STEVENS AND HAWAII.
The Ex-Minister Points Out the Advantage of Annexation.
AMERICAN INTEREST LEAD
An Address Before San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, Which Passes Resolution Favoring Annexation.
San Francisco, June 1.—Hon. John L. Stevens, ex-United States minister at Hawaii, addressed the Chamber of Commerce of this city to-day on the subject of “Hawaiian Affairs and Their Relation to the Interest of the United States.” A large number of businessmen were present and gave the speaker an appreciative reception. At the close of the address a resolution was adopted favoring the speedy annexation of the islands. Mr. Stevens, in relating his first impressions upon the islands, said he had not been long in Honolulu before he perceived how thoroughly an American city it was and how predominating were all American interests on the islands. Continuing he said:
He had found an intelligent body of citizens of American and European origin supporting a semi-barbaric monarchy, dead in everything but its vices; coarsely luxuriant in its tastes and wishes and spreading social and political demoralization througout the island.
The speaker then related several incidents in the career of the deposed queen, and charges her not only with personal immorality, but also with having by unconstitutional and arbitrary methods, secured the adoption of certain measures, such as the opium and lottery bills, and recited her attempt to promulgate a new constitution, which finally aroused the respectable element of the community to action. Mr. Stevens then reviewed in detail the circumstances of the revolution and overthrow of the queen last January, and the subsequent establishment of the provisional government. He spoke of the danger of riot and incendiarism at the time of the revolution, the fact that there was no adequate police power in Honolulu, and that an appeal was accordingly made for the landing of men from the United States ship Boston. In this connection, Mr. Stevens said in part:
Under the diplomatic and naval rules, the United States minister and naval commander would have shamefully ignored their duty had they not landed men from the Boston for the security of American life and property and the maintenance of public order, even had the committee of public safety not requested the United States to do so. The Boston’s men stepped not an inch from the line of duty; they never lifted a finger in aid of the fallen monarchy on the rising of the provisional government and all assertions to the contrary, by whomsoever uttered, are audacious falsehoods.
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