In October 1897, thousands of Hawaiian loyalist congregated at Palace Square to send a clear message to the U.S. Congress and the President that the vast majority of Hawaiian citizens were against annexation to the United States.
Soon after the U.S.’ invasion in 1893, the Provisional Government attempted to annex Hawai`i to the United States. President Cleveland, however, refused to pursue annexation and chastised U.S. Minister to Hawai`i John Stevens for his role in the overthrow. Cleveland remained in office until March, 1897. For those four years, annexation was stymied.
When William McKinley replaced Cleveland in 1897, he signed a new treaty of annexation with the Republic of Hawai`i, sending it to the U.S. Senate for ratification. The Hawaiian annexation question split the Senate. Congressional delegates arrived in Hawai`i to promote one or another side. Senator John Tyler Morgan (D-Alabama), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and author of the Morgan Report which supported the overthrow and the U.S.’s taking Hawai`i arrived in Hawai`i. Morgan declared Minister Stevens had demonstrated "the privilege of interference", allowing U.S. ministers the right to take virtually any diplomatic or military action. This privilege, according to Morgan, ran only in favor of the United States and no other country.
On that October evening, Hawaiian loyalists came from throughout Hawai`i to Palace Square. As the sun set, J. Kalua Kaho`okano declared the meeting’s purpose to oppose annexation clearly for Morgan and his fellow congressmen to witness and carry back to the United States the strong message of the Hawaiians. F. J. Testa, a Portuguese, ardent Royalist, and editor of Ka Maka`ainana, a Hawaiian language newspaper, read a Memorial in Hawaiian & English, setting forth reasons against annexation. (The English version of the memorial is reprinted on this page.) The Memorial declared the people were not supporters and held no allegiance to the Republic of Hawai`i, which government had no legitimacy other than the force of arms. It pointed out the Republic had no popular support and were held up by self-appointed individuals, constituting a minority in the community - most of them aliens. It’s constitution was never submitted to a vote of the people, and it was with grief and dismay that the Hawaiian people saw the U.S. enter into a treaty with the Republic to extinguish the existence of the Hawaiian nation. It asked that no further action be taken until the Hawaiian people were able to vote on the question of annexation.
The people gave Testa a resounding acclamation approving the Memorial.
The fiery James Keauiluna Kaulia, President of Hui Aloha `aina, went head to head with Morgan, challenging & criticizing the Senator’s claims in Hawai`i. Morgan tried to persuade native Hawaiians their status as American citizens would be an improvement in their condition, assuring them that the Americans wanted only to "secure you from aggression from foreign powers." He promised protection from the Chinese and told the people that a Hawaiian could even become President of the United States! The U.S. Constitution requires, however, that a President must be born an American. He promised that Hawai`i would be annexed as a State (which came only three generations later in 1959), that the public lands would go to the people (but instead the vast majority has been kept in the Federal and Territory, now State, hand), and that there was no need to submit the question of annexation to a popular vote.
Kaulia retorted that Hawai`i should remain independent and so she would be were it not for the policy of greed and cowardice of certain American Legislators and those who first consummated the theft in Hawai`i. How can the U.S., he asks, annex Hawai`i in consistency with her principles, without undoing the theft which Minister Stevens engaged in? "Ask for the voice of Hawaii on this subject - Mr. Senator, and you will hear it with no uncertain tones ring out from Niihau to Hawaii - ‘Independence now and forever.’"
Kalauokalani, President of Hui K_lai`aina, another citizens organization, waved a Hawaiian flag, then produced an American flag and asked the people if they wanted to lose sight of their own flag and live under the American. A negative response was loudly given.
J. O. Carter, close adviser to Queen Lili`uokalani after the overthrow, was prophetic:
"So long as Hawaii remains independent she will be free from all the entanglements that beset the rest of the world. Imagine if you can, that the United States may some day be involved in war, and that in the event of annexation, we, as an unprotected and far-off portion of United States territory, will also be involved and open to all the misery and suffering that war entails. It would be far better that Hawaii remain independent and be able to enjoy the advantages of neutrality."
He also warned,
"Annexation will change the fiscal affairs of Hawaii. You should understand that increased taxation must follow annexation. . . . .The cost of many articles brought from England, France, Germany, Japan and China will be increased.. . .
[As] a Hawaiian, I am indignant at the action which took place here on the 17th January, 1893. As an offspring of American parentage I am ashamed of that action. . . . . [It] is right for you to urge action in all lawful ways to preserve and perpetuate Hawaiian independence."
The following month, four Hawaiian gentlemen, John Richardson, William Auld, James Kaulia and David Kalauokalani, left for Washington D.C. to represent the Hawaiian people against the annexation treaty in Congress. Along with the Memorial, they carried petitions of almost 40,000 names against annexation and presented them during the Senate debate on the treaty. The Senate voted and the treaty did not obtain the 2/3rd vote required for ratification by the Constitution. The four returned home victorious. All corners of Hawai`i celebrated.
But the celebration was short-lived. By mid 1898, the House of Representatives adopted a Joint Resolution for the annexation of Hawai`i. It was sent off to the Senate where the opposition attempted a filibuster for several weeks before the resolution was passed by a mere majority. On July 7, 1898, the U.S. President signed the Resolution purporting to annex Hawai`i as a territory to the United States. In this way, the Congress side-stepped its Constitution which each member had promised to uphold. The Hawaiians were shocked by this tactic. The U.S. now claimed Hawai`i as their possession.
There will be a November 22, 1997 rally at `Iolani Palace beginning at 10:00 a.m. and continue to 4:00 p.m. The public is invited. See posting above.