Page:American Diplomacy in the Orient - Foster (1903).djvu/403

 Blount he had decided that she ought to be restored to power, upon condition that she would grant full amnesty to all persons. The minister had an interview with the ex-queen and informed her of the President's decision. She replied that she would behead the leaders of the revolution and confiscate their property. This answer was communicated to the President and a reply was received by the minister that he would cease all efforts to restore her sovereignty unless she agreed to amnesty. A month after the first interview a second was held in which the ex-queen stated that the leaders of the revolution should be banished and their property confiscated. Two days afterwards, December 18, 1893, she repeated her declaration, but after the third interview she gave her consent in writing to the wishes of the President.

On the next day the minister asked for an interview with President Dole and his ministers, which was at once granted. He then communicated to them the views of President Cleveland and the written assurance of the ex-queen, and asked them to relinquish promptly to her the government. On the 23d President Dole replied by note, denying the right of the President of the United States to interfere in the domestic affairs of the Hawaiian government, and "respectfully and unhesitatingly" declined "to surrender its authority to the ex-queen."

On the assembling of the Congress of the United States in December, 1893, President Cleveland sent a special message to that body, in which he gave the reasons for the course he had pursued, inclosed the