Whatever may be the future in store for these [islands], it will be impossible for any Hawaiian while the nation exists to forget or undervalue the fostering care which your Great Country, as a Parent, has extended towards them; and among the names of individual Americans that will stand out prominently, I [foresee] a high place assigned to those of Mr. President Pierce, and the gentleman I have the pleasure to address.
December 10, 1855.
PROCLAMATION BY THE KING.
We hereby proclaim Our pleasure that Tuesday, the first of January next, be kept as a day of solemn Thanksgiving to Almighty God for His numberless blessings to Our kingdom and people.
| (Signed,) | KAMEHAMEHA |
January 5, 1856.
Notes of an Address by His Majesty, at the Formation of the Hawaiian Agricultural Society, reported to the Polynesian .
In due course of time His Majesty addressed the meeting. The difficulty of taking short-hand notes in English of what is being said in the native dialect, the construction of which is peculiar, a sentence often beginning at the end and ending in the middle, must be our apology for doing so little justice to the eloquent language and sound common-sense ideas expressed by the President.
After an opening sentence or two, the King spoke to the following effect: