PREFACE. NQUIRIES are continually being made for a brief, clear and dispassionate history of the Revolution of 1893 and of the events that led up to it. The lapse of time has already moderated the bitterness of party spirit, and made it possible to form a juster estimate of the chief actors on both sides of that controversy. A brief sketch of the salient political events of 1887, was written for Col. J. H. Blount at his own request, and afterwards republished by the Hawaiian Gazette Co. At their request the writer reluctantly consented to continue his sketch through Kalakaua's reign and that of Liliuokalani until the eve of the Revolution of 1893, and afterwards to draw up a more detailed account of the revolution and of the subsequent events of that year. The testimony of the principal witnesses on both sides has been carefully sifted and compared, and no pains has been spared to arrive at the truth. Much assistance has been derived from a paper by the Rev. S. E Bishop covering the latter part of the period in question, and Chapter VI stands as he wrote it with some slight alterations. The writer, while not professing to be a neutral, has honestly striven not "to extenuate aught or set down aught in malice," but to state the facts as nearly as possible, in their true relations and in their just proportions. The official documents on both sides bearing on the case are given in full, including the report of Col. J. H. Blount to the President of the United States, and the report of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, drawn up by Senator Morgan of Alabama. 397278 W. D. ALEXANDER, |