Page:American Diplomacy in the Orient - Foster (1903).djvu/404

 correspondence and documents relating to the question, and submitted the subject "to the broader authority and discretion of Congress." Upon receiving President Dole's declination to surrender the government, the correspondence relating to it and the report of the ex-queen's conduct were transmitted to Congress without comment. The whole subject having been relegated to Congress, the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate made an extended investigation, examined a large number of witnesses, and submitted a majority report through Senator Morgan, which vindicated the diplomatic and naval officers of the United States from undue influence, declared that the recognition of the provisional government was "lawful and authoritative," and found that the queen's proposed action to overturn the constitution was itself revolutionary. The minority of the committee dissented from these findings. No further action on the subject was taken by that body.

The provisional government, having accepted the action of President Cleveland as a rejection by the executive of the treaty of annexation, proceeded to effect a permanent organization. An election was ordered for delegates to a constitutional convention, the electors being all adult male inhabitants of native, American, or European descent who took the oath to support the government. The convention assembled