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In the early 1880s,
The Missionary Party, led by Lorrin Thurston, the grandson of one of the
first missionaries in Hawai`i, and Sanford Dole, also the son of a
missionary, began what turned out to be an unsuccessful campaign to
discredit and dethrone King David Kalākaua.
In 1887, they formed
a secret society, the Hawaiian League, of Anglo-Saxon planters and
businessmen, motivated by greed and racial discrimination, and armed
themselves in order to protect their interests and bring military
pressure against the King. Finally, in November of that
year, they forced King Kalākaua to sign what has become known as The "Bayonet"
Constitution, establishing a provisional government controlled by The
Missionary Party, restricting voting rights to property owners, abolishing the Hawaiian Navy, and
stripping Kalākaua of power.
In January of
1891, Kalākaua died of a stroke and Bright’s Disease while visiting
San Francisco, and his sister, Lydia Kamakaeha Lili`uokalani, became
Queen. Over the next two years, she would be in constant conflict with
the new provisional government, now
focused on achieving annexation of Hawai`i.
On January 17, 1893,
Stanford Dole and his armed “Committee of Safety”, with the assistance
of the American Navy, marched on `Iolani Palace and forced Queen
Lili`uokalani to abdicate under protest.
"I, Lili`uokalani, by the grace of God and
under the constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Queen, do hereby
solemnly protest against any and all acts done against myself and the
constitutional government of the Hawaiian Kingdom by certain persons
claiming to have established a Provisional Government of and for this
Kingdom.
That I yield to the superior force of the
United States of America, whose Minister Plenipotentiary, His Excellency
John L. Stevens, has caused United States troops to be landed at
Honolulu and declared that he would support the said Provisional
Government."
Control of
Hawai`i was formally transferred to the United States at ceremonies on
August 12, 1898. And Sanford Dole was appointed governor of the newly
formed Territory of Hawai`i.
In December of
1898, ex-President Cleveland writes: "Hawai`i is ours. As I look back
upon the first steps in this miserable business, and as I contemplate
the means used to complete the outrage, I am ashamed of the whole
affair."
In January 1959, a
Statehood Bill was introduced in Congress, and was finally passed on
March 12th. On June 27th, the people of Hawai`i. Of the 240 electoral
precincts, only one rejected statehood, the island of Ni`ihau, populated
exclusively by Native Hawaiians. And the rest of the population voted
for statehood by a 17 to 1 margin.
On August 21st,
1959, President Eisenhower declared that "the procedural requirements
imposed by the Congress on the state of Hawai`i ... have been complied
with ... and that admission of state of Hawai`i into the Union ... is
now accomplished."
In 1988, 95 years
after the overthrow of the Sovereign Nation of Hawai`i, a study by the United States Justice Department concluded that
Congress did not have the authority to annex Hawai`i by joint
resolution.
On November 23,
1993, President Clinton signed United States Public Law 103-150, which
not only acknowledged the illegal actions committed by the United States
in the overthrow of the legitimate government of Hawai`i, but also that
the Hawaiian people never surrendered their sovereignty.
In 1999, the
United Nations confirmed that the vote that led to Hawaii's statehood
was in violation of article 73 of the United Nations' charter, and
therefore was illegal and
non-binding. |
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Broken Trust, by King and
Roth
Ua Mau Ke Ea
by David Keanu Sai
Hawai`i's Story by Hawai`i's Queen, by Lili`uokalani
(click here to read online)
Hawaiian Sovereignty, Do the Facts Matter? by Twigg-Smith
Nation Within, by Coffman
Native Land and Foreign Desires, Bishop Museum Press
On Being Hawaiian by John Holt
Shoal of Time, by Daws
The Hawaiian Kingdom, by Kuykendall, University of Hawai`i Press
The Hawaiian Revolution and The Hawaiian Republic, by Russ Jr.
To Steal a Kingdom, by Dougherty
Who Owns the Crown Lands of Hawai`i, University of Hawai`i Press |
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