Charles Coffin Harris was born on June 9, 1822 in the township of Newington, a small suburb of the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, eldest son of William Coffin and Mary (Johnson) Harris.
Coffin was educated in his father’s school until he was fifteen, when he then entered Harvard College in 1837 – he graduated from Harvard in 1841. Upon leaving college he returned to Portsmouth, and engaged for a time in the occupation of teaching, at the same time commencing the study of law. He married his cousin, Harriet M Harris.
“On the discovery of gold in California, and the breaking out in the East of what was termed the ‘gold fever,’ he deemed it a good opportunity, like many another of our New England men, to ‘’break away’ from his New England life and seek his fortune and his fame on the Pacific shores, and accordingly embarked for California, and arrived, in the youth and vigor of his manhood, at San Francisco, early in May, 1850.”
“Of course, there had been no planting as yet in California, and the price of vegetables brought from the Hawaiian Islands was so enormous, that Mr. Harris was induced to embark in an enterprise to procure them from the islands, and having procured a vessel which had brought many of his townsmen to San Francisco, he embarked with his two brothers, Thomas and Abel, who were both sea-faring men, in this enterprise, and arrived at Honolulu in August, 1850. (Granite Monthly, April 1882)
“He arrived at the Islands still a young man – during the formation period of our history, and entering our then infant country as a practitioner, and occasionally our Legislature as a representative – he contributed to the growth of the superstructure of jurisprudence which exists to-day in this Kingdom.” (Judd)
In September of that year (1850) the two young princes, – Alexander Liholilho, who was afterwards King Kamehameha IV, and Lot Kamehameha, who was afterwards King Kamehameha V, – arrived home from their American and European tour.”
“He immediately became intimate with them, and this intimacy, perhaps, determined his fate. This intimacy was somewhat interrupted in the case of Prince Liholiho, during the first year of his reign, though resumed during the last years.”
“But in the case of Kamehameha V it continued uninterrupted to his death. His first public employment was that of police magistrate of Honolulu in the year 1851. He was elected representative for one of the districts of the Island of Hawaii in 1852.”
“His wife with their infant son arrived from Boston, January 1, 1852, and from that time his residence there may be regarded as permanent.” (Granite Monthly, April 1882)
“He continued to practice law with marked success. In 1862, a law was passed, creating the office of attorney-general of the kingdom, and to which office he was appointed on the 26th of August, 1862 by Kamehameha IV.”
“This king died 30th of November, 1863, and was succeeded by his brother, Kamehameha V, and Mr. Harris was immediately appointed minister of the interior, ad interim.”
“He was a member of the Privy Council of state, and continued to hold the office of attorney-general until the 22d of December, 1865.”
“In March, 1867, he received the appointment of minister at Washington, and having returned here in 1868, he resumed the duties of Minister of Finance, in which office he continued until December 20, 1869, when he was appointed minister for foreign affairs, which office he resigned on the 10th of September, 1872.”
“At the death of Lunalilo without heirs, Prince Kalākaua was elected king by the legislature on the 12th of February, 1874, and Mr. Harris was appointed at once first associate justice of the supreme court, and on the resignation of Chief Justice Allen on the 1st of February, 1877, Mr. Harris was appointed chief justice of the supreme court and chancellor of the kingdom.” (Granite Monthly, April 1882)
“Harris is six feet high, bony and rather slender, middle-aged; has long, ungainly arms; stands so straight that he leans back a little; has small side whiskers; from my distance his eyes seemed blue, and his teeth looked too regular and too white for an honest man …”
“… he has a long head the wrong way – that is, up and down; and a bogus Roman nose and a great, long, cadaverous undertaker’s countenance”. (Twain)
“(B)y the death of Chief Justice Harris, the interests of the Hawaiian Kingdom have sustained a great loss”. (Hawaii Bar) “It may be truly said that no important measure of this Government, for years, has been taken without consultation with him. The Government leaned upon him as upon a sure stay and support. There is indeed nobody to fill his place.”
“With a love for this country where he had spent the greater part of his life, equal to that which he bore to America, the land of his birth, he had for its prosperity a brooding anxiety, which rendered every public act, and its results a matter of intense personal interest to him.” (Castle)
“He was a strong man – strong in having a tenacity and force of will which never lost sight of its objects, and was untiring in their accomplishment; strong in a mind stored with the facts and details in this country for over thirty years, with a retentive rnemory which never failed him; strong in power to discern the weakness or tricks of others. No one ever deceived him.” (Hartwell)
“Throughout Harris’s lifetime in the islands, the possibility of the kingdom being annexed by a foreign power was a constant concern. France, Great Britain, Russia, and Japan were all at one time or another viewed as threats to the continued sovereignty of the monarchs.”
“It was the United States of America, however, that loomed largest among the world powers in the affairs of the little country. Sometimes the pressure for annexation by the United States came from within the islands themselves, where some plantation owners viewed annexation as a way of opening up American markets to their sugar crop.”
“Sometimes the pressure came from within the United States, from those who viewed the islands as strategic to economic and military expansion into the Pacific.” (Harris)
During the reign of Kamehameha V, “Believing that a convention was the most legal way to make the necessary revisions to the constitution, Harris advised the king to issue a proclamation calling a convention together. This caused considerable upheaval within the islands, and when an election was held to select delegates to the convention, the majority of voters demonstrated some unhappiness with the course the king had chosen.”
“Of the elected delegates to the convention, the majority belonged or were sympathetic to the rival missionary party. The other delegates to the convention, however, were made up of the upper house of the legislature, which more generally favored the king and his program of constitutional reform.”
“Voting rights quickly became the primary topic of discussion at the convention, for it was on this issue that the true power to control the future of the kingdom would turn. Some were convinced that if the convention failed to adopt a new constitution, the monarchy would collapse.”
“Others, particularly the annexationists, were hoping for just such a result so that a revolution could be initiated, deposing the king and inviting the United States to take over the islands. Neither side was willing to compromise, and the convention deadlocked.”
“With such ominous consequences a possibility, the king, in an effort to preserve the monarchy and the independence of the islands, proclaimed that the constitution of 1852 was abrogated and announced that he would grant the kingdom a new constitution. The convention dissolved and for a short time the Hawaiian kingdom was an absolute autocracy.”
“Within a few days, the cabinet, using Harris’s draft constitution as a basis, completed a new constitution, which Kamehameha V swore to uphold. Some within the government thought the new constitution would be met with violence.”
“However, it was not only accepted, it survived in effect for 23 years, longer than any other constitution under the Hawaiian monarchs, and received favorable reaction outside the islands.” (Harris)
His first wife died in March 1870; on May 1, 1879 he married Ella Fessenden Tiffany, daughter of his predecessor Elisha Hunt Allen.
“A great shock was experienced by the community last Saturday (July 2, 1881) when the news gradually crept round the city that the Chief Justice had died suddenly at his residence at Waikiki.” (Hawaiian Gazette, July 6, 1881)
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