Princess (afterwards Queen) Liliuokalani.
In January, 1893, Queen Liliuokalani sought by a coup d’état to reinvest her royal authority with its old absoluteness and to disfranchise non-naturalized whites. The American man-of-war Boston, lying in Honolulu harbor, at the request of American residents, landed marines for their protection. The American colony now initiated a counter revolution, declaring the monarchy abrogated and a provisional government established. Minister Stevens at once recognized the Provisional Government as de facto sovereign. Under protest the Queen yielded.
James H. Blount.
The new government formally placed itself under the protectorate of the United States, and the Stars and Stripes were hoisted over the Government Building. President Harrison disavowed the protectorate, though he did not withdraw the troops from Honolulu, regarding them as necessary to assure the lives and property of American citizens. Nor did he lower the flag. A treaty for the annexation of the islands was soon negotiated and submitted to the Senate.
The Cleveland Administration reversed this whole policy with a jolt. The treaty withdrawn, Mr. Cleveland despatched to Honolulu Hon. James H. Blount as a special commissioner, with “paramount authority,” which he exercised by formally ending the protectorate, hauling down the flag, and embarking the garrison of marines. Mr. Blount soon superseded Mr. Stevens as minister. Meantime the Provisional Government had organized a force of twelve hundred soldiers, got control of the arms and ammunition in the islands, enacted drastic sedition laws, and suppressed disloyal newspapers.
Albert S. Willis.
So complete was its sway, and so relentless did the dethroned Queen threaten to be toward her enemies in case she recovered power, that Minister Albert S. Willis, on succeeding Mr. Blount, lost heart in the contemplated enterprise of restoring the monarchy. He found the Provisional Government and its supporters men of “high character and large commercial interests,” while those of the Queen were quite out of sympathy with American interests or with good government for the islands. A large and influential section of Hawaiian public opinion was unanimous for annexation, even Prince Kunniakea, the last of the royal line, avowing himself an annexationist with heart, soul, and, if necessary, with rifle.
A farcical attempt at insurrection was followed by the arrest of the conspirators and of the ex-Queen, who thereupon, for herself and heirs, forever renounced the throne, gave allegiance to the Republic, counselled her former subjects to do likewise, and besought clemency. Her chief confederates were sentenced to death, but this was commuted to a heavy fine and long imprisonment. After the retirement of the Democracy from power in 1896 the annexation of the islands was promptly consummated.