Mr. Stevens to Mr. Foster.
Honolulu, January 26, 1893.
Sir: By the steamer taking this dispatch, goes Mr. Paul Neuman to Washington, the attorney of the deposed Queen. Nominally he may make at the Department of State a “protest” as to the way his client lost her crown. In reality his mission is to get a large fee out of whatever sum it is supposed maybe paid by the treaty of annexation to the fallen monarch and the Crown Princess. This attorney, as the Hawaiian Commissioners now in Washington may inform you, was a former resident of San Francisco, where he had and still has an unsavory reputation. For years his influence in politics here has been pernicious. He was a boon companion of the debased Kalakaua, the recent King; shared in his corruptions, and is reputed to have won at cards the money of the weak monarch.
He was twice voted out of the cabinet by the recent Legislature by a large majority, every reputable member each time against him. He is believed on strong reasons to have been the head man in getting through the Legislature in the closing hours of the session the infamous lottery bill, which so much aided in precipitating the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. This man, the Queen’s attorney, is a good-natured, “jolly fellow,” who, seeing the strong drift of things here, now avows himself unqualifiedly for annexation. I think it my duty to give to the Department of State this amount of information about the fallen Queen’s attorney, and the Commissioners now in Washington can give you as much more as they deem proper.
I am, etc.,
Since the preceding dispatch was written Paul Neuman, as the attorney of the Queen, has called on me and explained his mission to Washington. I will take back nothing as to his former political career here; but he is good natured and politic lawyer. While he will probably urge the request to have the United States restore the fallen Queen to the throne as a matter of form and good faith on his part to his royal client, I have impressed on him the logic of the situation and the absolute impossibility of restoring the deposed Queen. I think he sees this clearly, however otherwise lie may at first talk, and that his only hope is to obtain a good cash consideration for all her claims. I think he has “full power of attorney” to this end. He takes with him the young man, Prince David, as he is called here, one of the two princes made by Kalakaua, spoken of in my No. 82, page 9.