independence of the government, their treaties placed it in a dependent or restrained position relative to judicial procedure, the tariff, and the temperance laws. No treaty had been made with the United States since the unratified agreement of 1826, which was still recognized as binding by the island government, but it was very imperfect in its provisions. The Secretary of State, therefore, addressed himself to the task of making a treaty which would in all respects place Hawaii on an equal footing with all other Christian powers. Authority was conferred upon the new commissioner of the United States, Mr. Ten Eyck, to negotiate, and a lengthy correspondence ensued with the Hawaiian foreign office, but as the American plenipotentiary insisted upon clauses similar to the objectionable ones in the British and French treaties, no agreement was reached. Meanwhile Mr. Ten Eyck, having become unacceptable to both his own government and that of Hawaii, was recalled, and the negotiations transferred to Washington, where a treaty was signed December 20, 1849, between Secretary Clayton and John J. Jarves, special commissioner of Hawaii. This treaty was free from the objectionable clauses referred to, and was similar in its provisions to those negotiated by the United States with other Christian nations. It remained in force during all the subsequent existence of the Hawaiian government, and its terms were ultimately accepted by Great Britain and France. Thus for a second time was the United States successful in its support of the claims of this new nation to complete autonomy.[1]
- ↑ For. Rel. 1894, App. ii. 12, 13, 69, 79.
