Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
In my last annual message I referred briefly to the unsatisfactory
state of affairs in Samoa under the operation of the Berlin treaty as
signally illustrating the impolicy of entangling alliances with foreign
powers, and on May 9, 1894, in response to a resolution of the Senate,
I sent a Special message and documents to that body on the same
subject, which emphasized my previously expressed opinions. Later
occurrences, the correspondence in regard to which will be laid before
the Congress, further demonstrate that the Government which was devised
by the three powers and forced upon the Samoans against their
inveterate hostility can be maintained only by the continued presence
of foreign military force and at no small sacrifice of life and
treasure.
The suppression of the Mataafa insurrection by the powers and the
subsequent banishment of the leader and eleven other chiefs, as recited
in my last message, did not bring lasting peace to the islands.
Formidable uprisings continued, and finally a rebellion broke out in
the capital island, Upolu, headed in Aana, the western district, by the
younger Tamasese, and in Atua, the eastern district, by other leaders.
The insurgents ravaged the country and fought the Government's troops
up to the very doors of Apia. The King again appealed to the powers for
help, and the combined British and German naval forces reduced the
Atuans to apparent subjection, not, however, without considerable loss
to the natives. A few days later Tamasese and his adherents, fearing
the ships and the marines, professed submission.
Reports received from our agents at Apia do not justify the belief that
the peace thus brought about will be of long duration. It is their
conviction that the natives are at heart hostile to the present
Government, that such of them as profess loyalty to it do so from fear
of the powers, and that it would speedily go to pieces if the war ships
were withdrawn. In reporting to his Government on the unsatisfactory
situation since the suppression of the late revolt by foreign armed
forces, the German consul at Apia stated:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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