U.S. President Cleveland: Opposition by Republicans such as Senator Joseph R. Hawley, et. als.

After Blount’s return to Washington, Cleveland named Albert S. Willis as minister to Hawaii with instructions to reinstate the queen. Throughout the United States, Republicans, such as Senator Joseph R. Hawley of Connecticut, condemned Cleveland’s “secret, underhand instructions to Willis” (Damon, p. 269). Dole and the provisional government determined “to resist to the last” and to continue the move for annexation “as a conspicuous feature of our foreign policy.” On 23 December 1893, in a reply to Cleveland’s request that the provisional government reinstate the queen, Dole wrote that he did not recognize the president’s right to interfere in Hawaii’s domestic affairs. Cleveland stipulated that, if reinstated, the queen must pardon those who had overthrown her government. However, she would not promise amnesty, saying that “she would abide by the law of her country, which carried for traitors the death penalty with confiscation of property” (Damon, p. 292). President Cleveland, upon hearing of the queen’s response through Willis, allowed the decision on restoration to be placed before Congress.