Background
The Blount Report had concluded that the U.S. Minister to Hawaii John L. Stevens carried out unauthorized partisan activities, including the landing of U.S. Marines under a false or exaggerated pretext, to support the anti-royalist conspirators and that these actions were instrumental to the success of the overthrow of the queen. The Morgan Report contradicted the Blount Report, finding all individuals involved in the overthrow—with the notable exception of Queen Liliʻuokalani -- "not guilty". The Native Hawaiians Study Commission Report of 1993, commenting on the two competing reports, states: "The truth lies somewhere between the two reports."
The Morgan Report's submission in 1894 roughly coincided with the Turpie Resolution, which terminated Cleveland's efforts to restore the Queen. Cleveland (under intense pressure due to domestic unrest in the U.S. and arguably through coercion) accepted the conclusions of the Morgan Report, continued to engage in diplomatic relations with the Provisional Government, recognized the Republic of Hawaii upon its declaration on July 4, 1894, and even negotiated treaties originally ratified under the Kingdom government with the Republic.
The nine member Senate Foreign Relations Committee that submitted the report could not agree on a final conclusion, and the oft-cited executive summary was signed only by Morgan himself. Other Republican members of the Committee, including Senators Sherman, Frye, Dolph, and Davis, generally agreed with the report, but refused to endorse the actions of Blount (who was appointed by President Cleveland, a Democrat). Democratic Senators Turpie, Butler, Daniel, and Gray did not endorse the approval of Minister Stevens' actions; while Butler and Turpie generally approved annexation, they refused to endorse the Morgan Report's conclusions because of the implications for internal disorder in Hawaii. Gray and Daniel were apparently outright opposed to annexation.
Read more about this topic: Morgan Report
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“Pilate with his question “What is truth?” is gladly trotted out these days as an advocate of Christ, so as to arouse the suspicion that everything known and knowable is an illusion and to erect the cross upon that gruesome background of the impossibility of knowledge.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)