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Republic of Hawaii
The Republic of Hawaii was the formal name of Hawaii from 1894 to 1898 when it was run as a republic. The republic period occurred between the administration of the Provisional Government of Hawaii which ended on July 4, 1894 and the adoption of the Newlands Resolution in Congress in which the Republic was annexed to the United States and became the Territory of Hawaii on July 7, 1898.
The administration of the Republic of Hawaii was multiracial. It included men of European stock like Sanford B. Dole and Lorrin A. Thurston, who were both native-born subjects of the Hawaiian kingdom and spoke Hawaiian language fluently. Dole had previously been an elected member of the Kingdom legislature from Koloa, Kaua'i and a Justice of the Kingdom's Supreme Court. Thurston had served as Minister of Interior under King Kalakaua. The Speaker of the House of the Republic of Hawai'i was native Hawaiian John Kaulukou who had previously been a Royalist opposing annexation.
Contents
Bayonet Constitution of 1887[edit]
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In 1887, the Bayonet Constitution was drafted by Lorrin A. Thurston, Minister of Interior under King David KalÄkaua. The constitution was proclaimed by the king after a mass meeting of 3,000 residents, including an armed militia, demanded he either sign it or be deposed. The document created a constitutional monarchy like Great Britain, stripping the King of most of his personal authority, empowering the Legislature, and establishing cabinet government.
The Bayonet Constitution empowered the citizenry to elect members of the House of Nobles (who had previously been appointed by the King). It increased the value of property a citizen must own to be eligible to vote, above what the previous Constitution of 1864 had required. One result was to deny voting rights to poor native Hawaiians and Europeans who previously could vote. It guaranteed a voting monopoly by native Hawaiians and Europeans, by denying voting rights to Asians who comprised a large proportion of the population (A few Japanese and some Chinese had previously become naturalized as subjects of the Kingdom and now lost voting rights they had previously enjoyed.) Americans and other Europeans in Hawaii were also given full voting rights without the need for Hawaiian citizenship. The Bayonet Constitution continued allowing the monarch to appoint cabinet ministers, but stripped him of the power to dismiss them without approval from the Legislature.
Liliuokalani's Constitution[edit]
In 1891, Kalakaua died and his sister Liliuokalani assumed the throne. She came into power in the middle of an economic crisis. The McKinley Tariff had crippled the Hawaiian sugar industry and many native Hawaiian citizens were feeling the pressures of the loss of revenue. Liliuokalani proposed a lottery system to raise money for her people. Her ministers, and even her closest friends, were sorely disappointed at the thought and tried to stop her from pursuing the bill. The lottery bill came to be used against her in the brewing constitutional crisis she was heading into.
Liliuokalani's chief desire was to restore power to the monarch by abrogating the Constitution she had sworn to uphold. The queen launched a campaign resulting in a petition from some Hawaiian subjects to proclaim a new Constitution. When she informed her cabinet of her plans, they refused to support her.
Those citizens and residents who in 1887 had forced Kalakaua to sign the "Bayonet Constitution" became alarmed that the queen was planning to unilaterally proclaim her new Constitution. About 1500 armed local people under the leadership of the Honolulu Rifles and the Committee of Safety took over government buildings, disarmed the Royal Guard, and declared a Provisional Government. As these events were unfolding, American citizens living in Honolulu expressed concern for their safety and property. About 150 sailors and Marines from a U.S. Navy ship in Honolulu harbor came ashore with rifles and gatling guns to maintain order in the streets and to guard American property. As United States Marines marched past Iolani Palace on their way to their peacekeeping stations, they dipped their U.S. flag while passing by, as a sign of respect to the Queen. The sailors and Marines never entered the Palace grounds, never fired a shot, and did not participate in the takeover of any buildings.
Blount Investigation[edit]
The first order of business for the Provisional Government after the successful overthrow of Liliuokalani was to form an interim government while Lorrin A. Thurston was in Washington, DC to negotiate annexation with Congress. One group proposed the assumption of power of Princess Victoria Kaiulani while a body formed by the Committee of Safety could act as a regency government. With the physical absence of the princess from the islands, the proposal was immediately struck down.
The Provisional Government was dealt a huge blow when President Benjamin Harrison, an avowed imperialist who sought the annexation of Hawaii was voted out of the White House. Grover Cleveland, an anti-imperialist, assumed the presidency and right away worked to rectify the Hawaiian crisis. Just a month before becoming president, Lorrin A. Thurston had struck a deal with Congress as it prepared to ratify a treaty of annexation. Cleveland, having heard the appeals of Princess Victoria Kaiulani on behalf of her imprisoned aunt, withdrew the treaty and launched an investigation of the matter.
Cleveland appointed James Henderson Blount of Macon, Georgia as Commissioner Paramount and Minister to Hawaii. His chief mission was to investigate the overthrow of Liliuokalani's government. Blount concluded in his report that the revolution had utilised the aid of the United States Minister to Hawaii who ordered the landing of troops from the USS Boston. Disturbed by the revelation, Cleveland sent Albert Sydney Willis of Kentucky to Honolulu as Minister to Hawaii with secret instructions. Willis, initially rebuffed by the queen, obtained Liliuokalani's promise to grant an amnesty after a considerable delay. After securing that promise, Willis made a formal demand for the dissolution of the Provisional Government and complete restoration of the monarchy, although unbeknownst to him by that time it was too late since Cleveland had already referred the matter to Congress. Taking the demand at face value, on December 23, 1893, Sanford B. Dole sent a reply to Willis declining to surrender the authority of the Provisional Government to the deposed queen.
Morgan Investigation[edit]
In response to Cleveland's referral of the matter, the Senate passed a resolution empowering its Foreign Relations Committee to hold public hearings under oath, and cross-examine witnesses, to investigate U.S. involvement in the revolution and also to investigate whether it had been proper for President Cleveland to appoint Blount and give him extraordinary powers to represent the U.S. and intervene in Hawai'i without Senate confirmation. Senator John Tyler Morgan chaired this investigation.
The findings of the Morgan Report thoroughly repudiated the assertions earlier made by Blount and Cleveland, and on February 26, 1894 was submitted. It clearly established that the U.S. troops had remained completely neutral during the overthrow, exonerated Minister Stevens in landing troops, and established Blount's appointment and investigation without congressional approval as constitutional.
Following the Morgan Report, and the Turpie Resolution on May 31, 1894 in which Congress declared against any further intervention against the Provisional Government of Hawaii, Cleveland completely reversed himself, rebuffed the Queen's further requests for help in recapturing the throne, officially recognized the Provisonal Government and considered the Republic of Hawaii the legitimate successor of the Kingdom.
Establishment of the Republic[edit]
The Provisional Government feared that Grover Cleveland might continue interfering in the internal affairs of Hawai'i by trying to restore the monarchy. The Provisional Government also realized there would be no annexation until Grover Cleveland's term of office ended; and they wanted to establish a more permanent government for the continuing independent nation of Hawai'i. Therefore the Provisional Government called to order a Constitutional Convention on May 30, 1894. The Constitutional Convention drafted a constitution for a Republic of Hawaii. The Republic of Hawaii was proclaimed on 4 July 1894 at Aliiolani Hale. Sanford Dole became president.
Wilcox Rebellion of 1895[edit]
Main article: Wilcox rebellions
Hawaiian revolutionary Robert William Wilcox had led several rebellions in pursuit of the restoration of the Hawaiian monarchy. His first was in 1888 in response to the Bayonet Constitution. He led an army of 150 Hawaiians, Europeans and Chinese in a second attempt in 1889. Both times, Wilcox was brought to trial but released as juries refused to find him guilty of wrong doing. In 1895, Wilcox participated in a third attempt, this time to overthrow the Republic of Hawaii and to restore Liliuokalani to power. Royalist supporters landed a cargo of arms and ammunition from San Francisco, California in a secret Honolulu location. At the location on January 6, 1895, a company of royalists met to draft plans to capture the government buildings by surprise. A premature encounter with a squad of police alarmed Honolulu and the plans were abandoned as the royalists were quickly routed. Wilcox spent several days in hiding in the mountains before being captured. The son of one pro-annexationist was killed. Several other skirmishes occurred during the following week resulting in the capture of the leading conspirators and their followers. The government found arms and ammunition and a number of incriminating documents on the premises of Washington Place, Liliuokalani's private residence implicating her in the plot.
Liliuokalani's Trial[edit]
The deposed queen was forced to defend herself in a trial. The prosecution proved that Liliuokalani had committed "misprision of treason," because she knew that guns and bombs for the Wilcox attempted counter-revolution had been hidden in the flower bed of her personal residence at Washington Place. She was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment at hard labor and a fine of $10,000. But the imprisonment was actually served in a large bedroom at 'Iolani Palace where she had a full-time maid-servant, and her "hard labor" consisted of composing songs and sewing a protest quilt containing symbols of the monarchy. After 8 months she was parolled to her Washington Place home by President Sanford B. Dole. A year later she was granted a full pardon, including the right to travel; and President Dole gave her a passport to travel to Washington D.C. "to visit friends." However, she used that opportunity to lobby the U.S. Senate in 1897 against annexation.
Dissolution of the Republic[edit]
Upon the inauguration of the more imperialist William McKinley as President of the United States on March 4, 1897, the Republic of Hawaii resumed negotiations for annexation. From the President's perspective the islands had gained a new strategic relevance in the wake of the Spanish-American War. On June 16 of that year, a new treaty of annexation was signed. As the Senate appeared uncertain to ratify the treaty, its supporters took extreme measures by passing the Newlands Resolution through which the cession was accepted, ratified and confirmed by a vote of 42 to 21. The House of Representatives accepted the Newlands Resolution by a vote of 209 to 91. McKinley signed the bill on July 7, 1898. The formal transfer of sovereignty took place on August 12, 1898 with the hoisting of the flag of the United States over Iolani Palace.
References[edit]
- Allen, Helena G. Sanford Ballard Dole: Hawaii's Only President, 1844-1926 (1998).
- Kuykendall, Ralph Simpson. Hawai'i: A History, from Polynesian Kingdom to American State (2003)
- Schweizer, Niklaus R. His Hawaiian Excellency: The Overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy and the Annexation of Hawaii (1994).
External links[edit]
- morganreport.org Online images and transcriptions of the entire Morgan Report
- Hawaiian Sovereignty: Do the Facts Matter?
- Pat Pitzer's article The Overthrow Of The Monarchy, from Spirit of Aloha magazine.
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