Page:Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen.pdf/411
ment again received at his official hands. For although it was my directions that this document should be delivered to any person authorized to receive it, yet as soon as Secretary Sherman saw the cards of my commissioners, he at once accorded them a private audience.
My protest, and a like remonstrance made on behalf of the patriotic leagues of the Hawaiian people by Hon. Joseph Heleluhe as their authorized commissioner, were both placed in the secretary’s hands by that gentleman; and Mr. Sherman read them both through. He then turned to Captain Palmer, and had an agreeable conversation on the points at issue, after which my commissioners retired. The accustomed tissue of falsehoods was woven about this interview; some stating that Secretary Sherman had refused to see my messengers, others again giving the names of some one or other of his subordinates with whom my commissioners had had an interview, and finally asserting that the protests went into the archives of the department without examination, and were pigeon-holed; all of which statements, it is needless to say, were untrue. Secretary Sherman by his action showed that, a skilled diplomatist, he had not forgotten to remain a gallant gentleman.
I refer to Appendix D for text of the treaty.