“By an act of war, committed with the participation of a diplomatic representative of the U.S. and without authority of Congress, the Government of a feeble but friendly and confiding people has been overthrown.”
Cleveland continued that the U.S. Government occupied “the position of having actually set up a temporary government on foreign soil for the purpose of acquiring through that agency territory which we had wrongfully put in its possession.
The control of both sides of a bargain acquired in such a manner is called by a familiar and unpleasant name when found in private transactions.” The familiar and unpleasant name found in private transactions is “fraud.”
President Cleveland further stated: “a candid and thorough examination of the facts will force the conviction that the provisional government [of Hawai`i] owes its existence to an armed invasion by the U.S.
Fair-minded people with the evidence before them will [not] claim that the Hawaiian Government was overthrown by the people of the islands or that the provisional government had ever existed with their consent.”
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