Liliuokalani

Liliʻuokalani, Queen of Hawaiʻi (September 2, 1838 – November 11, 1917), originally named Lydia Kamakaʻeha, and Lydia Liliuokalani Paki. And she was also known as Lydia Kamakaʻeha Paki, with the chosen royal name of Liliʻuokalani, and later named Lydia K. Dominis, was the last monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.

Early life

Hawaiʻi’s last sovereign queen was born on September 2, 1838, in Honolulu. According to Hawaiian tradition, she was adopted at birth by Abner Paki and his wife, Laura Konia (a granddaughter of King Kamehameha I). Liliuokalani’s childhood years were spent studying and playing with Bernice Pauahi, the Paki's natural daughter.

Liliuokalani received her education at the Royal School and became fluent in English.

Reign

On September 16, 1862, she married John Owen Dominis, who became Governor of Oʻahu and Maui. They had no children; Liliʻuokalani's heiress for several years was her niece Victoria Kaʻiulani (1875–1899), although Kaʻiulani predeceased her. Liliʻuokalani inherited the throne from her brother Kalākaua on January 17, 1891. Shortly after she gained power, she tried to abrogate the existing "Bayonet Constitution", so named because it had been signed by the previous monarch under the threat of force, and draft a new constitution that would restore power to the monarchy. American and European subjects of the Kingdom of Hawaii, threatened by the elimination of suffrage by the queen's proposed constitution, asserted that the queen had "virtually abdicated" by trying to subvert the constitution and organized to depose her. Besides the threatened loss of suffrage, business interests within the Kingdom were concerned about the removal of foreign tariffs in the American sugar trade due to the McKinley Act (which effectively eliminated the favored status of Hawaiian sugar due to the Reciprocity Treaty), and considered the possibility of annexation to the United States (and enjoying the same sugar bounties as domestic producers) as a welcome side effect of ending the monarchy. During the overthrow in 1893 the American minister in Hawaiʻi at the time, John L. Stevens, ordered troops from the U.S.S. Boston ashore, to protect American businesses and property. The Queen was deposed on January 17, 1893, and a provisional government was instituted.

The administration of Grover Cleveland commissioned the Blount Report, and based on its findings, concluded that the overthrow of Liliʻuokalani was illegal and offered November 16, 1893 to give the throne back to her if she granted amnesty to everyone responsible. She initially refused, and it was reported that she said she would have them beheaded - she denied that specific accusation, but admitted that she intended them to suffer the punishment of death.^[1] With this development, then-President Grover Cleveland sent the issue to the United States Congress. Although she changed her mind on December 18, 1893, and U.S. Minister Willis demanded her reinstatement by the Provisional Government, the Provisional Government refused. Congress responded to Cleveland's referral with another investigation, and submitted the Morgan Report by the U.S. Senate on February 26, 1894, which exonerated both Minister Stevens and the U.S. troops from any responsibility for the overthrow. On July 4, 1894, the Republic of Hawaiʻi was proclaimed and Sanford B. Dole, one of the first people who originally called on the institution of the monarchy to be abolished, became President. The Republic of Hawaiʻi was recognized immediately by the United States government, although Walter Q. Gresham, Cleveland's Secretary of State, remained antagonistic towards the new government.^[2]

Abdication

Liliʻuokalani was arrested on January 16, 1895 (several days after a failed rebellion by Robert Wilcox) when firearms were found in the gardens of her home, of which she denied any knowledge. She was sentenced to five years of hard labor in prison and fined $5000, but the sentence was commuted to imprisonment in an upstairs bedroom of ʻIolani Palace until she was released in 1896, with the establishment of the Republic of Hawaiʻi. After eight months, she abdicated her throne in return for the release of her jailed supporters. Failing in her appeals to the American government to regain her throne, she unsuccessfully entered against the federal government claims totaling $450,000 for property and other losses, making personal claim to the crown lands. The territorial legislature of Hawaii finally voted her an annual pension of $4,000 and permitted her to receive the income from a sugar plantation of 6,000 acres (24 km²). She went home to Washington Place, where she lived as a private citizen until her death in 1917 due to complications from a stroke. She was 79. Along with Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, Hawaiʻi was annexed to the United States as a result of the Spanish-American War through a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress in 1898. Cuba, where the precipitating event of the war occurred (the explosion of the battleship USS Maine in Havana), was never annexed by the United States.

Liliʻuokalani was an accomplished author and songwriter. Her book, Hawaiʻi's Story by Hawaiʻi's Queen, gave her view of the history of her country and her overthrow. Some of her best-known musical compositions include the song, "Aloha ʻOe".

Footnotes and citations

1. ^ Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen, CHAPTER XL
2. ^ The Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Aug. 1983), pp. 292-311 "Morality and Spite: Walter Q. Gresham and U.S. Relations with Hawaii"

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