Government.

Despite this courtesy on her part, she was kept in complete ignorance of
the Annexation Treaty. When rumors of such an arrangement reached her
minister, he went to the State Department to make inquiries, and claims
that Mr. Sherman did not give satisfactory answers, but seemed purposely
trying to keep Japan in ignorance of the true state of the case.

Mr. Sherman replied to this protest that there can be no such thing as a
perpetual treaty.

According to his point of view, a treaty, no matter how strongly drawn,
must end when one of the countries that made it ceases to be a nation
any longer. Should the Senate ratify the treaty, Hawaii will become a
part of the United States, her life as a nation will be at an end, and
her treaties will cease with her.

Mr. Sherman reminds Japan of the treaty between Japan and the United
States that will go into effect in 1899, and which will give her the
same privileges she had with Hawaii. He adds that if she is not content
to wait the two years till the United States treaty begins, arrangements
can be made to cover the intervening period.

* * * * *

There is a good deal of gossip over the fact that Mr. Sherman put his
signature to the Annexation Treaty.

From various speeches in the Senate, and from statements in his memoirs,
it was believed that he was strongly opposed to the annexation of