Hawaiian History 101
The Hawaiian Islands were first discovered by Europeans in 1778 by
Captain James Cook. After the introduction of
missionaries into the “barbaric” society of the Hawaii, the culture
began to change. Public nudity and hula were banned, the Hawaiians
adopted Christianity and English became their primary language.
Eventually, in 1810, the Hawaiian Islands were united under King
Kamehameha I when the first monarchial government was established. A
democratic government was created on October 8th, 1840 when King
Kamehameha III willingly relinquished his absolute powers by signing
Hawaii’s first constitution. Between 1845 and 1849, under the rule of
King Kamehameha III and Alexander Liholiho (dubbed King Kamehameha IV),
the Organic Acts, a Civil and Penal Code, and a
revised constitution were proposed and accepted by the Hawaiian
Government. King Kamehameha V dissolved the government under the
Constitution of 1852, because Article 45 allowed the King to alter laws
without the approval of the Legislative branch. He reinstituted the
government with the revised Constitution of 1864, which required a
two-thirds approval from the Legislature for an amendment to the
constitution.
Since the creation of an organized government in Hawaii, every
Hawaiian “King” took the advice of white businessmen when making
decisions. The Americans had poured millions of dollars into the
Hawaiian sugar cane plantations, importing
machinery, knowledge, and
labor. The agricultural boom caused Hawaii’s economy to grow
immensely, which led to cities, tourism, and all the
conveniences of modern day life. The businessmen were profiting
greatly from their ventures in Hawaii and were happy with the
arrangement they had with the Hawaiian Government. In 1887, however,
King Kalakaua supposedly accepted a bribe of 71,000 dollars from the
Chinese. In return, the King awarded them exclusive rights to sell
opium in Hawaii. The businessmen and their investors were angered
by this act of defiance and betrayal. In retaliation they formed the
“Honolulu Rifles” and plotted to take over the political system of
Hawaii. On July 1, 1887 this group went into the palace and forced King
Kalakaua, under threat of bodily harm, to sign what would later be
called “ The Bayonet Constitution of 1887.”
This constitution left three-quarters of the vote to the white
businessmen because of the property and
monetary restrictions it instituted. It also allowed the businessmen
to counteract the rest of the native vote by using uneducated laborers
from Portugal. The businessmen forced the laborers, many of whom were
illiterate, to sign an agreement swearing to “support the constitution
of the Hawaiian Kingdom promulgated and proclaimed on the 7th day of
July, 1887.” After signing that agreement, the laborers were taken to
the elections and told what they needed to do to uphold their agreement
and avoid deportation. Finally, the constitution made it possible for
the businessmen to overrule the king’s will with ease.
Termination, Coronation, and Insurrection
In January of 1891, King Kalakaua died and his sister,
Lili’uokalani, was crowned. Queen Lili’uokalani attempted to get rid
of the Bayonet Constitution and replace it with one that gave the power
back to the Hawaiian monarchy. When she went to her cabinet to get the
new constitution ratified, her ministers refused to sign the document
and left her with the blame. It was at this point that the Annexation
Club, named the “Committee of Safety” at that time, plotted to
overthrow the throne. U.S. Minister to Hawaii, John L. Stevens was
quoted saying, "’The Hawaiian pear is now fully ripe and this is the
golden hour for the United States to pluck it’" in a letter he wrote to
the State Department in February 1893 . John L. Stevens ordered Marines
from, naval vessel, the U.S.S. Boston in the harbor to land on Hawaii
and assist him in his private coup d’état. He informed them, falsely,
that their presence was needed to protect American lives and property.
After they landed, he peacefully overthrew Queen Lili’uokalani and set
up a provisional government. Immediately after the new government was
put into place a request for annexation was sent to the U.S.
Congress. The entire revolution, from planning to the delivery of the
annexation treaty to the U.S. only took 32 days, 15 of which were spent
on transit of the treaty from Hawaii to the U.S.
The American government wanted to annex Hawaii, but they needed a
way to justify the provisional government’s authority there. After
hearing the basic account of the events on Hawaii during the military
coup, President Grover Cleveland sent a message to Congress laying
out the advantage of Hawaii’s annexation. He referenced a letter
written on November 20, 1892 by Minister John L. Stevens to Secretary
of State John W. Foster in which:
the case for annexation was elaborately argued, on moral,
political, and economical grounds. He refers to the loss of the
Hawaiian sugar interests from the operation of the McKinley bill, and
the tendency to still further depreciation of sugar property unless
some positive measure of relief is granted. He strongly inveighs
against the existing Hawaiian Government and emphatically declares for
annexation. He says: ‘In truth the monarchy here is an absurd
anachronism. It has nothing on which it logically or legitimately
stands. The feudal basis on which it once stood no longer existing, the
monarchy now is only an impediment to good government - an obstruction
to the prosperity and progress of the islands.’
Stevens also argued that the government of Hawaii was set up in
such a way that the transition from independent Hawaii to Hawaii as an
American State would be clean. He also claimed that the incorporation
of Hawaii into the U.S. is part of
Manifest Destiny and that it would
be better for the Hawaiians. The American government agreed that
incorporating Hawaii as a state would be beneficial to the Union in
many ways and that they looked “favorably on it,” but that “all things
relating to the transaction should be clear and free from suspicion.”
President Grover Cleveland also condemned the actions of John L.
Stevens in his message to Congress saying that:
But for the lawless occupation of Honolulu under false pretexts by
the United States forces, and but for Minister Stevens' recognition of
the provisional government when the United States forces were its sole
support and constituted its only military strength, the Queen and her
Government would never have yielded to the provisional government, even
for a time and for the sole purpose of submitting her case to the
enlightened justice of the United States.
He did not, however, require all
military forces be removed from
Hawaii or that the American citizens responsible for the coup be
punished for conspiracy or demand that the provisional government be
dissolved and rule be returned to Queen Lili’uokalani. Instead,
President Cleveland chose to take the annexation treaty under
consideration and to send a special commissioner to Hawaii to figure
out what truly happened and advise on the morality of the whole
situation. He chose Georgia Congressmen, James H. Blount to be the new
Minister to Hawaii. He sent him to Hawaii with the following orders:
You will investigate and fully report to the President all the
facts you can learn respecting the condition of affairs in the Hawaiian
Islands, the causes of the revolution by which the Queen’s Government
was overthrown, the sentiment of the people towards existing authority,
and, in general, all that can fully enlighten the President touching
the subjects of your mission.
Envisioning that this report would help to justify the
American-run provisional government in Hawaii, President Cleveland also
gave Blount orders to research the claims that American lives and
property were in danger at the time of the revolution. If the Americans
could prove that these claims were valid, then it was a historical
precedent of:
the United States, to authorize the employment of its armed
force in foreign territory for the security of the lives and property
of American citizens and for the repression of lawless and tumultuous
acts threatening them; and the powers conferred to that end upon the
representatives of the United States are both necessary and proper,
subject always to the exercise of a sound discretion in their
application.
This would have cleared all the American businessmen who took part
in the revolution of guilt and would give the Americans the necessary
moral grounds to accept the annexation treaty. Blount believed he was
there to perform “an accurate, full and impartial investigation…of the
facts attending the subversion of the constitutional Government of
Hawaii, and the installment in its place of the provisional
government.” Upon arriving at Hawaii, he was offered a number of
luxuries from both the provisional government and Queen
Lili’uokalani, which he refused, saying that he “could accept no favors
at the hands of any parties in the island.” He did not want the
reputation of his report to be tainted by rumors of bribery. Blount
spent four months in Hawaii collecting testimonies from all classes of
Hawaiian society. After collecting his evidence he submitted a 1500
page account, dubbed “The Blount Report,” stating his findings to this
end.
The Blount Report
The Americans were blinded by propaganda and racial prejudice in
their actions. The Hawaiian Star, an Annexation Club-run newspaper,
printed propaganda about Queen Lili’uokalani and the native Hawaiians
that drove a wedge between the races. The Americans all believed that
the cultural changes enacted upon the natives were an improvement; that
with “unselfishness, toil, patience, and piety” the missionaries
brought the natives “civilized” language,
“civilized” religion, and movement towards a
“civilized” society. This was despite the fact that the Hawaiians had
an intricate and unique culture before the
missionaries arrived and destroyed it. Evidence of the propaganda can
be found in a statement from Volney V. Ashford, commander of the
Honolulu Rifles, that painted a different picture of Queen
Lili’uokalani, portraying her as:
a reigning sovereign who had at least twice striven to supplant
her brother even at the expense, if necessary, of walking over his
strangled corpse to the throne; a woman notoriously loaded with the
grossest social vices…claiming qualities of justice, firmness, and
courage, which events proved to be but selfishness, mulishness, and
savage ignorance; a hater of whites and promoter of race prejudices; an
idolatress, a kahuna worshiper, and an advocate of the most abominable
methods…the natives soon turned from her in disgust.
The statements made about the Queen had no basis in reality and
were, in fact, just bold-faced lies, but the Americans believed them
fully, because they came from a newspaper. The Americans also believed
that the natives actually hated the constitutional monarchy that
existed and desired annexation, but that they were afraid of being
“disfranchised” if they made their opinion known. This belief was also
unfounded and Blount provided ample amounts of data to prove it
otherwise. Finally, Americans believed that “ the
superiority of the white race always suppresses the inferior races,”
and used this to justify their political and economical extortion of
the natives. The Committee of Safety, or Annexation Club, pushed their
hardest to convince the Americans that the “native is unfit for
government and his power must be curtailed,” and they were eventually
successful. Along with propagating propaganda, the Annexation Club
printed crooked accounts of the revolutions. They reported that:
Her Majesty, Lili’uokalani, acting in conjunction with certain
other persons, had illegally and unconstitutionally, and against the
advice and consent of the lawful executive officers of the Government,
attempted to abrogate the existing constitution and proclaim a new one
in subversion of the rights of the people.
This testimony, ironically, could be used
to describe the events behind the ratification of the Bayonet
Constitution of 1887, except the Americans were successful. This same
account claimed that “such attempt had been accompanied by threats of
violence and bloodshed,” which is another falsity. Queen Lili’uokalani
counseled her people to be “quiet and orderly” and, to avoid the
"collision of armed forces and perhaps loss of life,” surrendered the
throne to the Americans.
In spite of all the annexationists’ attempts to win over the minds
of the Americans, there were still two groups in Hawaii that had
reservations about annexation. The opposing party, the “liberals,”
had just lost the election and were angry with the Annexation Club . In
the tradition of warring political parties, the one out of power
always does its best to hinder the progress of the party in power. The
planters were also worried about annexation, because of their need for
cheap imported labor. Ostensibly the planters supported annexation, as
Americans, but they were worried that the labor laws would change with
the annexation. An American planter, Claus Spreckels, admitted that
“without labor they could not get along at all…If they could not get
labor they don’t want annexation.” The Annexation Club tried its best
to sway the mind of the people. In the end, however, not a single
annexationist on the island would agree to put the annexation treaty to
a vote amongst the people of Hawaii, because they knew that a great
majority of the people did not wish to ratify the treaty. Instead, the
Annexation Club ignored the natives and tried to get the treaty
ratified without their approval. They sent the treaty off to Washington
before the dust in Hawaii could settle out and people could comprehend
what really happened.
Fortunately, the treaty was not accepted by the U.S.Congress when it
was first received, because Queen Lili’uokalani sent an envoy to
Washington to give the Hawaiians’ side of the story and cause a
controversy over the whole matter. Blount was able to discredit the
American propaganda and racial prejudice by actually meeting with
natives and gathering their opinions. The people believed Queen
Lili’uokalani’s attempt to ratify a new constitution without the
approval of the legislature was justifiable on the grounds that the
Bayonet Constitution of 1887 was ratified without a vote by the people.
The new constitution was unanimously supported by the native Hawaiians.
Many Hawaiians lost their right to vote after the constitution of 1887
and they wrote petitions demanding it back from the government, all
unsuccessful. Of the Hawaiians that could still vote, 7500 of them
signed a petition against annexation. The Annexation Club could only
rally 5180 people to their cause and of those people, not all of them
were allowed to vote. The natives who did support annexation were
generally employed by the government or white farmers and feared
discharge. The natives respected Blount because he was representing the
President of the United States, and therefore they gave him honest
accounts and opinions. They believed “that a deep wrong had been done
the Queen and the native race by American officials.” They believed
however that Blount would get to the bottom of the revolution and that
justice would be served to the perpetrators.
Blount's Ruling
After spending four months in Hawaii collecting government
records, affidavits, sworn statements, and interviews with the
people of Hawaii, Blount compiled his report and sent it off to
Washington. Blount found that the American involvement in the
institution of the Provisional government was rife with scandal and
back dealings, which became uncovered only after his extensive
research. The Hawaiians, Blount found, had their civil, social, and
personal rights violated and were generally in
concurrence against the Provisional Government, the Constitution of
1887, and the Annexation of Hawaii. The natives were described by
Blount as “over-generous, hospitable, almost free from revenge, very
courteous – especially to females” and had a literacy rate comparable
to England and Germany. The Postmaster at the time, H. Center, was one
of many Americans to inform Blount that, if a nation-wide proposal for
annexation was introduced, there would be a great majority against
annexation. Even though the feeling of the natives was so strong
against this foreign intrusion, the Americans did what was necessary to
assure the annexation of Hawaii.
To get their way, the Annexation Club performed a number of
scandalous political “miracles,” which left them in control of a
foreign government. The Constitution of 1887 was the first scandal
inflicted upon the Hawaiians. The Americans presented it as a legal
document, but later admitted that it had not been presented to anyone
who could have put it through the proper process of ratification and
was described by Chief Justice Judd as a
revolutionary act. The next scandal came with the landing of American
troops on Hawaii. They were deployed under the pretense that American
lives and property were in danger, but were actually used to force
Queen Lili’uokalani to surrender her government. Admiral Skerrett later
reported that the movements of the American troops were, “well located
if designed to promote the movement for the Provisional Government and
very improperly located if only intended to protect American citizens
in person and property.” The Queen would never have yielded her throne
to the American businessmen if they had not have threatened her and her
people with violence.
Another scandal was based around Stevens’ recognition of the
Provisional Government. Blount acquired affidavits from Stevens and
some of his party to piece together how the provisional government was
formed and how Minister Stevens had recognized its authority. He found
out later there were some conflicts and that Stevens had recognized the
new government before all civil infrastructures,
namely the barracks and station house, had been surrendered. Stevens
was even informed of this by Sanford B. Dole in a
letter written on January 17th, 1893. It stated that, “we are not
actually yet in possession of the station-house…and our forces may be
insufficient to maintain order” and yet Stevens did not retract his
recognition of the Provisional Government. This preemptive
acknowledgement of a government that was neither complete nor stable
was against American protocol and was an abuse of his power as U.S.
Minister to Hawaii.
Finally, a scandal that took place during Blount’s visit
incorporated conversations between him and Queen Lili’uokalani. The
annexationists used their newspaper, the Hawaiian Star, to degrade both
Queen Lili’uokalani and Blount’s reputation. They implied that the
Queen and Blount had “unhindered interviews,” which made Lili’uokalani
guilty of treason and Blount guilty of dishonorable conduct. When
Blount wrote of his concerns to President Dole, Blount was comforted
with false assurances that “the Government is in no way responsible
for the expressions of that or any other paper.” Not surprisingly, the
Hawaiian Star then “changed its tone to one of frequent compliment to
Blount.” Not only was this propaganda and slander, but a complete
insult to Blount’s intelligence.
Looking back at his research, Blount made the conclusions that the
native Hawaiians were generally against annexation and the Provisional
Government and the circumstances surrounding the institution of the
government were shady. Since the basis for the government was under
question, Blount told the Americans that it could “only rest on the use
of military force, possessed of most of the arms in the
islands…ultimately it will fall without fail.” Blount’s advice to the
U.S. Government was to not accept the annexation treaty, because it was
from a government that was unsound and did not represent the opinion of
the people of Hawaii.
Equal and Opposite Reactions
Blount’s report did not come back with the conclusion that the
American government was expecting or desired. At first they accepted it
and even found Stevens guilty of inappropriate conduct by supporting a
conspiracy, but he was pardoned after the “Morgan Report” was published
in 1894. The Committee on Foreign Relations ran an investigation at the
request of the U.S. Senate to give a second opinion of the situation in
Hawaii. This report, headed by Senator John T. Morgan, began by
discrediting the Blount Report. It stated that Blount failed to swear
in witnesses for their interviews and overlooked certain key players,
forgetting to take their accounts of the events. It then took
affidavits and statements from primarily American citizens present at
the time of the revolution and, using them as evidence, came to the
opposite conclusion as the Blount Report. It exonerated all of the
Americans involved in the revolution and condemned Queen Lili’uokalani
as a radical and conspirator . The first annexation treaty was rejected
using the Blount Report; the second, proposed on June 16, 1897, was
rejected on the basis of a protest from Queen Lili’uokalani and signed
petitions from 21,169 native Hawaiians against annexation. Congress
subsequently enacted a resolution on July 7, 1898 annexing Hawaii
unilaterally, because of the Spanish-American War. The Spanish in
South America and the Americans in North America were competing over
the Pacific Islands and Hawaii was a perfect military
base and stepping stone to the battles in Guam and the Philippines
for the Americans. In the end, John L. Stevens was forced into early
retirement and died soon afterwards; James H. Blount’s hard work did
not really make a difference; Queen Lili’uokalani died without being
reconstituted to the throne; the Provisional Government continued to
rule the people for a number of years and Hawaii was eventually annexed
anyways. The “Blount Report”, however, remains the primary source of
information for the revolution of 1893 and the events leading up to it.
References
A .zip of the Blount Report can be downloaded at http://libweb.hawaii.edu/digicoll/annexation/blount/blountzip.html
Information on the political history of Hawaii was acquired at http://www.hawaiiankingdom.org/ political-history.shtml
A very informational video, part of PBS' "The American Experience" collection, is Hawaii’s Last Queen. Transcript can be found at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/hawaii/hawaiitrans.html
Information on the Morgan Report can be found at
http://www.worldhistoryblog.com/2006 /01/morgan-report.html and a
transcript of the document can be acquired at
http://morganreport.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Outline_of_Topic
If you want specific citations for any of the quotes used in this write-up, just /msg me with your questions. Thanks!