“John Kaulukou, ‘racked native candidates who sympathized with Caucasians … after carefully piling up factual evidence against his opposition concluded … that his native opponents ‘kissed the hoofs’ and ‘did the bidding’ of white enemies of the Hawaiian race, and that they ‘wanted to run the country in their own interests.’” (Osorio)
John Lota Kaulukou was speaker of the House of Representative of the Kingdom of Hawaii of the district of Honolulu from 1880 to 1886 and also served in many posts including Postmaster General, Attorney General (October 13, 1886 – October 23, 1886) and Marshal of the Kingdom.
Kaulukou was the leading native lawyer in Honolulu, a man of strong native sense and force, with much combativeness and insistence, but genial manner. (Bishop)
As an ardent Royalist, he’d been a strong supporter of Kalākaua and was outspoken in his opposition to the ‘Bayonet Constitution’ of 1887, which weakened Kalākaua’s power to rule and restricted voting rights only to Hawaiian, American, and European men, provided they met prescribed economic and literacy tests. (Soboleski)
When Kalākaua’s Hale Nauā Society was forming, at its initial meeting on September 20, 1886 were King Kalākaua and Queen Kapiʻolani … members included John Lota Kaulukou, elected representative in the Hawaiian legislature during the 1880s. (HJH)
According to its constitution, the society was “the revival of Ancient Sciences of Hawaii in combination with the promotion and advancement of Modern Sciences, Art, Literature, and Philanthropy.” (Daws)
The original hale nauā scrutinized the genealogical qualifications of those who claimed relationship to the chiefs, as Hawaiian historian David Malo described in a short passage of Moʻolelo Hawaiʻi.
The doings at the house were conducted in the following manner. When the king had entered the house and taken his seat, in the midst of a large assembly of people including many skilled genealogists, two guards were posted outside at the gate of the pa. (The guards were called kaikuono.) (Malo)
If the genealogists who were sitting with the king recognized a suitable relationship to exist between the ancestry of the candidate and that of the king he was approved of. (Malo)
“(O)n or about 2:30 pm of the 17th day of January last (1893,) it had been declared in front of the Government building a new form of government for Hawai‘i nei known as the ‘Provisional Government’ …”
“… that at the said time the troops of the Boston were lined between the Government building and the Arion Hall, and well supplied with ammunition and Gatling guns, which were faced to the palace, where Her Majesty the Queen, was then residing”.
“(T)he Provisional Government at the aforesaid time had only 50 armed men, more or less, and it could have been suppressed by the guards of the Queen’s Government in a short time …”
“… at the aforesaid time Her Majesty Queen Liliuokalani was residing in the palace and had charge of that building, the barracks, the guards, and the ammunition, and also the police station, where Marshal Chas. B. Wilson, the constables, and those who lent their assistance to Her Majesty the Queen’s Government, who have been well armed.”
“That at the aforesaid time the said buildings, the police force, and the other public buildings were riot under the charge of the Provisional Government, and that in or about 2:45 pm of said date …”
“… Chas L Hopkins took a communication from the Queen’s cabinet from the police station, where they were then, to JL Stevens, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States of America, residing at the court of the Hawaiian Islands”.
“ (O)n or about 3:15 pm of said date the said Chas L Hopkins returned to the said police station with a letter from said JL Stevens; and that after that it had been announced to the public, who were there then …”
“… that said United States minister, JL Stevens, had recognized the Provisional Government of the Hawaiian Islands, and will back and help the said Provisional Government, and not to Her Majesty the Queen’s Government.” (Affidavit of John Lota Kaulukou; Report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, May 18, 1894)
While a Royalist, he appears to appreciate the actual political situation of Hawai‘i better than a majority of the natives, and seems likely to be of service to his countrymen. (Bishop)
“I regard Annexation as the best thing that could happen for Hawaii, both native and foreign population. I have advocated it ever since it became an issue in political politics and I rejoice heartily that it has come.”
“For years I have looked upon it as being, if not inevitable, at least as the only way in which the best interests of Hawaii could be protected and advanced.”
“The Queen and some of her partisans were then striving for an entirely new Constitution. … The platform upon which I went before the people was that an attempt to replace the then Constitution with an entirely new instrument was, in the condition of affairs that existed at that time, dangerous both to the Queen and to the Native Hawaiians.”
“I urged that the better way was to secure the changes that seemed desirable by amendment. I told the people that the country was in no mood to submit to the Queen’s notions of unlimited power, and that if the effort to entirely overthrow the constitution and replace it with a new one were persisted in, there would be an end of monarchy.”
“I said that the interests of the natives and of the foreign residents were identical; that both wanted a stable, efficient and well-administered government, and that the way to this lay through representative government, and not through unlimited monarchy.”
“I said that what the Hawaiians needed was better schools, better public improvements and more of them, an equitable assessment of taxes and an honest administration of the revenues for public purposes, and not more power in the monarchy and more … display and ostentation in the court.” (John Lot Kaulukou; San Francisco Chronicle, July 28, 1898)
“With the establishment of the Provisional Government and the Republic, I advised my people to take the oath of allegiance, to take part in public affairs and to join with the ‘haoles’ …”
“… among whom were many of their best friends and very many of their best advisers, in securing good government and that advance in material and intellectual prosperity which our race pride made us believe was within our power and the achievements of some of our people have demonstrated that it is so.”
“In annexation, I saw, or thought I saw, that stability of government and constant source of influence and association in governmental, social and educational affairs which would enable the Hawaiian people to develop and advance to the plane of the highest civilization.”
“I, too, am an Hawaiian. These islands bear in their bosom the bones of my ancestors to the remotest generation. I am proud of my race. I am proud of my nationality. But in annexation I see a larger place for my race, and the stream of national life merging in a still larger national life will flow in deeper and wider channels, in larger and more widespread influence.”
“I shall, as I have done in the past, urge my people to take part in public affairs, to cultivate both individual and civic virtues, to be Americans in that enjoyment and exercise of liberty which is the birthright of an American, as it is the greatest guarantee of race progress and national perpetuity.” (John Lot Kaulukou; San Francisco Chronicle, July 28, 1898)
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