw the troops from Honolulu, regarding them as
necessary to assure the lives and property of American citizens. Nor did
he lower the flag. A treaty for the annexation of the islands was soon
negotiated and submitted to the Senate.

The Cleveland Administration reversed