Foreign Relations of the United States, 1894. Appendix 2: Affairs in Hawaii."Affairs in Hawaii, also known as the Blount Report, is a collection of documents relating to the history of Hawaii, focusing on events leading up to the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarch. The United States recognized Hawaii as an independent kingdom in 1842. In 1845, Hawaii changed its traditional system of land tenure in a way that permitted non-Hawaiians to buy property. By the 1890s foreigners owned 90 percent of the land. In January 1893, after Queen Liliuokalani (1838--1917) proposed a constitution reinstating power stripped from the monarchy by the "Bayonet Constitution" of 1887, U.S. and European residents moved against the queen and planned to have the islands annexed by the United States. Aided by a detachment of U.S. Marines, the so-called "Committee of Safety" led the overthrow of the monarchy. The conspirators hoped to finalize the annexation during the presidency of Benjamin Harrison, before a new president took office, but they were thwarted by the Senate's delay in ratifying the annexation. Upon taking office on March 4, President Grover Cleveland, who was skeptical about acquiring Hawaii, commissioned James H. Blount (1837--1903) to investigate the overthrow of the monarchy. Blount's report, issued in July 1893, concluded that U.S. military and diplomatic personnel had overstepped their authority. The queen was not reinstated, but the annexation did not proceed. The report includes more than 1,000 pages of documents covering events in Hawaii and in U.S.--Hawaii relations going back to the 1840s, with particular emphasis on 1893-95. Hawaii later became a territory of the United States, under a resolution passed by both houses of Congress and signed by President William McKinley on July 7, 1898."
Off campus access instructions (for e-books)
Addresses, State Papers and Letters by 
Grover Cleveland: A Record of Friendship by 
Inaugural Ceremonies of Grover Cleveland, President and Adlai E. Stevenson, Vice-President
The Independence of the Executive by 
Presidents from Hayes through McKinley, 1877-1901 by 
Recollections of Grover Cleveland by 
The Writings and Speeches of Grover Cleveland by 