Overthrow

November 10, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Queen’s Quilt

Kalākaua was succeeded by his sister, Liliʻuokalani, who was proclaimed Queen on January 29, 1891. Her experience as Princess Regent during King Kalākaua’s nine-month journey around the world in 1881 and her visit to the United States in 1887 with Queen Kapiʻolani helped prepare her for her new role as Queen of Hawaiʻi.

Queen Liliʻuokalani was determined to strengthen the political power of the Hawaiian monarchy and, at the request of her people, to limit suffrage to subjects of the kingdom.

Her attempt to promulgate a new constitution galvanized opposition forces into the Committee of Safety, which was composed of Hawaiʻi-born citizens of American parents, naturalized citizens and foreign nationals; they later organized the establishment of a provisional government.

On January 17, 1893, Queen Lili`uokalani yielded her authority in a letter delivered to Sanford B Dole, “…Now to avoid any collision of armed forces, and perhaps the loss of life, I do this under protest …”

“… and impelled by said force yield my authority until such time as the Government of the United States shall, upon facts being presented to it, undo the action of its representatives and reinstate me in the authority which I claim as the Constitutional Sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands.”

“Weary with waiting, impatient under the wrongs they were suffering, preparations were undoubtedly made amongst some in sympathy with the monarchy to overthrow the oligarchy.” (Queen Liliʻuokalani)

In 1895, an abortive attempt by Hawaiian royalists to restore Queen Liliʻuokalani to power resulted in the Queen’s arrest. She signed a document of abdication that relinquished all her future claims to the throne. Following this, she endured a public trial before a military tribunal in her former throne room.

Convicted of having knowledge of a royalist plot, “at two o’clock on the afternoon of the 27th of February I was again called into court, and sentence passed upon me. It was the extreme penalty for “misprision of treason,” – a fine of $5,000, and imprisonment at hard labor for five years.” (Liliʻuokalani)

The sentence was commuted to imprisonment in an upstairs apartment in ʻIolani Palace.

“I was informed that I could bring Mrs. Clark with me if I wished, so she went for my hand-bag; and followed by her, I entered the carriage of the deputy marshal, and was driven through the crowd that by this time had accumulated at the gates of my residence at Washington Place. …”

“That first night of my imprisonment was the longest night I have ever passed in my life; it seemed as though the dawn of day would never come. I found in my bag a small Book of Common Prayer according to the ritual of the Episcopal Church. It was a great comfort to me, and before retiring to rest Mrs. Clark and I spent a few minutes in the devotions appropriate to the evening. …” (Lili‘uokalani)

“Outside of the rooms occupied by myself and my companion there were guards stationed by day and by night, whose duty it was to pace backward and forward through the hall, before my door, and up and down the front veranda. The sound of their never-ceasing footsteps as they tramped on their beat fell incessantly on my ears.”

“One officer was in charge, and two soldiers were always detailed to watch our rooms. I could not but be reminded every instant that I was a prisoner, and did not fail to realize my position.”

“My companion could not have slept at all that night: her sighs were audible to me without cessation; so I told her the morning following that, as her husband was in prison, it was her duty to return to her children. …”

“[I]n conference it was agreed between us that Mrs. Clark could return home, and that Mrs. Wilson should remain as my attendant; that Mr. Wilson would be the person to inform the government of any request to be made by me, and that any business transactions might be made through him.” (Lili‘uokalani)

Queen Liliʻuokalani’s “prison” room is on the makai-Diamond Head second-floor corner of ʻIolani Palace. If you visit the Palace today, the area where the Queen was held is clearly noted by its white covered-over window.

Contrary to urban legend, the Palace windows were not frosted and painted over to block the Queen’s ability to see out and others to see her inside.

In 1887, the Palace’s second story windows were opaque glass. When the Palace was attacked in 1889 during the initial Wilcox Rebellion, many of the Place windows were broken. When repairs were made (through 1890,) these windows were replaced with frosted glass.

There are apparently no photographs of the Queen’s room during her imprisonment. She describes the apartment as, “a large, airy, uncarpeted room with a single bed in one corner. The other furniture consisted of one sofa, a small square table …”

“… one single common chair, an iron safe, a bureau, a chiffonier (storage for odds and ends,) and a cupboard, intended for eatables … There was, adjoining the principal apartment, a bath-room, and also a corner room and a little boudoir …” (Queen Liliʻuokalani)

During her imprisonment, the Queen was denied any visitors other than one lady in waiting (Mrs. Eveline Wilson.) She began each day with her daily devotions followed by reading, quilting, crochet-work or music composition.

“Though I was still not allowed to have newspapers or general literature to read, writing-paper and lead-pencils were not denied; and I was thereby able to write music, after drawing for myself the lines of the staff.” (Liliʻuokalani)

The Palace has a quilt the Queen made; the center square of Liliʻuokalani’s quilt includes the embroidered words “Imprisoned at Iolani Palace … We began the quilt there …”

“Surrounding the Kalakaua coat of arms and framed by pairs of crossed Hawaiian flags, the center block outlines the sequence of events that changed the course of Hawaiian history …”

“… including the stitched date the Provisional Government was put in place, when Lili’uokalani was forced to step down, and the date of the aborted Wilcox revolution that precipitated the queen’s arrest.” (Star-Bulletin)

Embroidered dates indicate the quilt was completed after Liliʻuokalani’s release on September 6, 1895. “Held captive and sequestered in a small room at the Iolani Palace for a period of eight months, Hawaii’s last monarch and a small group of devoted attendants set about documenting the imprisonment.”

“The preservation of their cultural heritage and the unconditional show of support for one another during times of adversity are qualities attributed to Hawaiian women throughout history. … the Queen’s Quilt symbolized the resolution of a few women who were bound and determined to preserve a record of their Queen’s cultural heritage on behalf of all the Islands native inhabitants.” (Dwyer)

She spent 8 months in this room. After her release from ʻIolani Palace, the Queen remained under house arrest for five months at her private home, Washington Place. For another eight months she was forbidden to leave Oʻahu before all restrictions were lifted. Liliʻuokalani died of a stroke on November 11, 1917 in Honolulu at the age of 79.

The Queen’s Quilt is displayed in the very room where Queen Liliʻuokalani was imprisoned in 1895. It was here she and her companions would begin to create one of the most unusual forms of historic documentation in Hawaiian history. (Native Books)

September 2, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

$25,000 Annuity

“In an interview, ex-Queen Liliuokalani said of the proposed treaty between the United States and Hawaii: ‘Fifteen hundred people are giving away my country.’”

“‘The people of my country do not want to be annexed to the United States. Nor do the people of the United States wants annexation. It is the work of 1,500 people, mostly Americans, who have settled in Hawaii. Of this number those who are not native born Americans are of American parentage.’”

“‘None of my people want the island annexed. The population of the islands is 109,000. Of this number 40,000 are native Hawaiians. The rest are Americans, Germans, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, English and a small proportion from other countries. The 1,500 Americans who are responsible for what was done to-day are running the affairs of the islands.’”

“‘There is no provision made in this treaty for me. In the Harrison treaty I was allowed $20,000 a year, but that treaty never went into effect. I have never received one dollar from the United States.’”

“‘No one looked after my interests in the preparation of this treaty. Yet my people, who form so large a part of the population of the islands, would want justice done me.’” (Los Angeles Herald, June 18, 1897)

Then, a couple American newspapermen (Charles L MacArthur, a former New York state senator and then editor of the local newspaper in Troy NY and William Shaw Bowen, a journalist with the New York World newspaper) independently supported an effort to arrange a $25,000 annuity to Liliʻuokalani.

In responding to questions noted in the Morgan Report, MacArthur stated, “I went to Mr. Dole. I had trouble in my own mind as to whether the Queen had not some personal rights in the crown lands, for the reason that the treasury department had never asked her to make a return on the income …”

“… which was about $75,000 a year, from these lands and which she had received, and as the treasury had never asked her for a return I thought she had an individual right in the lands.”

“I said to the people, ‘She has individual rights, and you have not asked her to make a return to the treasury of what she has received and what she did not receive.’ The President explained it all to me, the grounds of it. “

“When Mr. Neuman indicated that they were willing – I had made the suggestion and others had – that they ought to buy her out, pay her a definite sum, $25,000 or some other sum per year for her rights.”

“Her rights had been shattered, but I thought they ought to pay for them, and so I went, in accordance with Mr. Neuman’s suggestion, or by his consent, to see President Dole.”

“Mr. Neuman said he wanted to talk with President Dole about this matter, but he had not been there officially, and he could not go there publicly to his official place. I talked with Mr. Dole, and Mr Dole said he could not officially do anything without consulting his executive committee …”

“… but he said he would be very happy to meet Mr. Neuman and see what they wanted – see if they could come to any terms about this thing by which the Queen would abdicate and surrender her rights.”

“Mr. Neuman and his daughter called, nominally for the daughter to see Mrs. Dole, so that it could not get out, if they made a call, they could say it was merely a social call, not an official call.”

“Of course, I do not know what their conversation was; but Mr. Neuman, acting on that, called on the Queen. Mr. Dole and Mr. Neuman both impressed on me the importance of not having this thing get out, or the whole thing would go up in smoke. Mr. Neuman said he could bring this thing about if he could keep it from the Queen’s retainers – her people.”

“He said, ‘That is the difficulty about this thing.’ This matter went on for three or four days. Mr. Neuman saw the Queen and she agreed not to say anything about it, so Mr. Neuman tells me, and I got it from other sources there which I think are reliable. They came to some sort of understanding; I do not know what it was.”

“They went so far as to say this woman would not live over three or four years; that she had some heart trouble; and if they gave her $25,000 a year it would not be for a long time. … Mr. Neuman said she assented to it, if she could satisfy one or two of her people.”

Bowen noted in testimony in the Morgan Report, “One day while dining with Paul Neuman I said: ‘I think it would be a good thing if the Queen could be pensioned by the Provisional Government; it would make matters harmonious, relieve business, and make matters much simpler.’”

“I also said that I was aware that certain gentlemen in Washington were opposed to pensioning the Queen; that certain Senators raised that objection to the treaty that was brought from the islands because it recognized the principle of the right of a queen to a pension.”

“There was one Senator, especially, from the South, who said, without discussing the treaty, that that was objectionable to him; that his people would object to it. I said, “If there is no annexation it is a serious question; if there is, the Queen should be taken care of.”

“Neuman agreed with me. He was a strong friend of the Queen, disinterested and devoted. But he said it could not be done. I told him that I had become acquainted with the members of the Provisional Government who were high in authority, and I thought I would try to have it done.”

“Mr. Dole said he would not make any propositions himself and asked me what I thought the pension ought to be. On the spur of the moment, not having considered the matter, I said I thought the Queen ought to get a very handsome pension out of the crown lands.”

“I asked if there was any question about raising the money, and he said none whatever. He finally asked me to name the figures. He had the idea that the figures had been suggested. I said, ‘You ought to give $20,000 a year to furnish her followers with poi. That is the native dish.’ Mr. Dole said he would consider that question.”

“The result was that Mr. Dole told Mr. Neuman that if the Queen would make such a proposition to him it would receive respectful attention and intimated that he thought it would be accepted. Mr. Seaman saw the Queen and told me that he thought it would be done; that the more he thought of it the more convinced he was that it would be better all around.”

“In the meantime he (Blount) had been to the Queen, to Mr. Dole, and had done what he could to prevent the carrying out of the plan. Mr. Neuman had an interview with the Queen.”

“She told him that she would do nothing more in the matter, and asked him to give back her power of attorney, and he tore it up in her presence. This was the 22d, that he tore up his power of attorney.”

“On the 21st instant Mr. Claus Spreckels called to see me. He said that he suspected there was an effort at negotiation between the Queen and the Provisional Government, and that he had urged the Queen to withdraw her power of attorney from Paul Neumann.”

“How much or how little Mr. Spreckels knows about this matter I am unable to say, as I do not know how to estimate him, never having met him before. He promised to see me again before the mail leaves for the United States on next Wednesday, and give me such information as he could acquire in the meantime.”

“I have no doubt whatever that if Mr. Blount had not prevented, and secondarily Mr. Claus Speckels, the agent for the sugar trust, that plan would have been carried out. I have no doubt of it in my own mind.” (Bowen; Morgan Report)

“Thus Blount intervened to scuttle negotiations between the Queen and President Dole that were strongly on track toward a mutually agreeable settlement whereby the Queen would give up all claims to the throne in return for an annuity.” (MorganReport)

Liliuokalani_in_1917

June 24, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

History Books Could Have Been Different

Manuel paused, said in a confidential voice: “If today I wrote all that I overheard and saw in those years, the complexion of many an incident would be changed in our history books.” (Manuel Reis)

Manuel Gil dos Reis was born in Oporto, Portugal. When he was a whippersnapper, his father took him to Cape Verde islands, down in the Atlantic, west of Africa. Father Reis was port-master there. His father gave Manuel thimblefuls of deep red wine, told him sagas of the sea.

Transatlantic clippers, stately and wondrous ships of trade, opening new worlds in the Americas, called for provisioning at Cape Verde. One day young Manuel could not resist the temptation. He signed on one, made his way to New Bedford, MA and later transferred to an American whaler, the bark Atlantic, as lookout and steerer.

The Atlantic rounded the stormy Horn, beat across the south Pacific to the great whaling grounds near New Zealand. At the Chatham Islands the Atlantic met another whaler, the Napoleon. Together the two ships sought the rich harvest from the sea. It was reckless work but with the reward that the harder you worked the more cash there was at the voyage’s end, when the

One day on these grounds the ships collided. The Atlantic’s masts and rigging were badly smashed. The closest refitting port was Honolulu, nearly 4,000 miles away. He came to the Islands.

Manuel’s practical life at sea has made him resourceful. He became a coachman and yardman to a Mrs. Hillebrand for $3 a week, yet soon bettered it for another position with the U.S. Minister, General James W. Comly, at $25 a month.

While driving about town he yarned with independent coachmen who, by publicly hiring their vehicles, made as much as $20 a day. Manuel thought: Why don’t I do that?

But he kept on with the U.S. minister, religiously saved his dollars, some of the only gold in the thriving town which used mostly silver Mexican dollars, until he had sufficient capital to launch out in his own business.

He bought wagonettes and California bred horses. His stand was at the corner of Fort and King streets. He could drive you to Waikiki, via King and Kalakaua, in 12 minutes. There were no traffic stop signs.

The drives to Waikiki and up the Nu‘uanu valley to the Pali were about as far as you could go in those years. In his days off, Manuel often took a ride on horseback with friends.

Manuel’s business flourished. He lived on the job. His stables and home were together on Queen St, opposite the federal building, where today the [Melim Building] stands. Three drivers worked for him. They had a hack each. Pay: 25c of every dollar they took.

The first telephone service in Honolulu – December 30, 1880 – was a boon for Manuel’s business. It was much easier for patrons to telephone, have him send a hack any hour of the day or night. Alexander Graham Bell, the hello business inventor, formed a firm friendship with Manuel.

Personally, Manuel drove King Kalakaua, whose favorite spot on the island was a private boathouse on the harbor front near Pier 5. There the merry monarch made whoopee with haoles like Claus Spreckels. One day at poker Spreckels held four aces, Kalakaua four kings. Kalakaua claimed the pot because he said, “I make five kings – that’s better than 4 aces.”

At the beginning of the hard working, gay eighties, Manuel on his cab seat began to hear murmurings of unrest and discontent. His passengers hatched plots and counter plots.

But Manuel remained neutral. [However, in a story on Reis Wray Jose notes “Manuel Reis was a royalist. … Manuel Reis often chauffeured such royal notables as Kalakaua, Kapiolani, Liliuokalani and others, as part of his business.” And his hackstand “was often called the ‘Royalist Hackstand’ because of the number of known royalists it served.”]

Up in the lonely, storm tossed lookout of the whaling ship, young Manuel had learned to hold his tongue, to think rather than talk. It was a good habit, too, while he waited by the hour, for King Kalakaua.

Monarchs and the anti-monarchists used the hacks. Manuel overheard many a conspiracy, could have won favors if he had passed on the information.

So when the unrest finally culminated in the revolution of 1887 and the consequent uprisings, Manuel was not surprised. He drove about his business, unperturbed by the rifle fire or the passions of his hot-headed passengers.

Government disturbances, after all, meant brisk business for Manuel, who was called upon to rush messengers: post haste from side to side with history making dispatches.

Because he had married Eugenia Keoho‘okalani Kahaule, fine daughter of an old Kona family, Manuel knew that inevitably he would be regarded with suspicion by the anti-monarchists. On the third day of the 1895 uprising, Manuel was driving Miss Helen Wilder (sister of Gerrit P Wilder) out at Waikiki.

Jim Quinn, “a tricky Irishman” who worked with Manuel, drove post haste to Waikiki, warned Manuel that Marshal Hitchcock sought him, Manuel told Miss Wilder and she was content to be dropped off at the foot of Nuʻuanu Street.

Manuel knew what was coming. He told his wife to carry on the business, hid 1,000 silver dollars in the bureau drawer for her to use. Then he went along to the prison house, knew that because he had a Hawaiian wife, drove so many of the monarchy, he would be probed.

But probed he was not. Marshal Hitchcock boomed from the office: “Take him down below.” And quickly Manuel found himself with 12 other “political prisoners” in the dark, overcrowded cells. There were nine Britishers, two Greeks, (one of them George Lycurgus), and one Dane.

For 35 days and nights they were kept in the hot, close cells. They were never questioned as they expected to be, but they were irritated and scared blue by the threatening, bullying guards.

Two and three times every night the prisoners would be awakened rudely and moved from cell to cell. There were two men to each cell, six by eight feet. The only real fresh air and daylight they enjoyed was two hours of exercise in the yard every morning.

The guards delighted in scaring the prisoners. They polished their bayonets, rattled their rifles, talking loudly about death at dawn. They stretched new ropes, guffawed about the hangman’s noose. One of the prisoners became hysterical.

He considered he could save his neck if he told all, which was that Queen Liliuokalani’s supporters had hidden rifles under Washington Place, he claimed.

Manuel contracted a fever in the unsanitary cells. He was at the point of death, so he was released. They wanted him to sign a declaration of guilt, that he had conspired against the republic. But independent Manuel, weak in body but strong in spirit, refused. He went to Kona’s hospitable coast for a month and recuperated slowly.

Manuel’s funniest story about that attempted insurrection is of a well-known Hawaiian who, panic stricken by the bullets that whirred in the civic square between the palace and the judiciary building, flung himself at the foot of the Kamehameha statue and feigned death for many hours.

All here is from an interview/article on Manuel Reis published in the Star Bulletin, September 7, 1935.

May 12, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Royalist’

James Campbell was born February 4, 1826, in Londonderry, Ireland. His parents were William and Martha (Adams) Campbell. William, descended from the Campbell clan of Inverary, Scotland, was a carpenter.

James’ father operated a furniture and cabinet shop adjacent to the home where he and his wife raised their large family. James was the eighth child in the family of eight boys and four girls.

In 1850, James came to Hawaiʻi. He settled in Lāhainā, Maui. He later married Abigail Kuaihelani Maipinepine (age 19) and soon after moved to a home on Emma Street in Honolulu, which Campbell purchased from Archibald S Cleghorn in 1878. (Now the site of the Pacific Club.)

As a personality, James Campbell was most often described as reserved and dignified. Tall and slender, he had a full beard and dressed in well-cut dark suits with a top hat.

Campbell was a partisan of Queen Liliuokalani at the time of the overthrow, and remained a Royalist to the end of his days.

The overthrow happened on January 17, 1893. Shortly thereafter, on May 12, 1893, Campbell and his wife Abigail welcomed a new daughter. The following is the daughter’s name song:

He Inoa No Royalist Kealohaalii Laakapu Campbell.
Imua e Kealohaalii Laakapu
A lei i ka lei o ka Lanakila
A he milimili oe na makou
He pua lei nani Aloha Aina
Ke kilohana oe nana i oni
Hoihoi ia mai ke Kuokoa
Eia Hawaii ua lokahi
Hookahi puuwai me ke aloha
Nana i nai a puni Hawaii
Ke Aloha o ka Aina hanau
O ka hana hanohano a ka Lahui
I lanakila mau oe Hawaii
O ka onohi hiwahiwa i ka puuwai
O Kealohaaina a e o mai.
Hakuia e na kaikamahine o ke Aloha Aina.
May 14, 1894. (Leo o ka Lahui, 5/17/1894, p. 3)

Name Of Royalist Kealohaalii Lakapu Campbell
Forward Kealohaalii Laakapu
And wear the crown of Victory
And you are dear to us
A beautiful Aloha Aina wreath
You are the one who moved
Returned from Freedom
Here in Hawaii there is unity
One heart with love
Look around Hawaii
The Love of the Motherland
The noble work of the Nation
May you always win Hawaii
It’s a unique touch to the heart
Kealohaina and will come.
Hosted by the daughters of Aloha Aina.

“She was born in a famous time; being that her mother is the President of the Women’s Patriotic League, and while they are fighting for the good of our land, at that time, Royalist was soon to be born.”

“When she was born, she was named Royalist, after Alohaalii. This is a fine name for her, being that her parents and all of Hawaii joined together in aloha for the Queen of Hawaii nei, the people, and the land.” (Leo o ka Lahui, 5/14/1894, p. 2)

The newspaper announced her baptism; “Royalist Campbell made 1 year old today, the small daughter and youngest child of Mr. and Mrs. James Campbell [Kimo Kamabela].”

“At 9:30 in the morning, she was baptized by the Lord Bishop of Honolulu [Alfred Willis], in the St. Andrews Church, before a large assembly. This is the first of their children to be baptized in the Church, the earlier ones being only at Kawaiahao.” (Makaainana, 5/14/1894, p. 8)

“Later at 2 o’clock p. m., there was a party to celebrating the first birthday, at the residence of Mr. James Campbell on Emma Street. All of the members of the Executive Committee of the Women’s Patriotic League [Hui Aloha Aina o na Wahine] were invited to visit for the birthday of Alohaalii Campbell.”

“We ask that the days of Royalist’s life be long, and that she live until old age. [Unfortunately it seems that Royalist Campbell, child of James and Abigail Kuaihelani Maipinepine, lives only a little more than a year more.] (Oiaio, 5/18/1894)

“Royalist Campbell dies, 1896. The youngest daughter of James Campbell died at 2:00 this p. m. This was the child Royalist M., aged 2 years, 8 months.” (Hawaiian Star, 2/29/1896, p. 3)

After a lengthy illness, Campbell died on April 21, 1900, in his Emma Street home. On the afternoon of his funeral the banks and most of the large business houses closed. He was buried in the family plot in Nuʻuanu Cemetery.

January 17, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Some suggest the overthrow of the Hawai‘i constitutional monarchy was neither unexpected nor sudden.

Dissatisfaction with the rule of Kalākaua and Lili‘uokalani initially led to the ‘Bayonet Constitution,’ then, the overthrow. “(M)ounting dissatisfaction with government policies and private acts of officials led to the formation of the Hawaiian League, a group of Honolulu businessmen.” (Forbes)

Challenges with Kalākaua
• Polynesian Confederacy
• “(Gibson) discerned but little difficulty in the way of organizing such a political union, over which Kalākaua would be the logical emperor, and the Premier of an almost boundless empire of Polynesian archipelagoes.” (Daggett; Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 6, 1900)

Opium License Bribery Case
• Initially the king, through his minister of foreign affairs, disclaimed any involvement. However, “To cap the climax of the opium matter, the Attorney General proceeds to acknowledge that the money was paid over by the Chinese … (H)e informed the gentlemen interested in getting the money back that he would never accomplish his object so long as he allowed the newspaper to speak of the affair.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 17, 1887)

Extravagance/Debt
• Although Kalākaua had been elected and serving as King since 1874, upon returning from a trip around the world (1881), it was determined that Hawaiʻi’s King should also be properly crowned.
• “ʻIolani Palace, the new building of that name, had been completed the previous year (1882), and a large pavilion had been erected immediately in front of it for the celebration of the coronation. This was exclusively for the accommodation of the royal family; but there was adjacent thereto a sort of amphitheatre, capable of holding ten thousand persons, intended for the occupation of the people.” (Liliʻuokalani)

Bayonet Constitution (1887)
• In 1887, the struggle for control of Hawaiʻi was at its height with David Kalākaua on the throne. But some of the businessmen were distrustful of him. “So the mercantile element, as embodied in the Chamber of Commerce, the sugar planters, and the proprietors of the ‘missionary’ stores, formed a distinct political party, called the ‘down-town’ party, whose purpose was to minimize or entirely subvert other interests, and especially the prerogatives of the crown, which, based upon ancient custom and the authority of the island chiefs, were the sole guaranty of our nationality.” (Liliʻuokalani)

Concern with Lili‘uokalani’s Attempt to Rewrite the Constitution
• “When Lili‘uokalani became Queen, she took the following oath: ‘I solemnly swear in the presence of Almighty God, to maintain the Constitution of the Kingdom whole and inviolate, and to govern in conformity therewith.’” (UH Law School)
• “On January 14, 1893, Lili‘uokalani was prepared to ignore the constitutionally mandated approval-by-two-successive Legislatures process for amending the 1887 Constitution by announcing a new constitution in place of Kalākaua’s 1887 Constitution.” (UH Law School)
• “She did not do so because the Cabinet she appointed on January 13, 1893, refused her authorization request. The members of that Cabinet were Samuel Parker, William Henry Cornwell, Jr,, Arthur P. Peterson and John Colburn. Parker was a Native Hawaiian.” (UH Law School)

Some Native Hawaiian Dissatisfaction with the Acts of Kalākaua and Lili‘uokalani
• Robert W Wilcox – the man who figured so prominently & conspicuously in the revolution of 1889 (All quotes from Wilcox, Morgan Report)
o “Queen Lili‘uokalani brought these evils upon herself and the country both by her personal corruption, and that of her Government.”
o “I believe that if we can be annexed to the United States, the rights of all of our citizens, and especially those of the native Hawaiians, will be protected more carefully than they have ever been under the monarchy.”
o “They are naturally somewhat prejudiced against (the Provisional Government), as monarchy is the only form of Government with which they are familiar, but this feeling will quickly wear away as the Hawaiians are led to see that the Government is friendly to them and their interests. They already have confidence in the integrity and patriotism of President Dole.
o “I have repeatedly (advocated annexation to the United States) in public meetings held in this city. … but I am compelled to move cautiously or I shall lose my influence over them. I believe I am doing a good work by constantly conversing with them on the subject.”
o “I have told my countrymen that the monarchy is gone forever, and when they ask me what is the best thing to follow it I tell them annexation, and I firmly believe that in a very short time every Hawaiian will be in favor of that step.” (Robert W Wilcox – the man who figured so prominently & conspicuously in the revolution of 1889; Morgan Report)

Repeated Changes in Cabinet Ministers in the Kalākaua and Lili‘uokalani Reigns
• “Under every constitution prior to 1887 the ministers were appointed by the King and removed by him; but until Kalākaua’s reign it was a very rare thing that any King changed his ministry. They had a pretty long lease of political life.” (Judd; Blount Report)
• “It was a very rare political occurrence, and made a great sensation when a change was made.” (Judd; Blount Report) if

January 14, 1893 Lili‘uokalani’s Ministers Refused to Support Her Constitution – Threats of Bloodshed were Made Against Her Cabinet Ministers
• “The Queen retired to the blue room and summoned the ministers (Samuel Parker – Minister of Foreign Affairs; John F Colburn – Minister of Interior; William H Crowell – Minister of Finance; Arthur P Peterson – Attorney General) who repaired at once to the palace. The Queen was at a table, still dressed in the magnificent costume of the morning, and sparkling in a coronet of diamonds.”
• “She at once presented them with the draft of the new constitution, demanded their signatures, and declared her intention to promulgate the same at once.”
• “Attorney-general Peterson and Minister of Interior Colburn decidedly refused to do so, and Ministers Cornwell and Parker, though more hesitatingly, joined their colleagues in this refusal.”

The Provisional Government (and subsequent Republic, Territory & State) did not steal the land from the Hawaiian people – Crown Lands Remain in the Public Trust
• Crown and Government Lands, though under the control of changing sovereigns and governments (Kingdom to Provisional Government to Republic to Territory to State,) were in and continue to remain in the ‘public domain’ for the public good.
• US Court of Claims concluded, “The constitution of the Republic of Hawai‘i, as respects the crown lands, provided as follows: ‘That portion of the public domain heretofore known as crown land is hereby declared to have been heretofore, and now to be, the property of the Hawaiian Government …” (Lili‘uokalani v The United States, 1910)
• We now generally refer to the Crown and Government Lands as ‘ceded’ lands. Under the Admission Act, about 1.2-million acres are to “be held by (the) State as a public trust” to promote one or more of five purposes:
o support of the public schools and other public educational institutions
o betterment of the conditions of native Hawaiians (per the Hawaiian Homes Act, 1920)
o development of farm and home ownership on as widespread a basis as possible
o making of public improvements
o provision of lands for public use

The United States does not have to acquire property only through a Treaty of Annexation with a concurring vote by the US Senate.
• Annexation of Hawai‘i to the US was not a hostile takeover, it was something the Republic of Hawai‘i sought. “There was no ‘conquest’ by force in the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands nor ‘holding as conquered territory;’ they (Republic of Hawai‘i) came to the United States in the same way that Florida did, to wit, by voluntary cession”. (Territorial Supreme Court; Albany Law Journal)
• “There is no provision in the Constitution by which the national government is specifically authorized to acquire territory; and only by a great effort of the imagination can the substantive power to do so be found in the terms of any or all of the enumerated powers.” (Legal Issues Raised by Proposed Presidential Proclamation To Extend the Territorial Sea, October 4, 1988)

Here is the URL: https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Overthrow.pdf

One more correction to the many misconceptions … on January 17, 1893, the Hawai‘i constitutional monarchy was overthrown, not the Hawaiian race.

Commenters, please focus on the facts and if referring to the linked document. Please note the page and line number you are referring to (please include your source reference, as well).

Raising_of_American_flag_at_Iolani_Palace-1898