Blount Report - Response

Response

Due to Liliʻuokalani's delay in accepting the terms of her restoration, and Dole's flat refusal, Cleveland turned over the matter to the Senate. The Senate authorized the Morgan Report which conducted two months of hearings taken from witnesses under oath and carried out under cross examination. The Morgan Report contradicted Blount's conclusions and exonerated the military and Stevens from blame. Senator George Gray of Delaware, Cleveland's chief spokesperson on the subcommittee, said Morgan examined witnesses "in a very partial and unfair way...to aid the annexationists and injure the President."." Walter Q. Gresham, Cleveland's Secretary of State, said that Morgan was "insincere and meant mischief." Historian R.S. Kuykendall wrote that "nevertheless, the Morgan hearings did commit to the record the testimony of many participants in the revolution who had been neglected by Blount." Morgan, a Democrat like Cleveland but sympathetic with the expansionist Republicans, seemed to have a vested interest in exonerating both Stevens' actions during the Hawaiian Revolution, as well as Blount's appointment by Cleveland without Congressional approval. Historian W.A. Russ noted that "It seems that the Chairman had two purposes in mind: first, to gainsay everything the Blount Report had asserted; second, to clear the name of every American official and to give the United States a spotless slate."

Cleveland left office and was replaced by pro-annexation President William McKinley in 1897. Hawaii was annexed to the United States the following year.