I, LILIUOKALANI of Hawaii, by the Will of God, named heir-apparent on the tenth day of April, A.D. 1877, and by the Grace of God, Queen of the Hawaiian Islands on the 17thday of January, A.D. 1893, do hereby protest against the ratification of a certain treaty which so I am informed has been signed at Washington by Messrs. Hatch, Thurston and Kinney, purporting to cede those Islands to the territory and dominion of the United States. I declare such treaty to be an act of wrong towards the native and part-native people of Hawaii, an invasion of the rights of the ruling chiefs, in violation of international rights both towards my people and towards friendly nations with whom they have made treaties, the perpetuation of the fraud whereby the constitutional government was overthrown and finally an act of gross injustice to me… 

…My people, about forty-thousand in number, have in no way been consulted by those, three-thousand in number, who claim the right to destroy the independence of Hawaii, My people constitute four-fifths of the legally qualified voters of Hawaii, and excluding those imported for the demands of labor, about the same proportion of the inhabitants…

Said treaty ignores not only the civic rights of my people, but further the hereditary property of their chiefs. Of the four million acres composing the territory said treaty offers to annex, one million or 915,000 acres has in no way been heretofore recognized as other than the private property of the constitutional monarch, subject to a control in no way differing from other items of a private estate…

It is proposed by said treaty to confiscate said property, technically called the Crown Lands, those legally entitled thereto, either now or in succession receiving no consideration whatever for estates their title to which has always been undisputed and which is legitimately in my name at this day… June 17, 1897… (Read full protest letter)