Happy Father’s Day!
250 Years Ago … Continental Army
The colonies are abuzz following the adjournment of the First Continental Congress. As colonists deliberated and implemented Congress’s mandates, they also pondered the future of their relationship with Great Britain. How will the King respond to Congress’s petition? Will the proposed Association (a comprehensive non-importation and non-exportation scheme) force Parliament to repeal the Coercive Acts? Colonists wait only a few short months for an answer.
On February 3, 1775 Abigail Adams wrote to Mercy Otis Warren, reporting among other things, “The die is cast … but it seems to me the Sword is now our only, yet dreadful alternative”.
Forming the Continental Army and Naming Its Commander in Chief
America’s Revolutionary War began on April 19, 1775 with exchanges of musketry between British regulars and Massachusetts militiamen at Lexington and Concord, as many delegates were already enroute to Philadelphia, where Congress was scheduled to convene on May 10, 1775.
When the delegates to the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia on May 10, they soon learned that armed men commanded by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold had captured the British forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point on Lake Champlain in New York.
The New England colonists reacted to this news by raising four separate armies. With remarkable speed, committees of correspondence spread the traumatic news of Lexington and Concord beyond the borders of Massachusetts.
On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress adopted “the American continental army” after reaching a consensus position in the Committee of the Whole. This procedure and the desire for secrecy account for the sparseness of the official journal entries for the day.
On June 15, Congress unanimously chose George Washington. Washington had been active in the military planning committees of Congress and by late May had taken to wearing his old uniform.
Preparing the Continental Army to Go to War
Washington was also to prepare and to send to Congress an accurate strength return of that army. On the other hand, instructions to keep the army obedient, diligent, and disciplined were rather vague. The Commander in Chief’s right to make strategic and tactical decisions on purely military grounds was limited only by a requirement to listen to the advice of a council of war.
Within a set troop maximum, including volunteers, Washington had the right to determine how many men to retain, and he had the power to fill temporarily any vacancies below the rank of colonel. Permanent promotions and appointments were reserved for the colonial governments to make.
The record indicates only that Congress undertook to raise ten companies of riflemen, approved an enlistment form for them, and appointed a committee (including Washington and Schuyler) to draft rules and regulations “for the government of the army.”
The delegates’ correspondence, diaries, and subsequent actions make it clear that they really did much more. They also accepted responsibility for the existing New England troops and the forces requested for the defense of the various points in New York. The former were believed to total 10,000 men; the latter, both New Yorkers and Connecticut men, another 5,000.
By the third week in June delegates were referring to 15,000 at Boston. Meanwhile, the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775 forced many delegates to rethink their position on reconciliation. As accounts of the battle reach Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson are drafting the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking up Arms. John Adams calls the document a spirited Manifesto.
When on June 19 Congress requested the governments of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire to forward to Boston “such of the forces as are already embodied, towards their quotas of the troops agreed to be raised by the New England Colonies,” it gave a clear indication of its intent to adopt the regional army. Discussions the next day indicated that Congress was prepared to support a force at Boston twice the size of the British garrison, and that it was unwilling to order any existing units to be disbanded.
Congress then took steps for issuing paper money to finance the army, and on June 30 it adopted the Articles of War.
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (1775 – 1783) was an insurrection by which 13 of Great Britain’s North American colonies that won political independence and went on to form the United States of America.
The war followed more than a decade of growing estrangement between the British crown and a large and influential segment of its North American colonies that was caused by British attempts to assert greater control over colonial affairs after having long adhered to a policy of salutary neglect.
By the time the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776, the Thirteen Colonies (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia) and Great Britain had been at war for more than a year.
At any given time, however, the American forces seldom numbered over 20,000; in 1781 there were only about 29,000 revolutionaries under arms throughout the country.
By contrast, the British army was a reliable steady force of professionals. Since it numbered only about 42,000, heavy recruiting programs were introduced.
Because troops were few and conscription unknown, the British government, following a traditional policy, purchased about 30,000 troops from various German princes.
An estimated 6,800 Americans were killed in action, 6,100 wounded, and upwards of 20,000 were taken prisoner. Historians believe that at least an additional 17,000 deaths were the result of disease, including about 8,000–12,000 who died while prisoners of war.
Unreliable data places the total casualties for British regulars fighting in the Revolutionary War around 24,000 men. This total number includes battlefield deaths and injuries, deaths from disease, men taken prisoner, and those who remained missing. Approximately 1,200 Hessian soldiers were killed, 6,354 died of disease and another 5,500 deserted and settled in America afterward. (Battlefield)
Click the following links to general summaries about the Continental Army:
Papaʻi Bay
At the time of Captain Cook’s arrival (1778-1779), the Hawaiian Islands were divided into four kingdoms: (1) the island of Hawaiʻi under the rule of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who also had possession of the Hāna district of east Maui; (2) Maui (except the Hāna district,) Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and (4) Kauaʻi and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.
Kalaniʻōpuʻu died shortly thereafter (1782.) Before his death, Kalaniʻōpuʻu gave an command to Kiwalaʻo and Kamehameha, and to all the chiefs, thus: “Boys, listen, both of you. The heir to the kingdom of Hawaii nei, comprising the three divisions of land, Kaʻū̄, Kona and Kohala, shall be the chief Kiwalaʻo. He is the heir to the lands.” (Fornander)
“As regarding you, Kamehameha, there is no land or property for you; but your land and your endowment shall be the god Kaili (Kūkaʻilimoku.) If, during life, your lord should molest you, take possession of the kingdom; but if the molestation be on your part, you will be deprived of the god.” These words of Kalaniʻōpuʻu were fulfilled in the days of their youth, and his injunction was realized. (Fornander)
Following Kalaniʻōpuʻu’s death in 1782, and following his wishes, the kingship was inherited by his son Kīwalaʻō; Kamehameha (Kīwalaʻō’s cousin) was given guardianship of the Hawaiian god of war, Kūkaʻilimoku.)
A number of chiefs (both under Kiwalaʻo and Kamehameha were dissatisfied with subsequent redistricting of the lands; civil war ensued between Kīwalaʻō’s forces and the various chiefs under the leadership of Kamehameha.
In the first major skirmish, in the battle of Mokuʻōhai (a fight between Kamehameha and Kiwalaʻo in July, 1782 at Keʻei, south of Kealakekua Bay on the Island of Hawaiʻi,) Kiwalaʻo was killed.
Then, in 1783, following an unsuccessful battle against Keawemauhili and Keōua; Kamehameha sailed to Puna for a surprise attack on some of the warriors against whom the recent battle had been fought.
He went to Papaʻi Bay (Lit. Crab fishermen’s shed; an old village site coastal point of Keaʻau – now called Kings Landing.) Nearby is a māwae (crack, fissure, crevice,) the boundary between Waiakea, Hilo and Keaʻau, Puna.
People there saw that the newcomers were strangers. When asked who they were, someone called out, “It is Kamehameha!” Then the people were filled with fear, for the prowess of the chief was well known and greatly feared.
Kamehameha, commanding the others not to follow, leaped from the canoe to attack two stalwart natives who had been aiding the weak to escape.
A fisherman turned and threw his fishnet over the pursuing chief, causing him to fall down upon the sharp lava. Then he tore the nets which entangled him and again rushed heedlessly on. While straining himself to see where the men were running, his foot broke through a thin shell of lava into a crevice (some suggest it was in the māwae.) To pull it up was impossible.
The men turned back and struck at him with their paddles, but after a few blows the paddles were destroyed. The men ran away. (Westervelt)
Years passed; the memory of that trip made in 1783 to Puna for the sake of robbery and possible murder. The king wondered what had become of the men who had attacked him. He had gone to Hilo (sometime between 1796 and 1802,) determined to find the men of the splintered paddle.
They were captured and when they saw Kamehameha they bowed their heads, hoping to escape recognition. But this revealed them at once to Kamehameha, and he approached them with the command to raise their heads. It was an interesting scene when these common men were brought before the chiefs for final judgment. It is said the chief asked them if they were not at the sea of Papaʻi.
They assented. Then came the question to two of them: “You two perhaps are the men who broke the paddle on my head?” They acknowledged the deed.
Then Kamehameha he said: “Listen! I attacked the innocent and the defenseless. This was not right.
In the future no man in my kingdom shall have the right to make excursions for robbery without punishment, he be chief or priest. I make the law, the new law, for the safety of all men under my government.
If any man plunders or murders the defenseless or the innocent he shall be punished. This law is given in memory of my steersman and shall be known as ‘Ke Kana-wai Ma-mala-hoa,’ or the law of the friend and the broken oars. The old man or the old woman or the child may lie down to sleep by the roadside and none shall injure them.”
The original 1797 law:
Kānāwai Māmalahoe (in Hawaiian:):
E nā kānaka,
E mālama ʻoukou i ke akua
A e mālama hoʻi ke kanaka nui a me kanaka iki;
E hele ka ‘elemakule, ka luahine, a me ke kama
A moe i ke ala
‘A‘ohe mea nāna e ho‘opilikia.
Hewa nō, make.
Law of the Splintered Paddle (English translation:)
Oh people,
Honor thy gods;
Respect alike [the rights of]
People both great and humble;
See to it that our aged,
Our women and our children
Lie down to sleep by the roadside
Without fear of harm.
Disobey, and die.
Kamehameha’s Law of the Splintered Paddle of 1797 is enshrined in the State constitution, Article 9, Section 10: The law of the splintered paddle, Māmalahoe Kānāwai, decreed by Kamehameha I – Let every elderly person, woman and child lie by the roadside in safety – shall be a unique and living symbol of the State’s concern for public safety. The State shall have the power to provide for the safety of the people from crimes against persons and property.
Kānāwai Māmalahoe appears as a symbol of crossed paddles in the center of the badge of the Honolulu Police Department. A plaque, facing mauka on the Kamehameha Statue outside Aliʻiōlani Hale in Honolulu, notes the Law of the Splintered Paddle.
Kamehameha-Splintered Paddle
Posing for a Statue
John Tamatao Baker “was born at [Wailupe], Oahu, in 1852, and was educated at Lahainaluna school on Maui. He began life by entering plantation work on that island, later coming to Honolulu.” (Jean Charlot)
“Baker was of Hawaiian, haole, and Tahitian descent, his grandfather having come to Hawaiʻi from Tahiti with the missionary William Ellis.” (Kanaeokana)
“He became attached to the household of King Kalakaua and married [Chiefess Ululani Lewai Peleioholani]. On Feb 12, 1878, he was made a captain in the household guard and in 1884 was made adjutant of the military police. During the same year he became a member of the privy council.”
“King Kalakaua appointed Baker high sheriff of Hawaii in 1887, his wife having been made governess of that island the preceding year. After the office of governess was abolished, he was named governor, retiring from that post in 1893.”
“In later years of his life, Baker traveled a great deal, visiting Europe and the South Seas islands. He always took an interest in politics and was notes as a scholar in both the English and Hawaiian languages.”
“He is best known, perhaps, as the original of the statute of King Kamehameha, for which he was asked to pose, due to the striking likeness to the ancient ruler.” (Advertiser, Sep 8, 1921) “Likeness refers to a likeness of features rather than of body.” (Charlot)
“Gibson refers to Robert Hoapili Baker in different terms: ‘The artist has copied closely the fine physique of Hoapili of whom photos were sent by the committee and it presents a noble illustration of superior Hawaiian manhood.’” (Charlot)
Actually, Baker, his brother Robert Hoapili Baker and an unnamed fisherman served as models for the Kamehameha Statue. The imagery used by the sculptor was a composite of the three.
(John and Robert were raised as brothers but they were ‘step’ brothers – their mothers were sisters and had both married Captain Adam Baker, yet John is the only biological son of Captain Baker, so they were cousins. (House of Kamakahelei))
A layman, looking at the photo “posed by John T. Baker, is struck by its obvious resemblance to the finished statue and considers this to be a clinching argument.”
“A practicing artist, however, knowing the many successive steps that go into the making of a statue on a heroic scale, knows that this cannot be the whole story.”
“[T]he sculptor, Thomas R. Gould, required much more than the surface data offered by [the single photograph]. To take a famous example of a sculptor’s point of view, in the 1890s Auguste Rodin started working on his statue of Balzac by doing a number of studies after the nude model.”
“Only as a final step did he wrap around the body a loose dressing gown that hides all his hardwon anatomical knowledge, only the head of his Balzac left visible.”
“Gould, an older man, nurtured on classical art, similarly required at the start factual data concerning the Polynesian body, as distinct from the Greco-Roman body he knew so well from statues.”
The initial “photos arrived in April 1879. Gould acknowledges receipt to Brewer, who acted as an agent for [Walter Murray] Gibson: ‘(Received) five photos, three of them being a nude native Hawaiian, and the other two a Hawaiian in the royal feather cloak and baldric, with helmet and spear, countersigned by the King.’” (Jean Charlot)
“Bronze casts by sculptor Thomas R. Gould from the original 1881 mold are now located in Kapaʻau, Hawaiʻi Island, Honolulu, Hilo and in the Hall of Statues in the United States Congress building in Washington, D.C.”
“As was the convention of the time, John [Baker] posed in full Hawaiian attire, but wearing dyed-brown long-johns covering his skin. The photographer minimized this fact, though the covering on the right wrist is quite distinct.”
“Gould worked from a pastiche of the brothers’ photographs and probably another photograph of a muscular man modeling for the legs.”
“The photograph shows the composite model image as Kamehameha in aliʻi (chiefly class) feather robe, helmet, and breechcloth and a holding a lance.” (BOH, Honokaa, NPS)
At the request of the monument committee, statue designer Thomas R Gould modified the features to make the king seem about 45-years old. The intent was a bronze statue of ‘heroic size’ (about eight-and-a-half-feet tall.)
‘Boston Evening Transcript’ of September 28, 1878, noted “It has been thought fitting that Boston, which first sent Christian teachers and ships of commerce to the Islands, should have the honor of furnishing this commemorative monument.”
While Gould was a Bostonian, he was studying in Italy, where he designed the statue; ultimately, the statue was cast in bronze in Paris.
It was shipped on August 21, 1880, by the bark ‘GF Haendel,’ and was expected about mid-December. On February 22, 1881, came word that the Haendel had gone down November 15, 1880, off the Falkland Islands. All the cargo had been lost.
However, the original statue had been recovered and was in fair condition. The right hand was broken off near the wrist, the spear was broken and the feather cape had a hole in it. It was taken to a shed at Aliʻiolani Hale to be repaired.
As for the original statue (which had been repaired,) it was dedicated on May 8, 1883 (the anniversary of Kamehameha’s death) and is in Kapaʻau, North Kohala outside Kohala’s community/senior center.
Meanwhile, on January 31, 1883, the replica ordered by Kohala arrived. On February 14, 1883, the replica statue was unveiled at Aliʻiolani Hale during the coronation ceremonies for King Kalākaua.
The resemblance of the statute to Baker followed him; “John Baker has come to San Francisco to be a human being for a change, instead of a statue. Baker made his home in Honolulu for many years.
“In the islands he is a most famous character. For it was Baker who posed for the celebrated statue of King Kamehameha, because of the strong resemblance he bore to the ancient ruler of the tropic isles.”
“But when tourists saw the statue and then saw him, it often became uncomfortable, for he was frequently taken for the real article by those who did not know that the Kamehamehas have long since ceased to walk the earth.”(San Francisco Daily News, Nov 1915; SB Sept 07, 1921)
Kamehameha Statue is Centennial Commemoration Honoring Captain Cook
The Kamehameha statue standing at Kapa‘au and in front of Ali‘ilolani Hale (now home of the Hawai‘i Supreme court and, effectively, the other duplicates) is a “commemorative of the centennial of the discovery of this Archipelago by Cook”. (PCA, May 19, 1882)
“In 1878 the Kingdom of Hawaii, with King Kalakaua at its head, honored Captain Cook at the centenary celebration of discovery. The permanent memorial established in Honolulu at that time was the splendid statue of Kamehameha the Great which stands upon a high pedestal in front of the Judiciary Building.” (Taylor)
“A great many plans have been proposed and suggestions made whereby the memory of the great navigator might be suitably recognized and perpetuated by our residents.”
“On the eve of the day celebrated the glee troupes of Lahaina, who can boast of a preeminence in the sweet chorus singing peculiar to Hawaiians, with some commemorative of the coming of Captain Cook”. (PCA, Jan 26, 1878)
“January 18, 1878, was the anniversary of the landing of Captain Cook on these Islands – one hundred years ago. The event was commemorated by our people with becoming reverence.”
“The Hawaiian citizens, assisted by the English speaking residents, made such preparations for the event as they could, in order to testify their appreciation of a century of time in the history of the Hawaiian group with all its mutations, whether for good or otherwise in the history of the race.” (Hawaiian Gazette, Jan 23, 1878)
“When this great navigator was prosecuting his researches throughout partially explored oceans, it was the appreciated by several enlightened nations that his enterprise was in behalf of humanity …”
“… and though these nations were then at war with each other their Governments issued commands to their officers by land and sea that the navigator Cook should be permitted to voyage in peace, and if needed be even helped on his way …”
“… and thus America, my country, and also France took part by their protection of the English Captain Cook, in discovery of these Islands”. (Gibson address at the Celebration of the Centennial of Discovery, PCA Feb 2, 1878)
“The centennial of the discovery of the Sandwich Islands by Captain Cook in 1778 is to be commemorated with a bronze statue, heroic size, of Kamehameha, the conqueror and organizer of the Islands.”
“The Legislative Assembly of the Sandwich Islands at Honolulu, composed largely of descendants of Kamehameha’s warriors, many grandsons of tattooed chiefs who carried on savage warfare at the close of the last century, voted unanimously in August last the sum of ten thousand dollars for a work of art to commemorate their country’s hero and their centennial era.” (PCA, Nov 9, 1878)
“The Legislative Assembly, during the Session of 1878, appointed a Special Committee [Gibson, Kapena, Kaai, Cleghorn, and Nawahi] to take charge of the design and execution of a monument to commemorate the centennial of the discovery of the Archipelago [and] a statue of Kamehameha I, the founder of the Kingdom, was chosen as the proper subject for a commemorative centennial monument.”. (Report of Committee, PCA, May 22, 1880)
“Selecting Kamehameha as the subject for a national monument was influenced by international recognition of the Conqueror’s heroism and character. Captains James Cook and George Vancouver published praiseworthy descriptions of Kamehameha in the late eighteenth century; invariably, they described him as dignified, astute, graceful, and physically powerful.” (Kamehiro)
In 1878, the Legislature passed and King Kalakaua approved (Aug 5, 1878) an appropriation of $10,000 for “Centennial Monument” to commemorate the centennial of the arrival of Captain James Cook. (Laws of His Majesty Kalakaua, King of the Hawaiian Islands, Passed by the Legislative Assembly, at its Session, 1878)
In addition, King Kalakaua visited the Captain Cook Monument at Ka‘awaloa in 1878 during the Kingdom of Hawai‘i’s centenary celebration of western discovery. (Research Institute of Hawai‘i)
“The U.S. Centennial Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia prompted Walter Murray Gibson to organize similar observances for Hawaii.” (Kamehiro)
“The great centennial of America and its celebration are fresh in our memories. By commemorating notable periods, nations renew as they review their national life. And they mark the commemoration with some monument or memorial.”
“Usually it was a temple or a statue, or a medal. In modern times, eras are marked by exhibitions of material progress, as well as works of art.”
“We have neglected our opportunity for an exhibition of our material progress, but we can mark the close of our epoch by some work of art.” (Speech of Hon. W. M. Gibson before the Hawaiian Legislature, 1878)
“During the legislative session of 1878, Gibson, then a freshman representative for Lahaina (Maui), proposed a centennial day of observance of British explorer Captain James Cook’s arrival in the Islands in 1778 and a monument to be erected for the occasion.”
“He suggested that the monument should memorialize Kamehameha I, the ali‘i nui whose legendary skills in leadership permitted “the introduction of this archipelago to the knowledge of the civilized world”:
“[Kamehameha] was among the first to greet the discoverer Cook on board his ship in 1778 . . . and this Hawaiian chief ’s great mind, though a mere youth then, well appreciated the mighty changes that must follow after the arrival of the white strangers.”
“He met destiny with the mind of a philosopher and a patriot, and Kamehameha, the barbarian conqueror, welcomed the new era with the spirit of an enlightened statesman; he made the white men his friends.” (Gibson before the Hawaiian Legislature, 1878)
“The bronze monument honoring Kamehameha I, also known as “the Conqueror”, is perhaps the most widely recognized and frequently photographed public artwork in Hawai‘i.”
“Larger than life size and poised on a ten-foot pedestal, the portrait depicts Kamehameha arrayed in golden garments, supporting a tall, barbed spear in his left hand, and beckoning to his people with his outstretched right arm.” (Kamehiro)
In addition, four reliefs and accompanying interpretive brass markers noting periods in Kamehameha’s life are on the pedestal and surrounding ring around the statue, noting, Display of Courage-Kamehameha as a boy; Law of the Splintered Paddle; Ka ‘Au Wa‘a Peleleu- Kamehameha surveying his armada; and Aboard the Resolution-Kamehameha meeting with Captain Cook.
“Since its unveiling in 1883, travel writing and popular publications have often featured this sculpture; it is a favorite among postcard images, and replicas have been viewed by international audiences at world fairs and in the Statuary Hall of the United States Capitol subsequent to its dedication in 1969.” (Kamehiro)
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