Mr. Stevens to Mr. Blaine.
Honolulu, October 15, 1891.
Sir: It is proper for me to inform the Department of State that, in consequence of the serious and probably prolonged illness of Minister Carter, the Hawaiian Government has appointed Hon. J. Mott Smith, special envoy extraordinary to negotiate with the United States a treaty of the character of which I gave an account in my dispatch 32, of September 5. Mr. Smith is an American, is the present minister of finance, and has the marked confidence of the business men of these islands. Formerly he had resided here twenty or thirty years, but of late has been a resident of Boston, Mass. He has still considerable property interests on the islands. Arriving in Honolulu a few months since, he was strongly urged by leading citizens and the Queen to become minister of finance, and some years ago he was in the cabinet of Kalakaua, and visited Washington in behalf of reciprocity, [Page 353] about 1876. Though my acquaintance with him is brief, I have good, reasons to think the Department of State will find him a safe agent with whom to negotiate a treaty favorable to the interests of the two countries concerned. I deem it safe to say that now is a good time to secure Pearl Harbor in practical perpetuity. Mr. Smith leaves here on the 17th.
I have, etc.,