Kingdom of Hawaii
THE OVERLOOK
By Tom Clavin
“The Overlook” appears every Wednesday at tomclavin.substack.com. If you enjoy the column, please "like" it and let me know what you think by commenting. Check out previous columns while you're at it. And don't forget to hit the ‘Subscribe’ button – it’s free!
During the middle of winter, it’s nice to think about a warmer climate. Like Hawaii. This month marks the 132nd anniversary of the overthrow of its monarchy. The man most responsible was a sugar planter named Sanford Ballard Dole.
[Full disclosure: This is an updated version of a column that first appeared two years ago. It’s one of those weeks . . .]
Dole was born on April 23, 1844, in Honolulu to Protestant Christian missionaries who had emigrated from Maine. (now that’s climate change!) Sadly, his mother died from complications within a few days of his birth. The baby was nursed by a native Hawaiian, and two years later his father remarried. In 1855, the family moved to Koloa on the island of Kaua’i, where they operated a school, which Sanford attended.
He attended Oahu College for one year and then Williams College in Massachusetts. He worked in a law office in Boston for another year. At this time in the U.S., admission to the bar was by reading the law in an apprenticeship under a lawyer and may have not required an examination. Thirty years later, Dole would receive an honorary law degree from Williams College -- in recognition of his service as the first and only elected president of Hawaii.
In 1873, Dole married Anna Prentice Cate. After years of practicing law, in 1884 and 1886, Dole was elected to the legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom as a representative from Kauaʻi, During this time he was active in creating the constitution of 1887. It was that year when local businessmen, sugar planters, and politicians backed by the Honolulu Rifles forced the dismissal of the kingdom’s cabinet and adopted the Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
The new constitution limited voting rights to the literate males of Hawaiian, European, and American descent while imposing income and wealth requirements to be eligible to vote for the House of Nobles. This effectively consolidated power among the elite residents of the island. In addition, the new constitution minimized the power of the monarch in favor of the new cabinet. Dole and other lawyers of American descent drafted this document, which became known as the "Bayonet Constitution.”
King Kalakaua appointed Dole a justice of the Supreme Court of the Kingdom of Hawaii in December 1887 and to a commission to revise judiciary laws the following month. After Kalākaua's death in 1891, his sister Queen Lili’uokalani appointed him to her Privy Council. The monarchy ended on January 17, 1893, with the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii organized by many of the same actors involved in the 1887 revolt. Although Dole declined to officially be part of the so-called Committee of Safety, he helped draft its declaration.
Dole was named president of the Provisional Government of Hawaii that was formed after the coup. It was recognized within 48 hours by all nations with diplomatic ties to the Kingdom of Hawaii, including Great Britain. His cabinet, called the "executive council,” included James King as minister of the interior, William Owen Smith as attorney general, and the banker Peter Jones as minister of finance. Dole also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
With Grover Cleveland’s election as President of the United States, the Provisional Government's hopes of annexation were derailed for a time. Indeed, Cleveland tried to directly help reinstate the monarchy. The Blount Report of July 17, 1893, commissioned by President Cleveland, concluded that the Committee of Safety conspired with U.S. ambassador John Steven to land U.S. Marines to forcibly remove Queen Liliʻuokalani from power and replace her with the Committee of Safety.
In November 1893, the Queen was presented with Cleveland's request that she grant amnesty to the revolutionists in return for being restored to the throne. This request she flatly refused, stating that the revolutionists should be punished and should have their lands confiscated. She went so far as to recommend that Dole and the others be put to death. Such an inflexible position lost her the goodwill of the Cleveland administration, which then recognized the Republic of Hawaii on July 4, 1894.
Conveniently, five months earlier a new report had contended that the overthrow of the monarchy was locally based, that it had its origins in monarchical corruption, and that American troops had not tried to bring about the monarchy's collapse – instead, the troops had acted merely to protect American property and citizens.
The new Republic of Hawaii needed a president, and Sanford Dole was elected to the position. He would serve as the first and only elected president until 1898. One of his ambitions was to have Hawaii annexed by the U.S. Meanwhile, Dole's government weathered several attempts to restore the monarchy, including a counter-rebellion led by Robert Wilcox. After being defeated, Wilcox and the other conspirators were captured and sentenced to death, but had their sentences reduced or commuted by Dole.
One pesky problem was the stubborn Queen Liliʻuokalani, but that was resolved when under duress she swore allegiance to the Republic of Hawaii, declaring, "I hereby do fully and unequivocally admit and declare that the Government of the Republic of Hawaii is the only lawful Government of the Hawaiian Islands, and that the late Hawaiian monarchy is finally and forever ended and no longer of any legal or actual validity, force or effect whatsoever."
In 1898, the U.S. did annex Hawaii, and President William McKinley appointed Dole as the territory’s first governor. He served in that capacity until 1903, when he was given a judgeship by President Theodore Roosevelt. One of Dole’s cousins, Edmund Pearson Dole, came to Hawaii to practice law in 1895, and was the attorney general of Hawaii from 1900 to 1903. Another cousin, James Dole, came to Hawaii in 1899 and founded the Hawaiian Pineapple Company on Oahu, which later became the Dole Food Company.
Sanford Dole died in Honolulu in June 1926 at age 82. Hawaii remained a U.S. territory until 1959, when it became the 50th state.
Tom Clavin is the bestselling author/co-author of 25 books, including Bandit Heaven and, with Bob Drury, Throne of Grace. To purchase copies, please go to your local bookstore or to Bookshop.org, Amazon.com, BN.com, or tomclavin.com.
Some 132 years ago, the Kingdom of Hawaii became the Republic of Hawaii, as the island's Queen was overthrown and the American son of missionaries from Maine became the first and only president of our future 50th state. His name was Sanford Ballard Dole (sound familiar?) and after four years as president, he became Hawaii's first Governor as the U.S., under President William McKinley, annexed the islands as a territory (sound familiar again?). A year later, James Dole, a cousin of Sanford, came to Hawaii and started a pineapple company (sound familiar as well?) that became--bet you know the rest. And one wonders where a certain orange-haired politician gets his ideas?!