The Presi THE TERRITORY OF HAWAII. Pending the consideration dent's of the Senate of the treaty Message which was signed on June 16, 1897, by the plenipotentiaries of the United States and those of the Republic of Hawaii, which provide for the annexation of the islands," says the President in his message, "a joint resolution to accomplish the same purpose by accepting the offered cession and incorporating the ceded territory into the Union was adopted by the Congress and approved July 7, 1898. I thereupon directed the U. S. S. Philadelphia to convey Rear Admiral Miller to Honolulu and entrusted to his hands this important legislative act, to be delivered to the President of the Republic of Hawaii, with whom the Admiral and the United States Minister were authorized to make appropriate arrangements for transferring the sovereignty of the islands to the United States. This was simply but impressively accomplished on the 12th of August last, by the delivery of a certified copy of the resolution to President Dole, who thereupon yielded up to the representative of the Government of the United States the sovereignty and public property of the Hawaiian Islands. "Pursuant to the terms of the joint resolution and in exercise of the authority thereby conferred on me, I directed that the civil, judicial and military powers theretofore exercised by the officers of the Government of the Republic of Hawaii should continue to be exercised by those officers until the Congress shall provide a government for the incorporated territory, subject to my power to remove such officers and to fill vacancies. The President, officers and troops of the Republic thereupon took the oath of allegiance to the United States, thus providing for the uninterrupted continuance of all the administrative and municipal functions of the annexed territory until Congress shall otherwise enact. "Following the further provision of the joint resolution, I appointed the Honorables Shelby M. Cullom, of Illinois; John T. Morgan, of Alabama; Robert R. Hitt, of Illinois; Sanford B. Dole, of Hawaii, and Walter F. Frear, of Hawaii, as Commissioners to confer and recommend to Congress such legislation |