Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Katsu Kobayakawa Goto

“Early on the morning of the 29th the body of K. Goto, a Japanese storekeeper, was found hanging to a telephone post not far from the Honokaa court house between that and the Lyceum, with his arms tied behind him and his legs also tied.  He had been dead several hours.”  (Daily Bulletin, October 30, 1889)

Katsu Kobayakawa was the eldest son of Izaemon Kobayakawa.  Katsu (Jun) was born in the Kanagawa Prefecture in 1862.  He worked as a store clerk in Yokohama, where he became fluent in English by associating with Englishmen and Americans.  (Nakano)

He was anxious to go to Hawaiʻi; but being the first born son, he was expected to take over the family business.  Katsu changed his surname to Goto so he could travel Hawaiʻi to make a better living for himself.

In the Islands, Hawai‘i’s economy turned toward sugar in the decades between 1860 and 1880; these twenty years were pivotal in building the plantation system.  By 1883, more than 50-plantations were producing sugar on five islands.

A shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge; the answer was imported labor.  The first to arrive were the Chinese (1852.)

In March 1881, King Kalākaua visited Japan during which he discussed with Emperor Meiji Hawaiʻi’s desire to encourage Japanese nationals to settle in Hawaiʻi; this improved the relationship of the Hawaiian Kingdom with the Japanese government. (Nordyke/Matsumoto)

The first 944-government-sponsored, Kanyaku Imin, Japanese immigrants to Hawaiʻi arrived in Honolulu aboard the SS City of Tokio on February 8, 1885.  Katsu was on that first boatload of Japanese immigrants, included with 676-men, 158-women and 110-children on the first of 26 shiploads of government contract Japanese immigrants between 1885 and 1894.

Katsu fulfilled his 3-year contract commitment, working in the Hāmākua sugarcane fields.  After that, he took over a small, general merchandise store previously run by Bunichiro Onome in Honokaʻa, then the Island’s second largest town.  (Niiya)

He was very successful selling to the Japanese, native Hawaiian and haole population and was soon viewed as leader in the Japanese immigrant community. (Kubota)

On October 28, 1889 Goto was killed.

Four were accused and stood trial: Joseph R Mills, Thomas Steele, William C Blabon and William D Watson.

Steele was Overend’s overseer.  Blabon was teamster for Mills.  Watson was head teamster for Overend and a former employee of Mills.

Deputy Attorney-General Arthur Porter Peterson notes, “The prosecution would show that Goto was not killed while hanging to the telephone pole, but when he was waylaid and dragged from his horse, and was only hung to the post as an act of bravado, within sight and almost within sound of the temple of justice.”  (Daily Bulletin, May 13, 1890)

Some suggest the motive for killing Goto was a fire at the Robert McLain Overend plantation.  Testimony at trial noted, “Mills had told me that Goto had been up to Overend’s camp. Mr. Overend’s cane field was set fire October 19th, a little after 9 o’clock.”

“We had Goto for an interpreter, and he did not act on the square, and a new interpreter was got and he gave matters away. I only heard Mr. Overend say that he would break his damned neck.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, May 20, 1890)

Others note Goto was successful in his store and other store operators were concerned about losing business because of him.  Joseph R Mills operated a store a few yards from Goto’s (Goto was the only Japanese storekeeper in the area.)

The testimony of star witnesses Richmond and Lala, who had both taken part in the incident, yielded the following description of how Goto ultimately died.

“The two of them were summoned separately on the night that Goto was killed. Richmond was summoned by Steele and sent to watch for a Jap who would be leaving the (Japanese) living quarters on horseback”.

“When they got to where Mills and the others were waiting, Mills told him to grab the bridle of the horse that (Goto) would be riding toward them. After Richmond reported that (Goto) was on his way they lay in ambush.”

“Steele and Blabon dragged the man off the horse. … Steele, Blabon, Mills, and Watson carried him to a location away from the road where he was placed face down and his hands and feet bound. … Mills sent Richmond to pick up a rope at the foot of the telephone pole, a rope that, he found, already had a hangman’s knot at one end.”

“When he returned with the rope someone in the group said, ‘My God! He is dead.’ Richmond then bent over and put his hand over the man’s heart but could feel no heartbeat. …”

“The body was then carried over to the telephone pole. Watson threw the rope over the crossbar, Mills put the noose around Goto’s neck, and the body was hauled up and suspended.”  (Kubota)

After deliberating for more than six hours, the jury returned verdicts of manslaughter in the second degree for Steele and Mills, and manslaughter in the third degree for Blabon and Watson.  Judge Albert Francis Judd subsequently sentenced Mills and Steele to nine years imprisonment at hard labor, Blabon to five and Watson to four.

All four were transferred under guard from Hilo jail to Oʻahu Prison immediately after the trial. Steele later escaped and presumably stowed away on a ship bound for Australia; Blabon also escaped and probably stowed away, too.  Mills received a full pardon in 1894.  Watson was the only one to serve out his full sentence.

At the same time of the Goto killing, the Annual Meeting of the Planters’ Labor and Supply Company was being held.  They adopted a resolution against racial prejudice, resolving that they “strongly disapprove of every act and publication intended or calculated to excite any distrust or prejudice in the minds of the native Hawaiians against those of foreign birth or parentage, or to excite feelings of contempt or distrust toward the natives”.  (Daily Bulletin, October 29, 1889)

(Peterson was Attorney-General at the time of the overthrow in 1893. He was arrested and jailed by the Republic of Hawaiʻi in the aftermath of the 1895 Counter-Revolution and then exiled to San Francisco where he died of pneumonia.)

(Peterson had conferred upon him the decoration of the Imperial Order of the Sacred Treasure of Japan for services rendered to the Japanese Government.  (San Francisco Call, March 17, 1895))  (Lots of information here from Kubota.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The Last Battle

Kamehameha I began a war of conquest, winning his 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.

By 1795, having fought his last major battle at Nuʻuanu on O‘ahu with his superior use of modern weapons and western advisors, he subdued all other chiefdoms (with the exception of Kauai).

Then, Kamehameha launched his first invasion attempt on Kauai in April of 1796. About one-fourth of the way across the ocean channel between O‘ahu and Kauai a storm thwarted Kamehameha’s warriors when many of their canoes were swamped in the rough seas and stormy winds, and then were forced to turn back.

With Hawaiʻi Island under Kamehameha’s control, conflict, there, supposedly ended with the death of Keōua at Kawaihae Harbor in early-1792 and the placement of the vanquished chief’s body in the Heiau ‘o Puʻukoholā at Kawaihae.

However, after a short time, another chief entered into a power dispute with Kamehameha; his name was Nāmakehā (the brother of Kaʻiana, a chief of Kauai who had been killed in the Battle of Nuʻuanu.)

Previously, Kamehameha asked Nāmakehā (who lived in Kaʻū, Hawai‘i) for help in fighting Kalanikūpule and his Maui forces on O‘ahu, but Nāmakehā ignored the request.

Instead, Nāmakehā prepared a rebellion against Kamehameha to take place on Hawai‘i Island.

Hostilities erupted between the two that lasted from September 1796 to January 1797.

Kamehameha, on Oʻahu at the time, returned to his home island of Hawaiʻi with the bulk of his army to suppress the rebellion.  The battle took place at Kaipalaoa, Hilo.

Kamehameha defeated Nāmakehā.  The undisputed sovereignty of Kamehameha was thus established over the entire Island chain (except Kauai and Niʻihau.)

This was the final battle fought by Kamehameha to unite the archipelago.  (Kamehameha negotiated a settlement with King Kaumualiʻi for the control of Kauai and Niʻihau, in 1810.)

Although Kamehameha’s warriors had won the battle over Nāmakehā, they then turned their rage upon the villages and families of the vanquished. It so happens that this included the family of ʻŌpūkahaʻia, who had had supported Nāmakehā.  They fled to the mountains and hid for several days in a cave.

The warriors found the family and ultimately killed ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s parents and infant brother.  (ʻŌpūkahaʻia was captured, later trained as a Kahuna under his uncle, traveled to the continent and ultimately turned to Christianity and was the inspiration for the American missionaries to come to Hawaiʻi.)

Interestingly, it was about the same time of the Nāmakehā Rebellion that Kamehameha decreed Ke Kānāwai Māmalahoe (The Law of the Splintered Paddle.)

A story suggests that Kamehameha I was fighting on the Island of Hawaiʻi.  Chasing a couple fishermen (presumably with the intention to kill them), his leg was caught in the reef and, in defense, one of the fisherman hit him on the head with a paddle, which broke into pieces.

Kamehameha was able to escape (because the fisherman fled, rather than finishing him off.)  The story continues that Kamehameha learned from this experience and saw that it was wrong to misuse power by attacking innocent people.

Later, Kamehameha summoned the two fishermen.  When they came, he pardoned them and admitted his mistake by proclaiming a new law, Kānāwai Māmalahoe – Law of the Splintered Paddle.

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:  “Let every elderly person, woman and child lie by the roadside in safety”.  It has become a model for modern human rights law regarding the treatment of civilians and other non-combatants.

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 Ali‘iōlani Hale in Honolulu, notes the Law of the Splintered Paddle.

The image shows Kamehameha, as depicted by Herb Kane.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mail and Early Tourism

“Tourism means travel, and travel requires transportation. During most of the nineteenth century, visiting Hawaii meant crossing the vast Pacific Ocean on a sailing ship from San Francisco, a distance of some 2,100 miles.”

“At the height of the California gold rush (around 1850) diminutive schooners and brigs dominated the Hawaii trade. Carrying freight was their main business though passengers were also accommodated.”

“Before steamships ‘our business dealings with that port [San Francisco], which comprised more than all others combined…was dependent upon sailing vessels, which served also for passenger accommodation and mail opportunities, often weeks apart in arrival. Tourist travel was not encouraged thereby.’”

“It would require the arrival of regular steamship service to get tourism going in Hawaii.  Steamships provide greater speed and more predictable schedules than sailing vessels.”

“Mark Twain arrived in Honolulu on the steamship Ajax. Ajax’s inaugural round trip voyage from San Francisco arrived in Honolulu on January 27, 1866 with 68 passengers.” (UHERO)

Mark Twain’s travelogue Roughing It helped shape America’s image of the islands for 30-odd years: “On a certain bright morning the Islands hove in sight, lying low on the lonely sea, and everybody climbed to the upper deck to look.  After two thousand miles of watery solitude the vision was a welcome one.”

“As we approached, the imposing promontory of Diamond Head rose up out of the ocean its rugged front softened by the hazy distance, and presently the details of the land began to make themselves manifest: first the line of beach; then the plumed coacoanut trees of the tropics …”

“In place of roughs and rowdies staring and blackguarding on the corners, I saw long-haired, saddle-colored Sandwich Island maidens sitting on the ground in the shade of corner houses, gazing indolently at whatever or whoever happened along …”

“… instead of wretched cobble-stone pavements, I walked on a firm foundation of coral, built up from the bottom of the sea by the absurd but persevering insect of that name, with a light layer of lava and cinders overlying the coral, belched up out of fathomless perdition long ago through the seared and blackened crater that stands dead and harmless in the distance now …”

“… instead of cramped and crowded street-cars, I met dusky native women sweeping by, free as the wind, on fleet horses and astride, with gaudy riding-sashes, streaming like banners behind them …”

“… instead of the combined stenches of Chinadom and Brannan street slaughter-houses, I breathed the balmy fragrance of jessamine, oleander, and the Pride of India …”

“… in place of the hurry and bustle and noisy confusion of San Francisco, I moved in the midst of a Summer calm as tranquil as dawn in the Garden of Eden …”

“… in place of the Golden City’s skirting sand hills and the placid bay, I saw on the one side a frame-work of tall, precipitous mountains close at hand, clad in refreshing green, and cleft by deep, cool, chasm-like valleys – and in front the grand sweep of the ocean …”

“… a brilliant, transparent green near the shore, bound and bordered by a long white line of foamy spray dashing against the reef, and further out the dead blue water of the deep sea, flecked with ‘white caps,’ and in the far horizon a single, lonely sail – a mere accent-mark to emphasize a slumberous calm and a solitude that were without sound or limit.”

“When the sun sunk down – the one intruder from other realms and persistent in suggestions of them – it was tranced luxury to sit in the perfumed air and forget that there was any world but these enchanted islands.”  (Twain)

“After two round trips, the California Steam Navigation Company decided against offering further voyages because the service was unprofitable without government subsidy.”

“However, a year later the U.S. postmaster general contracted with the California, Oregon and Mexico Steamship Company to provide monthly mail service between San Francisco and Honolulu for a period of 10 years.”

“The steamship Idaho arrived in Honolulu under the provisions of the mail contract on September 17, 1867. That marked the beginning of regular steamship service between the U.S. mainland and Hawaii.” (UHERO)

“While freight and mail were the most important cargo between Australia and San Francisco, steamships also carried sizable number of passengers.”

“For example, the 11 steamships en route to San Francisco from Sydney and Auckland in 1875 carried a total of 1,121 passengers, 10 to Honolulu, 227 from Honolulu, and 884 were in-transit.”

“The 12 vessels en route to Auckland and Sydney from San Francisco carried a total of 855 passengers, 264 to Honolulu, 24 from Honolulu, and 567 were in-transit. Thus there were many more passengers passing through Honolulu than passengers going to Honolulu.”

“Pacific Mail maintained its service between Australia, Honolulu and San Francisco for an uneventful 9 years; the service ended after its mail contract expired on October 1, 1885. Oceanic Steamship Company stepped up to fill the void. …”

The US government contributed money toward the mail contract “and between 1888 and 1891 the Hawaiian government contributed $1,500 per trip. … the single factor that kept the ships sailing was subsidy.”

“Hawaii benefited financially from government mail subsidies to trans-Pacific steamship companies as passengers passing through Honolulu could play tourist for a day during their several hours of layover in Honolulu.”

“The economic value of one-day tourism did not go unnoticed. Thrum’s Annual, 1894 observed that during a very difficult year of 1893: ‘While trade in general has felt depressed this past year…Still we have benefitted somewhat by the extra through travel by the frequent steamers to and fro between the occident and orient, as also in the new line established between the Colonies and Vancouver via this port…’”

“At the end of the day lei-decked departing passengers were sent off with Hawaiian music provided by the Royal Hawaiian Band. ‘Steamer Days’ would later be extended to all departing ships in the Honolulu-San Francisco route ‘to give the local boat with departing residents and tourists as good a sendoff.’” (UHERO)

“The signing of the Reciprocity Treaty between the U.S. and the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1876, which permitted sugar grown in Hawaii to be shipped to the U.S. duty free, greatly stimulated sugar production and overall economic activity in the islands.”

“Demand for shipping increased sharply. More shipping was required to transport sugar from the outer islands to Honolulu and then on to the U.S. mainland. More shipping was needed to carry more goods to Hawaii as well. Shipping was the lifeline of Hawaii.”

Thrum’s Annual, 1881 observed “… that we import nearly everything that we eat, drink, wear, or use, and San Francisco is our principal source of supply. We are producers and exporters of sugar, rice, and a few other minor articles, but importers of all else.”

“More shipping service meant potentially more visitors and tourists.”

“With direct service between the U.S. mainland and Honolulu and through trans-Pacific service via Honolulu, Hawaii was able to tap into two potential tourist markets—tourists bound for Hawaii as their final destination and travelers in transit to other destinations beyond Hawaii.”

Thrum’s Annual, 1888 expressed its optimism for this opportunity as follows: “The two or three lines of sailing packets that used to suffice, with their passages of from ten to twenty or more days from San Francisco, are now strengthened by direct monthly steamers of the Oceanic Steamship Company, as also the monthly call, both ways …”

“… of their Australia, New Zealand and San Francisco line of steamers, all of which vessels make the trip in seven days between this port and San Francisco, and often times less.”

“These boats fitted with every comfort for passengers, and officered by courteous and experienced men, make it a pleasure trip in every sense of the word.”

“The natural consequences has been to encourage in a marked degree the travel of tourists and others, whether in pursuit of health, pleasure or profit. And it is but the beginning of what these islands are destined to attract when the facts of our climate and natural attractions become known to the intelligent public.” (UHERO)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Golden Gate Bridge

For years, I used to go to San Francisco three times a year (on my way top Napa); we would always go to the Golden Gate Bridge and walk (or bicycle across and have lunch in Sausalito and catch the ferry back to the city) or simply gaze at it.

We don’t go anymore.  It used to be relatively safe and clean; that has changed.

In a pre-election questionnaire published in the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco’s District Attorney, Chesa Boudin said: “We will not prosecute cases involving quality-of-life crimes. Crimes such as public camping, offering or soliciting sex, public urination, blocking a sidewalk, etc., should not and will not be prosecuted.”

The May 22, 2023 ‘City Performance’ report from the City’s Office of the Comptroller notes “Broken glass was the most commonly observed hazard, on approximately 50% of surveyed streets and sidewalks” and “Feces [human and animal] was another notable observed hazard, on approximately 50% of street segments in Key Commercial Areas”.

San Francisco even has an App for that … “Snapcrap is a mobile app that allows residents of San Francisco to request street and sidewalk cleaning from the city’s Public Works department by submitting a photo of something gross (usually crap) and sharing its location.” (App developer Sean Miller)

OK, back to the better days and the Golden Gate Bridge … “It may seem incomprehensible to the twentieth century layman that

San Francisco Bay … was not discovered until the late eighteenth century – and then not by seamen but by a party of Portola’s land expedition led by Sergeant Jose Francisco de Ortega, in 1769.”

“The historical fact remains, however, that the Golden Gate was not recognized as a bay entrance from the seaward side until it had been discovered from a height on land.”

“The first ship to enter San Francisco Bay was the San Carlos commanded by Don Manuel de Ayala, under orders from the government of Spain to examine the port of San Francisco.”

“The log of the San Carlos discloses that three approaches were made to within the Gulf of the Farallons, two of which were aborted because of nightfall when the courses were reversed.”

“The third approach, on which the Golden Gate was sighted and entered, required over twelve hours of maneuvering with strong currents and tides before the vessel finally made the channel and dropped anchor approximately a league inside the entrance, under Fort Point, for the night. This occurred on August 5, 1775.” (Capt Adolph S Oko)

Rather than being named for the area’s association with the Gold Rush, the Bridge is actually named for the water that runs beneath it – The Golden Gate Strait.

During the mid-1800s, soldier and explorer John Fremont gave the passage its name, borrowing from the Greek term, ‘Chrysoplae.’ In English, it translates to ‘Golden Gate,’ which was fitting, as Fremont saw the similarities between San Francisco and another port town from antiquity:

“[When] John C. Fremont saw the watery trench that breached the range of coastal hills on the western edge of otherwise landlocked San Francisco Bay, it reminded him of another beautiful landlocked harbor: the Golden Horn of the Bosporus in Constantinople, now Istanbul.”

Thus, the name for this gateway to the Pacific Ocean was born. Little did Fremont realize, however, that years later, the name would also be lent to the now-famous bridge that joins the sides of this mighty expanse. (Towers at Rincon)

Fast forward … the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District originated with the 1923 California Bridge and Highway District Act, specifically intended to allow for the public financing, construction, and administration of a bridge across the Golden Gate.

A year and a half after the passage of the enabling act, members of the Bridging the Golden Gate Association could finally start the process of enrolling counties. They specified the eight most likely candidates: San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Humboldt, Lake, and Del Norte.

A call for bids on construction contracts was made on June 17, 1931; on February 26, 1933, 100,000 people witnessed the symbolic start of construction in San Francisco, when William P Filmer (president of the board of directors), Joseph B Strauss (engineer of the bridge) and San Francisco Mayor Angelo Rossi broke ground with a golden spade. (Dyble)

It was in 1935 that an architect on the project proposed it be painted an orange color that would go well with its surroundings. The two sides of the bridge met in the middle in 1936. Eleven workers lost their lives during construction, all but one of them in a single accident shortly before the bridge opened. (Time)

On May 27, 1937, San Franciscans celebrated as nearly 180,000 people crossed the bridge by foot. It opened to cars the next day. The Golden Gate Bridge was, TIME noted the following week, “the world’s greatest” bridge “by practically every measurement.” (The main span is 4,200 feet long; at the time that was the world’s longest suspension span.)

“With eager expectation, San Franciscans and the citizens of the Redwood Empire have looked forward to this day when the mighty Golden Gate Bridge would be opened to the traffic of the world. And now that this glorious enterprise is completed, rejoicing is in every heart.” (Mayor Angelo Rossi)

“The biggest task that ever challenged the genius, courage and will of man has been accomplished. After nearly a century of dreaming, decades of talk, and five years of heroic labor, the Bridge stands here, the noblest structure of steel upon this planet.” (Toole)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ka Liona Hae O Ka Pakipika

A busy life … Teacher, Noble, Legislator, Newspaper Publisher, Italian Military Trainee, Surveyor, Revolutionist, Royalist, Counter-Revolutionist, Prisoner, Home Rule Candidate, Hawaiʻi’s First Congressional Delegate … he died October 23, 1903, at the age of 48.

He was born February 15, 1855 on the island of Maui. Hapa – his father was a native of Newport, Rhode Island; his mother, a native of Maui, a descendant of royalty.

He first went to school at Wailuku at the age of 8 years. When he was 10 years old his mother died, then his father moved to ranching at Makawao. There was no English school at Makawao until 1869.

That year, the Board of Education established the Haleakalā Boarding School; he was one of the first students at that school.  Upon completion of his studies, he became a teacher at ʻUlupalakua.

In 1880, he was elected to the Islands’ legislature; he represented the citizens of Wailuku and its neighboring Maui community.

Nicknamed Ka Liona Hae O Ka Pakipika, or “The Roaring Lion of the Pacific,” Robert William Wilcox was a revolutionary soldier and politician – he was also referred to as the “Iron Duke of Hawaiʻi.”

King Kalākaua sent Wilcox to Italy to receive military training at the Royal Military of Turin, at the expense of the Hawaiian government.

In 1885, he graduated from the academy and was promoted to sub-lieutenant of the artillery; he then entered in the Italian Royal Application School for Engineer and Artillery Officers.  (Several of the old photos of Wilcox show him in his Italian uniform.)

There, he married the first of his two wives, Signorina di Sobrero, an Italian.

Wilcox stayed in Italy until 1887; he returned to the Islands that year, because of the constitutional changes that had happened at that time (Bayonet Constitution.)

Later, he and his wife moved to San Francisco in 1888 and he worked as a surveyor for the Spring Valley Water Works Co.  Wilcox came back to the Islands in 1889 and his wife returned to Italy.

On July 30, 1889, Wilcox led a rebellion to restore the rights of the monarchy, two years after the Bayonet Constitution of 1887 left King Kalākaua a mere figurehead.

By the evening, he became a prisoner and charged with high treason by the government.  He was tried for treason, but was acquitted by the jury.

In 1890, he was elected to the Legislature in the Islands.

Following the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani in 1893, the Committee of Safety established the Provisional Government of Hawaiʻi as a temporary government until annexation by the United States.

The Provisional Government convened a constitutional convention and established the Republic of Hawaiʻi on July 4, 1894. The Republic continued to govern the Islands.

From January 6 to January 9, 1895, in a “Counter-Revolution,” patriots of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and the forces that had overthrown the constitutional Hawaiian monarchy were engaged in a war that consisted of battles on the island of Oʻahu.

It has also been called the Second Wilcox Rebellion of 1895, the Revolution of 1895, the Hawaiian Counter-revolution of 1895, the 1895 Uprising in Hawaiʻi, the Hawaiian Civil War, the 1895 Uprising Against the Provisional Government or the Uprising of 1895.

In their attempt to return Queen Liliʻuokalani to the throne, it was the last major military operation by royalists who opposed the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.  The goal of the rebellion failed.

Wilcox was court-martialed and sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to thirty-five years.  While in prison in 1895, Pope Leo XIII granted an annulment of their marriage.  The Italian Consul and the Catholic Bishop at Honolulu confirmed this action.

In January, 1896, he was given a conditional pardon and became a free man; later that year, Wilcox married again, this time to Mrs. Theresa Cartwright.  In 1898, President Dole gave him a full pardon.

With the establishment of Territorial status in the Islands, Hawaiʻi was eligible to have a non-voting delegate in the US House of Representatives.

Wilcox and others formed the Independent “Home Rule” Party and Wilcox ran as a candidate for the Delegate position (against Republican Samuel Parker and Democrat Prince David Kawānanakoa.)  Wilcox won, and served as the first delegate and representative of Hawaiʻi in the US Congress.

He ran for re-election, but lost to Republican Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole Piʻikoi (Prince Kūhiō served from 1903 until his death in 1922.)

Wilcox returned to Washington to finish out his term (November 6, 1900 to March 3, 1903,) but was very ill.  He came back to Hawaiʻi in 1903, and died October 26, 1903.  He is buried in the Catholic cemetery on King Street.

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