The Gazette

THE POLICY OF INFAMY
Some Interesting Information as to the Sources Which Inspired It.

In speaking of the relations between Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Gresham, the Tribune says that people are recalling the very significant fact that Paramout Blount "had been appointed, instructed and sent out to the scene of his deplorable and evil blundering on March 6, 1893, and before Gresham could by any possibility have formulated so vile a policy for himself."

The true friends of Gresham's reputation will continue to do their utmost to disconnect his name with the policy of infamy, and to show that in the intrigues for the overthrow of the Hawaiian republicans and the restoration of the disreputable monarchy in the person of Liliuokalani, the initiative was the president's and not the secretary's. Our own belief is that Mr. Cleveland was the sole author of the policy of infamy, and that Gresham was his too weak and too willing agent; this we have always thought. But the Tribune's calendar is not quite accurate. The dates of the principal events during the period of the genesis of the policy of infamy are here shown:

1893.
March 6.-Gresham sworn in
March 8.--Kaiulani, in charge of her guardian, Davies, arrives in Washington
March 9.-Cleveland's message to the senate withdrawing the Hawaiian treaty
March 11.-Blount appointed as paramount commissioner; his instructions appear in Gresham's letter of this date
March 15.-Blount starts for San Francisco
March 18.-Kaiulani returns to New York, and her British guardian, Davies, says to an interviewer: "The appointment of a commissioner by the president to go to Hawaii is the very thing we want."
March 20-Blount sails from San Francisco for Honolulu.
April 1.-The flag hauled down by Blount.

We call this the period of the genesis of the policy of infamy because the subsequently published letters of Blount to Gresham proved that he went out with a preconceived purpose. His dispatches almost immediately after his arrival in the islands announced substantially the same conclusions as his final report, weeks and months afterward.

When the true history of the origin of the policy of infamy is written, we believe it will appear that not the least important factor was the presence of Kaiulani in Washington. The impression which that interesting young girl made at the critical time upon amiably susceptible hearts within Mr. Cleveland's household is not recorded in any of the official documents bearing upon the Hawaiian question.--N. Y. Sun (Dem.).