take place. And so it happened that on the 16th day of January, 1893,
between 4 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon, a detachment of marines from
the United States steamer _Boston_, with two pieces of artillery,
landed at Honolulu. The men, upward of 160 in all, were supplied with
double cartridge belts filled with ammunition and with haversacks and
canteens, and were accompanied by a hospital corps with stretchers and
medical supplies.

This military demonstration upon the soil of Honolulu was of itself an
act of war, unless made either with the consent of the Government of
Hawaii or for the _bona fide_ purpose of protecting the imperiled
lives and property of citizens of the United States. But there is no
pretense of any such consent on the part of the Government of the Queen,
which at that time was undisputed and was both the _de facto_ and
the _de jure_ Government. In point of fact the existing Government,
instead of requesting the presence of an armed force, protested against
it. There is as little basis for the pretense that such forces were
landed for the security of American life and property. If so, they would
have been stationed in the vicinity of such property and so as to
protect it, instead of at a distance and so as to command the Hawaiian
Government building and palace. Admiral Skerrett, the officer in command
of our naval force on the Pacific station, has frankly stated that in
his opinion the location of the troops was inadvisable if they were
landed for the protection of American citizens, whose residences and
places of business, as well as the legation and consulate, were in a
distant part of the city; but the location selected was a wise one if
the forces were landed for the purpose of supporting the Provisional
Government. If any peril to life and property calling for any such
martial array had existed, Great Britain and other foreign powers
interested would not have been behind the United States in activity to