Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Day 087 – January 17, 1820

January 17, 1820 – no entry. (Thaddeus Journal)

17th. saw whales in abundance–of the size of this animal I had no conception before I beheld them. Of the animal kind they are the greatest curiosity that I ever saw. Samuel saw one (for nothing of the marvelous escapes his notice) which he called one of the first settlers. his head being covered with moss and seashells. resembling a craggy rock. We are visited every day by Albatrosses and Cape Pigeons. The former is a large bird resembling a goose only in its wings. which. when spread. extend 10. sometimes 15. feet. (Lucia Ruggles Holman)

Jan. 17. We have thought best to proceed in a systematic all manner. Each one to form a planned, and divide his time as is most for his convenience; appropriating two each portion some particular duty or employment, that no part of it may be wasted or misspent. Concluding you will like to know how I spend my time, I will give you my calendar for the day.
5 to half past 7, private and family devotions, and the use of my needle.
Half past 7 to 9, breakfast and exercise.
9 to 12, writing and study.
12 to 1, recitation and conversation.
1 to 2, dinner, and private devotion.
2 to 5, writing and reading.
5 to 6, study of the language
6 to half past 7, tea, conversation, and exercise.
Half past 7 to half-past nine, private and family devotions.
Half past 9 to 5, meditation and sleep.
In this manner I intend to spend my time for the present should nothing prevent. (Mercy Partridge Whitney Journal)

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Hawaiian Citizenship – It’s About Nationality, Not Race

Who are Hawaiian Citizens and Hawaiian Subjects?

“Nationality” means the legal bond between a person and a State and does not indicate the person’s ethnic origin. Everyone has the right to a nationality. (European Convention on Nationality)

One of the earliest laws in Hawaiʻi dealt with citizenship (nationality – not ethnicity;) it was part of King Kamehameha III’s Statute Laws 1845-1846. The Chapter for that law was headed: “Of Subjects and Foreigners” and the specific Article was labeled “Aliens, Denizens and Natives.”

Following is the law concerning Hawaiian citizenship, part of King Kamehameha III’s Statute Laws 1845-1846 (first, the original law in Hawaiian; then, the English translation:)

Pauku 3. O na kanaka a pau i hanau malalo o ka malu o keia Aupuni, ina na na makua o ke Aupuni e, a ina na haole hoohiki i kanaka Hawaii, a ina na na kanaka maoli, a me ka poe i hanau ma ka aina e, ina no keia Aupuni na makua, a mahope hele mai na keiki e noho haanei, e manaoia kela poe a pau, he aie i ka hoolohe i ka Moi, ke alii ka lakou ma ka hanau ana, a e kau no ke kanawai o keia Aupuni maluna o lakou.

O na kanaka a pau i hanau ma na aina e, ina no ka aina e na makua, a hoohiki ole hoi e like me ka olelo iloko o keia haawina alaila. e manaoia lakou he lahui e, a e hanaia’ku lakou e na’lii o keia Aupuni pela, e like nae me ka olelo o ke kanawai.

Section III. All persons born within the jurisdiction of this kingdom, whether of alien foreigners, of naturalized or of native parents, and all persons born abroad of a parent native of this kingdom, and afterwards coming to reside in this, shall be deemed to owe native allegiance to His Majesty.

All such persons shall be amenable to the laws of this kingdom as native subjects. All persons born abroad of foreign parents, shall, unless duly naturalized, as in this article prescribed, be deemed aliens, and treated as such, pursuant to the laws. (Ka Huli Ao Digital Archives – Punawaiola-org)

Hawaiʻi followed the Anglo-American common law rule of “jus soli;” those born in the country and subject to its jurisdiction is a citizen. The common law rule traces back to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066.

Subsequent interpretation of the laws and practices affirmed who were Hawaiian citizens and what rights and obligations they possessed.

In 1850, HW Whitney, born in Hawaiʻi of foreign parents, asked the Minister of the Interior, John Young II, about his status. The question was referred to Asher B Bates, legal adviser to the Government, who replied …

… “not only the Hawaiian Statutes but the Law of Nations, grant to an individual born under the Sovereignty of this Kingdom, an inalienable right, to all of the rights and privileges of a subject.” (Hanifin)

In 1856, the Kingdom’s Supreme Court decided Naone v. Thurston, recognizing that persons born in Hawaiʻi of foreign parents were Hawaiian subjects.

On January 21, 1868, the Minister of the Interior for the Hawaiian Kingdom, His Excellency Ferdinand Hutchison, stated the criteria for Hawaiian nationality:

“In the judgment of His Majesty’s Government, no one acquires citizenship in this Kingdom unless he is born here, or born abroad of Hawaiian parents, (either native or naturalized) during their temporary absence from the kingdom, or unless having been the subject of another power, he becomes a subject of this kingdom by taking the oath of allegiance.”

Subsequent laws through the Republic, Territory and State provide that “All persons born or naturalized in the Hawaiian Islands, and subject to the jurisdiction of the Republic, are citizens thereof.”

Today, there remain ongoing claims and discussions about restoring the Hawaiian Government that was deposed on January 17, 1893 and replaced by the Provisional Government of Hawaiʻi, later the Republic of Hawaiʻi, then annexation and statehood.

The Hawaiian nation was overthrown … not the Hawaiian race (it was a constitutional monarchy, not race-limited.)

Yet, to date, apparently, the only people permitted to exercise their rights related to discussions on restoration, reparation, sovereignty, independence, etc related to the Hawaiian nation have been those of one race, the Native Hawaiians.

In the ongoing nation-building exercise, lately there was Kau Inoa (registration of Native Hawaiians in Hawaiʻi and abroad who will be a part of the new Hawaiian nation and receive benefits provided by the new government,) later Kanaʻiolowalu (registration on an Official Roll and joining together to rebuild a Hawaiian nation,) and now Na‘i Aupuni (who are guiding an election, convention and ratification process where Hawaiians who wish to participate can be heard.)

Kanaʻiolowalu limits participation to “lineal descendant[s] of the people who lived and exercised sovereignty in the Hawaiian islands prior to 1778”; a goal of the registration is “self-recognition of our unrelinquished sovereignty”. The latter and latest, suggests an ʻAha (“convention … gathering of elected delegates”) that may conduct a ratification vote.

Likewise, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act (Akaka Bill,) and groups like Ka Lāhui Hawaiʻi, Nation of Hawaiʻi, Ka Pakaukau, Poka Laenui, Hawaiian Kingdom, Hawaiian Kingdom Government and the rest seem to seek to restore or reclaim on behalf of Native Hawaiian. (This does not even count the endless rhetoric on social media.)

A Hawaiian citizen or subject is someone that has the political status of being a Hawaiian national. And it’s not limited to the native race or the aboriginal blood. (Keanu Sai)

If annexation did not happen, today descendants of Hawaiʻi-born or foreign-born naturalized Hawaiian citizens (with no proof of later naturalization to another nation) are still Hawaiian subjects, as their predecessors were in the Kingdom era. (Keanu Sai)

All Hawaiian citizens lost their nation in 1893 … Hawaiian citizens with their varying ethnicities, not just those who lived in the Islands prior to 1778.

Listening to the ongoing rhetoric, some seen to argue that only those of the Hawaiian race have rights and benefits of the Hawaiian kingdom (including claims to the ceded lands).

Why aren’t all Hawaiian citizens included in the recognition and sovereignty discussions and decisions today?

The kingdom was not raced based; all citizens (Native Hawaiians, born here or naturalized) have “an inalienable right, to all of the rights and privileges of a subject.”

(The text and translation of documents here are from Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law, William S. Richardson School of Law.)

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1845 (May) - Feb 1893 The current Hawaiian flag introduced in 1845-400

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Day 086 – January 16, 1820

January 16, 1820 – no entry. (Thaddeus Journal)

Jan. 16th. We should like to know if you find this an uncommonly severe winter. In approaching the equator, and passing under it, we did not, by any means, find the heat as we expected. When we met the Sun, and found ourselves under his perpendicular rays, we were but little incommoded, and now, in a region where it is summer,
S. Lat. 45, we find it actually cold. It is frequently said by the seamen they have never known it so cold here, before, at this season—the weather such as we might expect at the Cape. Our progress is very slow. (Sybil Bingham)

16. – No preaching today owing to high winds. O how pleasant it would be once more to go up to the sanctuary. But this cannot be. Till the heavens & the earth be no more, we shall not be indulged with an interview. Then, blessed be God, I hope to meet them in a sanctuary not made with hands eternal in the heavens. (Samuel Whitney Journal)

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The Battle of Honolulu – 1826

The Hawaiian Islands in the early-1800s were in a state of social and political upheaval. With Kamehameha’s death in 1819, the subsequent breaking of the kapu by Liholiho and the acceptance of the missionaries and their beliefs meant significant changes were taking place.

The first visit to the Hawaiian Islands by the US Navy was in 1826 when the warship USS Dolphin came into port in Honolulu. Commanding the ship was Lieutenant John Percival (aka “Mad Jack” Percival.)

Percival had been sent to the Pacific to bring the mutineers of a whaling ship to justice and to enforce the settlement of debts owed by Hawaiʻi’s ruling chiefs to American sandalwood dealers.

As the ship sailed into Honolulu Bay, these objectives were not uppermost on the minds of the crew, however. The men of the Dolphin, like mariners then, had expectations of female companionship while in port.

They arrived on January 16, 1826, and were surprised to find the port unusually tranquil and utterly devoid of the welcoming maidens the crew had anticipated.

After making inquiries in the village they learned that, under the influence of the missionaries, the chiefs had not only forbidden the women to swim out to the ships, but had restricted the sale of alcohol. His men were outraged.

In a frenzy, Percival demanded to see the Queen in person, warning that if the leader of the missionaries (Hiram Bingham) interfered, he “will shoot him: that he was ready to fight, for though his vessel was small, she was just like fire.”

Percival attempted to persuade the Queen to release her women, reasoning that “It is not good to taboo the women. It is not so in America!”

The Queen replied, in a letter, that she had a “right to control her own subjects in this matter; that in enforcing the tabu she had not sought for money … she had done no injustice to other nations, or the foreigners who belonged to other nations; and that while seeking specially to save the nation from vice and ruin, they had been lenient to strangers … (and) that strangers, passing from one country to another, are bound, while they remain in a country, to conform to its laws.” (Bingham)

Percival said, “Why tabu the women? Take heed. My people will come: if the women are not forthcoming they will not obey my word. Take care of your men, and I will take care of mine. By and by they will come to get women, and if they do not obtain them, they will fight, and my vessel is just like fire.” (Bingham)

Kaʻahumanu replied, “Why make war upon us without a fault of ours as to restraining our women? We love the Word of God, and therefore hold back our women. Why then would you fight us without cause?” (Bingham)

Finally, able to hold his temper no longer, Percival clenched his fists with rage and shouted that the next day he would issue his men rum and turn them loose, where, if they were still denied, they would pull down the houses of the missionaries and take any women they pleased by force.

Kaʻahumanu replied, “Why are you angry with us for laying a tabu on the women of our own country? Had you brought American women with you, and we had tabued them, you might then justly be displeased with us.” (Bingham)

There were several other crews in port, of whom many sympathized with this commander and a large part of his crew. On a Sunday, the commander of the Dolphin allowed double the usual number of his men to spend the day on shore at Honolulu. The violent among them, and the violent of other crews, attempted to form a coalition to “knock off the tabu.”

First, they knocked out seventy of the windows at Kalanimōkū’s house (where church service was being held, with Kaʻahumanu, Kalanimōkū, Nāmāhana and Boki in attendance.) Then, the mob went on to the home of Hiram Bingham, the leader of the missionaries.

When the mob surged forward and one of the sailors struck Bingham, the riot ended as the Hawaiians responded by clubbing the ringleaders unconscious and overcame the remainder.

Shortly thereafter, the captain was back at the palace, admitting that his men may have overreacted, however, repeated their demands for prostitutes. He then told the Queen that the Dolphin would not leave port until his men were taken care of.

The Hawaiians by this time were very anxious to see the end of this and fearful of further violence, agreed to lift the taboo.

The prostitutes then came to the ship, and apparently the Navy’s Hawaiian mission was accomplished. Captain Percival arranged for the repair of the damaged homes and put two of the most violent sailors in irons.

After a visit of about three months, the Dolphin sailed, having obtained the name of “the mischief making man-of-war.” The incident was quickly christened “The Battle of Honolulu.”

Mad Jack’s actions were later renounced by the United States and resulted in the sending of an envoy to King Kamehameha III.

Kalanimōku wrote a letter to Hiram Bingham concerning the battle – in it he notes, “Here is my message to all of you, our missionary teachers. I am telling you that I do not see your wrongdoing. If I should see you to be wrong, I would tell you all. No, you should all just be good.”

“Give us literacy and we will teach it; and give us the word of God, and we will heed it. Our women are restricted, for we have learned the word of God.”

“Then foreigners come, doing damage to our land, foreigners of America and Britain. Do not be angry, for it is we who are to blame for you being faulted, and not you foreigners.” (Kalanimōku to Bingham, October 28, 1826)

You may see that letter (written in Hawaiian) and its translation in the Ali‘i Letters Collection at Hawaiian Mission Houses – here: https://hmha.missionhouses.org/collections/show/178.

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Day 085 – January 15, 1820

January 15, 1820 – no entry. (Thaddeus Journal)

Jan. 15th. How swiftly does time fly away. Twelve weeks have elapsed since I left beloved America. We are now 44 deg. S L if. Have made but little progress for near a fortnight, having had contrary winds and calms most of the time. Ere twelve weeks more have passed, we hope to land at our destined port, and enter the field of our labours. O that we could improve every moment as it flies, for when past, it is gone for ever. How striking is “the importance of time” as expressed by the pious Mr. Scott “O time, how few thy value weigh! How few will estimate a day! Days, months, and years are rolling on, The soul neglected – and undone.” We are born to exist forever, and soon we shall pass the narrow boundary of time, the only season allotted as to prepare for death. O my dear parents, I beseech you to remember that your days on earth will soon be numbered and finished; ere long you must stand at the bar of God and be judged according to the deeds done here in the body. Let me entreat you to humble yourselves before God, and make your peace with him before it is too late. “Behold, and now is the accepted time! Behold, now is the day of Salvation!” A few more days, and your state may be unalterably fixed. Seize then the present moment; delay not lest you be swallowed up in irretrievable ruin. Be not offended, my dear parents, if in my concern for your souls, I have cast off that deference which is your do. The thought of a final separation, is almost insupportable. How then can I forbear to warn you, when I see you standing on the brink of an awful precipice, upheld only by the brittle thread of life, which is liable every moment to be cut asunder. But I fain would hope you have been made sensible of your lost condition by nature, and are enquiring “what must I do to be saved.” Rest if not, until you find joy and peace in believing, and your souls reclining sweetly on the bosom of Emmanuel. To God I now commend you; praying that at last we may be so happy as to meet in His Kingdom to enjoy his presence forever. (Mercy Partridge Whitney Journal)

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