The following program was made possible by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Bishop Museum Native Hawaiian Culture and Arts Program, which is funded by the National Park Service in the United States, the Hawaii Committee for the Humanities, the Hawaii Community Foundation, the Gerbode Foundation, and Pacific Islanders in Communications, which is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

(music) (Speaking Hawaiian) “William McKinley, President, and the Senate of the United States of America.

Greetings.

Whereas there has been submitted to the Senate, a treaty for the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands.

We the undersigned native Hawaiian citizens, earnestly protest, Kue, against the annexation, (speaking Hawaiian) We protest against annexation in any form or shape.” “My dear Captain Mahan, I need not tell you that as regards Hawaii.

I take your views, absolutely.

If I had my way, we would annex those islands tomorrow.” Signed Theodore Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary United States Navy, May 1897.

(crowd chanting in Hawaiian) Narrator: 1993 was observed in Hawaii as the 100th anniversary of the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy.

It was an occasion for retelling stories of Hawaii's last queen and also stories of the American missionary descendants who conspired against her.

Events that followed the overthrow have been passed off as inevitable and therefore of little interest.

But unearthing the strange five years between the overthrow and America's annexation of Hawaii reveals not only where deeds were buried in island soil, but something of how in the process, America became the world power that it is today.

Narrator: The first American settlements in Hawaii originated from many New England towns like those found along the Kennebec River in Maine, but none mattered quite like Augusta, Maine, and the little town down river, Hallowell, Maine.

The first sugar plantation in Hawaii was the work of William Ladd and Peter Brimsmaid of Hallowell.

The oldest school in Hawaii, Punahou, was founded by the Protestant missionary Daniel Dole who previously had lived in Hallowell.

The first American diplomat to discuss annexation with the Hawaiian government was Luther Severance, founder of the Kennebec Journal in Augusta, which originally was a part of Hallowell.

Severance sailed into Honolulu early in 1851.

And presented himself and his thoughts to the King, Kamehameha the Third.

Severance: “The occupation of the Pacific coast of the American continent by our Republic will necessarily induce a more intimate connection with your islands.

This has been contemplated in the late treaty negotiated at Washington and which I am glad to hear has been ratified by you.

I shall deem myself fortunate if I can contribute to the permanent independence of your government and the vigor and prosperity of your people.” Narrator: Severance discussed annexation with the king as a last resort to protect Hawaii from the repeated aggression of the imperial powers of Europe.

When it became clear that Hawaii expected to be a truly sovereign state, their talks ended.

Severance returned to Maine where he inflamed the imaginations of the new editors and proprietors of the newspaper he had founded, the Kennebec Journal.

One was John Stephens, then a Universalist Church minister, a promoter of temperance, an opponent of slavery, a founding member of a new political party called the Republican Party.

The other was James G. Blaine, originally a teacher, then an editor, abolitionist, and also a founder of the Republican Party.

Dr. Edward Crapol: I think the main connection with Hawaii is this very fascinating and in some ways a bit mysterious as to why all these people from this small state on the eastern coast, the easternmost portion of the United States, are so interested in these islands out in the Pacific.

It's a creation of what I call a sort of a Maine mafia that that are interested in, in bringing Hawaii into the United States' orbit and then ultimately, into the American Union.

Narrator: The story of Stevens became mired in the affairs of Hawaii but Blaine enjoyed a brilliant career that lately is being reevaluated by American historians.

Dr. Edward Crapol: I think the real relationship between Secretary of State Blaine and minister Stevens was based on their their long association as friends and as expansionists and as two men who shared a vision for American Empire and the United States' destiny.

They've been together for so long.

They understand how each other thinks.

Narrator: For the Hawaiians, the threat of losing control of their nation always centered on America's interest in a place on Oahu, called Puuloa known in English as the Pearl River Lagoon.

In 1872, an American Army Major, John Schofield, reconnoitered Hawaii in civilian clothes, posing as a traveler.

Schofield: “We spent three months on the island and made a careful survey of the Pearl River harbor, and found it to be of exceedingly great value.

The natural adaptability to Naval purposes is perhaps not surpassed by any harbor in the world.” Narrator: To get a naval hold on the Pacific, America needed the Pearl River harbor.

To be consistently profitable, the sugar industry of Hawaii needed access to the American sugar market duty free.

So while the name of the Treaty of Reciprocity suggested a reciprocal or free trade treaty, the treaty between Hawaii and America was more accurately an exchange of Hawaii's duty free access to the American sugar market in return for a strategic military position in the Central Pacific.

The well-known story of the time is of King David Kalakaua's eloquent statement on behalf of the sugar industry to the United States Congress.

The little known story is about Hawaiian opposition to reciprocity.

And here, a man named Joseph Nawahi re-emerges from obscurity.

Nawahi was born during the reign of Kamehameha the Third on the island of Hawaii.

He was educated by American missionaries, taught school and studied law.

When he took the bar exam, the judge asked, "Who taught you the law?"

Nawahi replied, “I taught myself.” He repeatedly won election to the legislature by telling voters he was so independent that he had failed to get anything from the government for his home district.

(Speaking Hawaiian) Dr. Pauline King: So when it finally came, it did exactly what the economic interests thought it would do.

Sugar just grew geometrically.

And of course, the United States is our only market.

Ninety nine percent of Hawaii's sugar goes to U.S. Narrator: Within a few years, the production of sugar doubled, and the population of Asian workers quadrupled.

The original treaty ran for seven booming years, and then it ran from year to year pending renewal or cancellation.

Dr. Edward Crapol: When the reciprocity treaty was up for renewal, there was strong opposition to it in the Senate from protectionists, Republican protectionists.

Who saw the terms of the treaty being detrimental to American producers.

James G. Blaine was out of office, but he remained very interested in reciprocity and in Hawaii.

And he tried to convince the opponents that this should be seen in a broader context, not just in pocketbook terms, but rather geopolitical terms that Hawaii or the Hawaiian Islands were this outpost in the Pacific that would aid American expansion into Asian markets.

And in order to sort of sweeten the deal, they decided to add the amendment to give the United States exclusive right to repair a naval facility at Pearl Harbor.

Narrator: Hawaiian nationalists prominently including Joseph Nawahi protested the Pearl Harbor amendment and King Kalakaua stood with them in their opposition.

But by this time, the sugar growers, their agents and lawyers, were organized to force the kingdom to pay America's new asking price for reciprocity.

The week before the 1887 coup d'etat, 900 new guns arrived in Honolulu, and were distributed through hardware stores and sugar agents to the white population of the town.

Already, the all-white Honolulu rifles were the best armed and most disciplined troops in the country.

Although outwardly loyal to the kingdom, they were subverted by an oath exacted by a handful of conspirators to support and protect white citizens.

The conspirators stopped short of taking over the government directly, but forced the so-called Bayonet Constitution on to Kalakaua.

They reduced him at least temporarily, to a figurehead.

They installed a new cabinet and turned the upper house of the legislature over to the wealthy and mostly white participants in the new sugar economy.

Dr. Jon Kamakawiwoole Osorio: When people consider the Bayonet Constitution most of the focus tends to be on what it did to Kalakaua.

And one of the one of the problems with that, you know, is that if you think that Kalakaua was an inept king or a corrupt king or just a carouser, then you know, clipping his wings is essentially considered to be a, you know, a reasonable thing to do.

But one of the really important effects of the 1887 constitution was the way it diminished real democracy and real representative democracy in Hawaii.

The other thing is what it did to demean the meaning of nationhood for Hawaiians.

Dr. Pauline King: So they forced a situation which is extra legal so it's really the first revolution in order to get that renewal of reciprocity with the Pearl Harbor clause, which is exactly what they did.

Dr. Edward Crapol: The relationship between the Pearl Harbor amendment and, and the coup and Hawaii I think, is direct.

(music) Narrator: In point of fact, American pressure was just beginning.

Benjamin Harrison, one of the Republican senators who had pushed the Pearl Harbor amendment, was elected president.

To serve as Secretary of State, Harrison chose the renowned James Blaine of Maine.

To serve as the new diplomatic representative to Hawaii, Harrison chose John L. Stevens.

From Honolulu, Stevens wrote Blaine that Hawaiians were upset.

The white cabinet imposed by the Bayonet Constitution had been driven from office.

A rebellious Hawaiian named Robert Wilcox was threatening to overthrow the government and replace it with a native Republic.

The American Congress added to the tension in Hawaii by preparing a bill to cancel Hawaii's privileged position in the sugar market.

This triggered the reciprocity negotiation all over again.

And in the negotiation, James Blaine, again upped the price of the sugar planters access to the American market.

Blaine proposed that the Hawaiian Kingdom not only turn over Pearl Harbor to the American Navy, but also become a protectorate of the United States.

Native Hawaiians protested once again.

Blaine stalled.

He reassured the kingdom's representative that he would take care of Hawaii with the new tariff law but in-explicably to this day, Hawaii's market advantage disappeared from the bill as passed.

Reciprocity was dead.

The sugar industry which drove Hawaii's cash economy, was plunged into depression.

It is well known that King Kalakaua died in San Francisco, but not so well known is that he had gone there for meetings that were aimed at reviving reciprocity, the treaty that had dominated his reign.

The Hawaiian population having experienced Kalakaua's loss of control in 1887, and seeing what was happening to Pearl Harbor, petitioned his sister, the new queen, for a more traditional constitution.

Dr. Jon Kamakawiwoole Osorio: All of these things really, really pale for the Hawaiian voter, to this one really important thing, and that is the Constitution does not reflect their lahui, and that needs to be replaced.

And this is the political reality, the political reality for Liliuokalani when she becomes Moi Wahine.

Narrator: Anticipating that the Queen might try to regain real governmental power for Hawaiians, Americans of several types, high officials of the American Government, overseas Americans and descendants of the American missionaries, waited to pounce.

One of the carefully cultivated myths of the overthrow, was that the conspirators were a diverse group of indignant citizens, and that they had a proper arm's length relationship with the American government.

Dr. Pauline King: There are others involved, but the core of it is missionary descendants.

W.O.

Smith, Thurston, Dole, they’ve been here an awfully long time.

But they are still the WASP or the white Anglo Saxon Protestant of years ago.

So that when they start a political party, they even call themselves Whigs before they call themselves Republicans.

And in a way, they're they're captured in this psychology and ideology and spiritualism of those early guys.

And they haven't changed.

Boston's changed, but they haven't changed, you know.

And so they are really pretty archaic.

And they do represent something that's very fundamentally American.

Narrator: Sanford Dole was the second son of missionary Daniel Dole.

When he was a little boy, his father called Sanford into his study, and gave him a Bible.

Sanford burst into tears, then composed himself and read a little each day until he had read it through.

And then, he read it again.

He learned to speak and read Hawaiian, because his father expected him to preach to Hawaiians in their own language.

From Honolulu, young Sanford moved with his father to the sugar plantation at Koloa, Kauai, which was an economic outpost of Hallowell, Maine.

There, Sanford made friends with another missionary offspring, William Owen Smith, and one day, they were visited by a rambunctious little boy from Honolulu named Lorrin Thurston.

As adults, Dole, Smith and Thurston attacked the character of Kalakaua and imposed the Bayonet Constitution.

Young Lorrin quickly distinguished himself as the most aggressive.

While Thurston immersed himself in conspiracies, Sanford Dole created an impression of hovering on a loftier plane.

Sanford Dole: “History derives less interest from the magnitude of its events than from the principles involved therein.

The uprising of a small people may be as inspiring as the uprising of a great nation.” Sanford Dole.

Narrator: Dole translated Hawaiian stories, and he made friends with a Hawaiian woman who agreed to having one of her children, Puiki, or Lizzie, be adopted in a hanai, Hawaiian way, by Dole and his wife, Anna.

Dole: “Lizzie who is very dear to me, almost as if she was my own child.

She is a conscientious girl, and I want to give her all the protection and good influence I can.” Sanford Dole.

Narrator: In the years after the first coup, Dole became a judge.

He sailed with his friends on weekends to Ford Island at Pearl Harbor.

By 1892, Kalakaua was dead, and the reciprocity treaty was a shambles.

The sugar industry was sinking.

And John Stevens, despite his highly undiplomatic behavior was firmly entrenched as United States Minister.

Stevens, in line with Secretary of State James Blaine, had pushed for reducing Hawaii to a protectorate, but in his zeal, Stevens had become an annexationist.

Nothing would do, but for America to take over.

Dr. Edward Crapol: Late 91 and early 1892 he and Harrison are expecting a change might come and Blaine in fact is saying to Harrison that I think a change is gonna- we better be ready for events that might occur in Hawaii.

(music) Narrator: While the Queen thought of Stevens as rude and hostile, she had no way of knowing the extent of his connection to the top reaches of the American government.

But Lorrin Thurston did.

In early 1892, Thurston arrived at Blaine's door in Washington, DC, with a letter of introduction from John Stevens.

Thurston asked what will happen if we overthrow the Queen?

Blaine was frustrated by the failure of his protectorate plan.

He was also mortally ill.

He assured Thurston of his support.

Blaine then sent Thurston to see the Secretary of the Navy, B.F. Tracey, whose office was in the same building, which today is known as the executive office building.

Tracy gave Thurston a friendly reception, then walked him across the lawn to the White House.

There, Thurston waited, while the President of the United States, and the Secretary of the Navy, discussed the overthrow of a small friendly government.

Dr. Edward Crapol: It is significant that he takes him right to the top so to speak.

It's also significant that President Harrison realizes there's certain impropriety here and doesn't meet with him directly, but gives him the indirect green light by saying we'd be sympathetic to whatever you want to do.

B.F. Tracey: “The President authorizes me to say to you that if conditions in Hawaii compel you people to act as you have indicated, and you come to Washington with an annexation proposition, you will find an exceedingly sympathetic administration here.” “That was all I wanted to know.” Lorrin Thurston.

Narrator: When the Queen attempted to proclaim a new constitution, the understanding which the committee of annexation had forged with the American government, served as the basis of the coup that destroyed native government in Hawaii.

The Queen surrendered to the United States in the belief that John Stevens' behavior was not only an aberration of diplomatic protocol, but an aberration of American policy.

On the first night of the coup, with American troops camped outside, white militia occupied the legislative buildings of the kingdom, to pass the night, they sang the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Dr. Pauline King: One of the advisory council said, "Well, who's going to be our leader?"

And they said, "Well, Thurston, you should be."

and he said, "No, because I'm not popular enough."

He said, "We need someone like Dole", you know this very majestic figure with a long beard and people like him.

And you know, he's got some connections with the Hawaiian community, and they're very close, et cetera, et cetera.

Dole: “Much to my surprise, the Committee of safety wished me to take the lead in the scheme to suppress the monarchy, and organize a new government in its stead.

I told them I would consider their proposition overnight, and give my decision in the morning to the Executive Committee, which had been created by the Committee of Safety.” Sanford Dole.

Thurston: “It was universally felt that a man of Dole's standing, character and disposition could not consciously identify himself with or advocate a selfish or unjust cause.

His mere participation as the leader disarmed and neutralized opposition and brought support that could have been secured in practically no other way.” Lorrin Thurston.

Narrator: The proponents of an expanded American Navy rushed to their cause.

Young Theodore Roosevelt was exactly Thurston's age, 35.

He had studied law at Columbia University, as did Thurston.

Roosevelt declared that Hawaii should be taken over immediately.

Roosevelt's colleague, Captain Alfred Mahan, was just emerging as America's philosopher of sea power.

Alfred Mahan: “The Hawaiian group possesses unique importance, not from its intrinsic commercial value, but from its favorable position for maritime and military control of the Pacific.” Narrator: Referring to the large number of Asian immigrant sugar workers, Mahan described annexation as a white cork in a yellow bottle.

In the same breath, he advocated the building of a canal across the isthmus of the Americas and establishing American predominance over the Caribbean ocean.

Thurston and his cohorts arrived in Washington desperate to turn the nation of Hawaii over to the United States.

A treaty was drafted in 12 days and placed before the United States Senate, but time had run out.

Democrat Grover Cleveland had been elected president.

And he had listened to the Queen's representatives tell the Hawaiian side of the story.

(chanting in Hawaiian) Narrator: Over millennia, voyaging peoples had evolved into the most complex and thriving society of the ocean and island world of Polynesia, forming the four highly developed kingdoms of Kauai, Oahu, Maui, and the kingdom of Hawaii.

When the British explorers arrived, they only slowly grasped that the four kingdoms were involved in a war to determine who would rule over all the islands.

The arrival of steel and guns speeded up the course of the wars of conquest, and the enormous armies of Hawaii Island soon prevailed under the leadership of the Moi, Kamehameha, founder of the Hawaiian nation.

Although Lorrin Thurston portrayed Queen Liliuokalani as an imitation of European monarchs, she was in fact a traditional ruling chief, the great granddaughter of the high-ranking chief Keaweaheulu of Kealakekua Kona, an ally of Kamehameha in the war.

By the time of the overthrow, the Hawaiian system of ruling chiefs had been modified by the half-century practice of constitutional monarchy, enlivened by a vibrant free press and a high rate of literacy.

The native hui's, literally gatherings, were at once political parties and patriotic organizations.

Noenoe Silva: The first Hui, Hui Kalaiaina, was developed to in order to gain political power for Native Hawaiians, after the Bayonet Constitution which stripped the King Kalakaua of his many of his powers.

The Hui Aloha Aina, was formed immediately after the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani, in order to prevent annexation.

“We particularly resent the presumption of being transferred like a flock of sheep, and bartered like a herd of untutored savages by an unprincipled minority of aliens who have no right, no legal power, not even a claim of conquest by warfare.

And, we cannot believe that our friends of the great and just American nation could tolerate annexation by force against the wishes of the majority of the population.” Petition of the Women of Hui Aloha Aina.

Narrator: During the first year, hopes rose and fell and rose again.

The bell rang every morning before dawn at Kaumakapili Church, calling the Hawaiian citizens to pray for restoration of the native government.

The Queen spent New Year's Eve of 1894 in seclusion at Washington place.

She wrote in her diary that the missionary descendants were gathered at their choral church singing praises to God, while their spies were lurking, and 50 armed men roamed the streets.

Rumors circulated that she was to be assassinated.

Finally she dosed, only to be awakened by the explosion of fireworks and the ringing of church bells.

She resumed her writing.

Liliuokalani: “All that transpired in 1893 is of the past, that our nation may be restored by President Cleveland and Congress is my earnest prayer and the prayer of my people.” Narrator: Cleveland dismissed Stevens and described the coup as a wholly American event and act of war.

Cleveland: “The lawful government of Hawaii was overthrown by a process directly traceable to and dependent for its success upon the agency of the United States, acting through its diplomatic and naval representatives.” Grover Cleveland, President of the United States.

Narrator: Cleveland demanded that Dole step down and restore the Queen to power.

But Cleveland refused to backup his demand militarily.

Dole announced that America had no right to meddle in the affairs of Hawaii.

Dr. Edward Crapol: What if the provisional government refuses to relinquish its power and allow the monarchy to be reestablished?

Are we going to send troops ashore and suppress the provisional government?

Well, in the cabinet, the answer to that is no.

We can act as if we might want to use force but when the crunch really comes, we're not going to.

That would be a political disaster for us to go in there and suppress that provisional government, use force to restore the monarchy.

Narrator: Cleveland was widely ridiculed for siding with a brown-skinned queen.

A cartoonist, portrayed Cleveland as a Don Quixote, who had tilted at windmills.

Suddenly, the subject of Hawaii was displaced from the center of American public attention.

Although its warehouses and granaries were full to the brim, America was sinking into a disastrous depression.

The cry went up across the political spectrum for the development of world markets.

Then more and more Americans believe the nation's capacity for production would be matched by demand for its products.

Lorrin Thurston advised his fellow conspirators not to worry, that Cleveland was being engulfed by domestic problems, and by criticism of his support for an outdated monarchy.

No one seemed to need reassurance quite like Sanford Dole.

Fearing for his life, he seldom stayed at home overnight, but moved from neighbor to neighbor, never sleeping in the same place two nights in a row.

Dole: “Having the best weapons counts in our favor, and they are cheaper than men.” President Dole.

Narrator: In the fall of 1893, with the entire world watching events in Hawaii, Dole retreated not only from his job, but from Honolulu.

Dole: “I had to take a vacation on account of my health.

This I spent at an isolated livestock ranch in the uplands of the island of Hawaii.

I remained there about seven weeks.” Narrator: More precisely, he stayed with his adopted Hawaiian daughter Lizzie, her husband and their children.

The Queen said he was suffering from a severe attack of conscience.

Dole's wife told people that Sanford was seriously ill with brain fever.

Anna: “My dear Sanford, get strong and well.

Do not use your head at all.” Anna Dole.

Narrator: The problem of the provisional government now was to stay in power as a coup d'etat government, which was widely resented by the people they governed.

From Washington, Lorrin Thurston wrote the first draft of a new constitution.

Thurston was inspired by the state of Mississippi's constitution, which had taken the vote away from black citizens.

He recommended English proficiency barriers to prevent Asian immigrants from voting, and a combination of income and property barriers against all but the well-to-do.

To keep the majority of Hawaiian voters away, he proposed that they swear an oath renouncing the Hawaiian monarchy and supporting annexation.

Dr. Jon Kamakawiwoole Osorio: For them to participate at all means that they have to commit treason.

They have to swear that they will not support the Queen.

They can't do it.

It's as simple as that.

To participate in the Republic is to deny being a Hawaiian.

And that's- it's something that the majority of Hawaiians simply will not do.

Thurston: “The object of this blanket oath is twofold, one, to finally impress upon the world and more particularly upon the Kanaka mind, the fact that monarchy is pau, over, and two, as far as possible, shut out from participation in the reorganization of the government, all those who are not with us.” Lorrin Thurston.

Narrator: In addition to Thurston, Sanford Dole turned for advice to Thurston's alma mater, Columbia University in New York City, and at then renowned professor named John Burgess.

Burgess taught an entire generation, including his student, Theodore Roosevelt, that only people of Aryan or Northern European descent had the qualities necessary for the exercise of free government and free enterprise.

He too advocated that only property owners vote.

He urged that a strong president be appointed, not elected, while judges should be drawn from proper Teutonic backgrounds and sit for life.

In preparation for a constitutional convention, the Provisional Government reduced the voter list to less than one third its previous size.

Seventeen delegates were then elected and another 18 appointed mostly members of the government.

To Jefferson's inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the delegates added the right of acquiring, possessing and protecting property.

The new constitution empowered the legislature to supervise, register, control and identify all persons or any class or nationality of persons, as well as their places of residence, business and employment.

The provision apparently was aimed at immigrant workers who were leaving the harsh life of the plantations in droves.

Changqing: “By what right do our white skin brothers assumed to lord it over us, and to say we should do business and trade and live and breathe only by their consent?” Changqing, a citizen of Chinese ancestry to a mass meeting at the Chinese Theatre.

Narrator: The new constitution approved freedom of religion, so long as this freedom was not construed as to justify acts of licentiousness.

Finally, it named Sanford Dole as head of government without the nicety of an election.

Thurston: “Allow me to congratulate you upon the passage of the law creating you President.

Long may you wave.” Lorrin Thurston, correspondence to Sanford Dole.

Narrator: On the fourth of July 1894, Sanford Dole, surrounded by uniformed soldiers, proclaimed the existence of the Republic of Hawaii.

Thurston: “To call it the Republic of Hawaii gives it more character and distinctness.

It should have the word Republic in the name.” Narrator: In spite of its undemocratic nature, the new constitution did its job.

The Republic of Hawaii was immediately granted diplomatic recognition by the American government, as well as the other major world powers.

Noenoe Silva: This incensed the Hawaiian people and particularly incensed Joseph Nawahi.

How can you establish a permanent government in the enlightened 1890s without the consent of the governed.

The hui called for a mass protest rally on July 2, two days before the planed ceremony.

And Joseph Nawahi gave his famous lei stand speech.

Nawahi: (speaking Hawaiian) “The house of government belongs to us, just as the Kamehamehas built it.

We were ousted by trespassers who entered our house and who are now saying to us to reside in the lei stand, which they have set up and are forcing us all to enter.

But I say to you, my fellow citizens, let us not enter nor consent at all.” (speaking Hawaiian) Joseph Nawahi, President, Hui Aloha Aina.

Narrator: Hawaii now had a government which represented only a small minority of residents, mostly foreigners.

Many avoided not only a declaration of loyalty to Hawaii, but any form of dual citizenship, for fear of losing citizenship in their country of origin.

The foreigners were called denizens, a legal status which gave them voting rights.

The foreign minister of the New Republic, Henry Cooper, newly arrived from America, was a denizen.

The secretary of Hawaii's legation in Washington, Frank Hastings, was also a denizen.

Willis: “It is certainly a novelty in governmental history, a country without a citizenship.” Albert Willis, Cleveland's minister to Hawaii.

Ke Aloha Aina newspaper: “30 or 40 road workers left their jobs and went straight home.

Auwe.

Why are you all coming back the wives asked.

Well, we were required to sign, to agree to annexation, but we all refused, we will never agree.

It would be better to die than agree.” Ke Aloha Aina, October 5, 1895.

Narrator: The Hawaiians had bided their time, believing America would help them.

But America's recognition of the Republic of Hawaii pushed the native Hawaiians to the breaking point.

They had only a fraction of the guns needed for a serious rebellion.

They were spied upon.

They had not gone to war for 100 years.

Nonetheless, perhaps as many as 700 Hawaiians rebelled.

Nawahi was imprisoned early.

So was the Crown Prince Jonah Kuhio.

200 were jailed and sentenced by a martial law court made up of white military officers.

The queen was charged with misprision of treason, an arcane allegation that she knew what might happen, but did not stop it.

A missionary descendant, who was a Supreme Court justice, ransacked her desk and took her papers, looking for evidence to use against her.

At her trial in the throne room of the palace, she refused to speak English.

How do you plead?

She was found guilty and imprisoned in an upstairs room for seven months.

(music) Narrator: The Asian immigrants saw that control of the Hawaiian government had fallen into the hands of white people who were tied to America.

They saw that white immigrants were immediately being granted the right to vote.

So the Asians began to ask, "Why should we not vote as well?"

The Chinese immigrants signed a petition asking for the right to vote, but they were ignored.

The Japanese immigrants were not so easily denied.

By the time of the Japanese migration to Hawaii, Japan had set its sights on being treated as an equal among nations.

The setting of Hawaii was particularly important to Japan because Japan and the Kingdom of Hawaii had signed a treaty of friendship.

The Republic of Hawaii continued this treaty because it depended on Japan for plantation workers.

(Man speaking Japanese) Dr. Pauline King: Japan is interested in getting equal treaties.

She wants to be accepted within the international world on an equal basis.

And it's not a bad idea to use Hawaii.

And I don't mean that, you know negatively, but in a diplomatic sense to use her people in Hawaii as a, as one of those moves.

Narrator: Japan's relationship with the nation of Hawaii had been good.

But when the white oligarchy in Hawaii refused the Japanese request for the right to vote, it started a downward spiral of tension and suspicion that was to be exploited politically in Washington later on.

By 1896, an American presidential election was coming, and with it came the possibility of a change in the political climate.

Francis Hatch, a protege of Sanford Dole, was now the Republic's ambassador to Washington.

He met with Senator John Tyler Morgan, a Democrat from Selma, Alabama, and Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Morgan said there were too many Japanese immigrants in Hawaii, and he contended that Japan had designs on Hawaii.

Hatch knew, as did everyone in Hawaii that the Japanese had been recruited by the sugar planters to work on their ever-growing plantations.

But, his surviving correspondent shows he nonetheless, was moved to action by Senator Morgan's complaint.

Hatch: “We should begin to make a record which will appeal to people here.

There can be no more powerful argument to be used than the claim that we are trying to save the country from the Asiatics, provided we have something to base it on.” Francis Hatch, Ambassador of the Republic of Hawaii to Washington.

Smith: “Not that the Japanese government has any definite designs on these islands.

But Japanese interests are growing stronger all the time, and designs will inevitably follow.

The Japanese are intelligent and ambitious.

And the more their interests increase here, the more they will recognize the fact that we alone are to a great degree helpless.” W.O.

Smith, Attorney General of the Republic.

Narrator: The Dole government proceeded to make a record.

Japanese rice wine was subjected to a prohibitive tax.

The 14,000 members of the United Guild of Sake Brewers of Japan petitioned Dole, with Japanese politeness.

Serious conflict arose from the Republic requirement that immigrants have $50 in their possession, as well as a locally signed work contract, even though vagrancy had never been an issue.

Over 1,300 immigrants were singled out from four different ships, detained, then returned to Japan.

Many because their packets of money were too new.

Cooper: “It is of course not our purpose to have it appear that we are forcing the issue to bring about annexation.

We should go far enough to show up the matter clearly, at the same time, not overdo it.” Henry Cooper, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Hawaii Dr. Pauline King: Because you see they're not stopping immigration.

And in fact, once when they get this situation beginning to be mediated, they continue Japanese immigration so it's with one hand or doing one thing with another they're continuing the same situation.

Narrator: The insults to Japan occurred simultaneously with the election of William McKinley as president and the return of the Republican Party to power.

Lorrin Thurston got himself reassigned to Washington to exploit the possibilities of the McKinley administration.

Liliuokalani, now free from her imprisonment, left Hawaii and soon relocated in Washington as well.

Young Theodore Roosevelt maneuvered desperately for a position of power in the new administration.

He was still so youthful in his 1896 photographs, as to be hardly recognizable today.

Yet he already had been a force in national life for at least a dozen years.

He had gone west long enough to lament the closing of the frontier, and now he nursed ideas of new frontiers beyond the sea.

All he asked was to be Assistant Secretary of the United States Navy.

Nathan Miller: After all, he had written about it in his book, The Naval War of 1812.

He fought at Naval Affairs, he was in contact with Mahan, he knew a lot about the Navy.

He was interested in the Navy.

He was familiar with details of armor, guns, machinery, and Roosevelt sees the opportunity.

Once Roosevelt came to Washington as assistant secretary, he became the chief of an imperialist coterie and they met once a week or so for lunch at the Metropolitan Club in downtown Washington.

Some of the members included Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, Roosevelt’s closest friend, Commodore George Dewey who was on shore duty at the time, various members of the Senate and the House and they were all for expansion of American power in the world.

Narrator: For Roosevelt's purposes, the most important was Captain Alfred Mahan, by then widely renowned as America's leading philosopher of sea power.

Nathan Miller: “Mahan and Roosevelt agreed on certain points of the control of Hawaii to control the Pacific, serve as a base for American ships in the Pacific to build a canal across across Central America.

At that time, they were talking about Nicaragua, to control Cuba, so they could control the canal approaches to the canal and the other islands of the Caribbean.

Also, they agreed on the idea of a large Navy, a Navy based upon battleships, not a Navy based upon smaller ships, a cruising Navy, a Navy that could fight a, a sea battle of the classic scale.

Narrator: As the strategic base in the Mid Pacific, Hawaii was there for the taking.

But the crusade for annexation was stalled.

Roosevelt complained bitterly that Americans had a queer lack of imperial instinct.

Roosevelt: “My dear Captain Mahan, as regards Hawaii, I take your views absolutely, as indeed I do on foreign policy generally.

If I had my way, we would annex those islands tomorrow.

We should build the Nicaraguan canal at once, and in the meantime, that we should build a dozen new battleships, half of them on the Pacific coast.

I earnestly hope we could make the President look at things our way.” Narrator: Only days after Roosevelt's bellicose letter to Mahan, Japan provided Roosevelt with the situation he had been waiting for.

To placate a Japanese public, angered by the humiliation of its overseas immigrants, Japan sent a warship to Honolulu.

Japanese diplomats reassured officials in Tokyo, Honolulu, and Washington that they had no warlike intentions.

But Roosevelt was excited by thoughts of war.

Roosevelt: “Do you think Thurston, the Japanese really intend to fight in Honolulu?

If they do, I hope they will do so now.

And we certainly will give them a belly full.” Narrator: In Hawaii, the Republic's fear was not that Japan would fight, but that the Japanese government was not seriously upset, and that the Japanese, after bouts of socializing and drinking, were planning to return home.

Cooper: “I'm afraid that they're going to back down too soon from their position.” Henry Cooper, Foreign Minister, Republic of Hawaii.

Narrator: In fact, Japan's interest in Hawaii was limited and experimental.

Dr. Akira Iriye: There's a tremendous interest in Hawaii as a place for sending Japanese workers.

There's no question about it the tremendous interest in sending Japanese immigrants to Hawaii.

But this does not mean that there was an interest, or design, or plan to take over Hawaiʻi.

If by that it's meant the idea of annexing Hawaii to Japan was turning Hawaii into a Japanese colony, there is no such design.

There's no such idea.

Narrator: Although the anti-Japanese propaganda was transparent, the cry of yellow peril caused the tide in America to turn toward annexation.

McKinley: “We cannot let these islands go to Japan.

Japan has her eye on them.

I am satisfied they do not go there voluntarily as ordinary immigrants, but Japan is pressing them in there in order to get possession before anybody can interfere.” William McKinley, President of the United States Narrator: On June 9, 1897, after three long intimate meetings with McKinley, Roosevelt predicted that something would happen shortly, regarding Hawaii.

Three days later, Lorrin Thurston's delegation was called into the reception room of the State Department and asked if the Republic of Hawaii was ready to negotiate for annexation.

Yes.

The draft treaty turned over the independence of the nation of Hawaii as well as nearly half of all the land in the Hawaiian islands.

"Would the gentleman from Hawaii like to make any changes?"

"No thank you."

The little oligarchy, fearful of being excluded from the American sugar market, fearful of the native citizenry, fearful of the Japanese on whose labor their economy depended, was ready for annexation on any terms.

Smith: “Dear Brother Hatch, the expression ‘annexation at any cost’ is not a good way of putting it.

But after all, we must eventually depend upon the goodwill of the United States.

Once annexed we are dealing with friends.” W.O.

Smith, Attorney General of the Republic Liliuokalani: “I Liliuokalani of Hawaii do hereby call upon the president of that nation, to whom alone I yielded my property and my authority to withdraw said treaty from further consideration.

I ask the honorable Senate of the United States to decline to ratify said treaty, and I implore the people of this great and good nation from whom my ancestors learned the Christian religion to sustain the principles of their fathers.

To the almighty ruler of the universe, to him who judgeth righteously, I commit my cause.

Noenoe Silva: Joseph Nawahi contracted tuberculosis while he was in jail.

His health started to fail because of the tuberculosis.

And the doctor recommended to him and his wife that he go on a therapeutic journey to San Francisco.

And on his deathbed, he actually apologized to his wife that she had to see him die somewhere other than Hawaii.

When the ship came in with his casket on it into Honolulu Harbor, it was as if one of the monarchs had died.

There were so many people crowding to welcome him back in.

If there had been a native government, he would have been the President.

So the President died.

Narrator: Despite the loss of Nawahi, Thurston's attempt to give away the nation of Hawaii pushed Hawaiians to a new level of protest.

Noenoe Silva: The queen is on the east coast, the Huis are writing to her.

She's writing back to them on a weekly basis.

They are sending up formulating within the Hui composing protest documents and sending them to her and asking her to present them to the new president.

Basically, they say that the overthrow was illegal, that Grover Cleveland had called the United States involvement an act of war, and that it was wrong.

They remind the President that the formation of the Republic of Hawaii was done without the consent of the governed, therefore, it was completely illegitimate.

They also remind him that if a vote were taken among all eligible voters, the vote would be overwhelmingly against annexation.

Dr. Jon Kamakawiwoole Osorio: There's no question if Hawaiians had been allowed to vote.

If the electorate the way it was set up in 1887, even had been allowed to vote, there would be no, there could have been no annexation, they would have voted the restore the Queen and that's why there's really no question that democracy was tremendously subverted.

Carter: “I am indignant at the action which took place here on the 17th of January 1893.

As an offspring of American parents, I am ashamed of that action.

The men in power to counsel of their fears and not their good judgment.” J.O.

Carter, White Royalist.

Narrator: To fill the void left by Nawahi's death, a new leader James Kaulia, was elected as a result of grassroots meetings throughout the islands.

Kaulia said the oligarchy had created the Republic to obscure their dirty work, and they wanted annexation, so their deeds could be hidden forever.

Still hoping that democratic America would not take over Hawaii without the consent of the Hawaiians, the leadership of the resistance planned a new petition drive.

This petition was to be so enormous that it would prove conclusively that the great majority of Hawaiians were opposed to annexation.

Kaulia: (speaking Hawaiian) “In my capacity as a leader of the nation, I am advising you if we persist in our determination to protest annexation, the little government of the Republic can keep trying until the walls of ‘Iolani Palace crumble and never will Hawaii be annexed to America.” James Kaulia, President, Hui Aloha Aina.

Noenoe Silva: It was an attempt to hold the American politicians to their stated principles.

To hold them to their ideals of you know, government of the people by the people and for the people.

Narrator: Senator John T. Morgan, arrived in Hawaii and tried to talk Hawaiians into happily submitting to annexation.

Morgan announced he would speak only to the Hawaiians.

His words were translated, but the church filled up mostly with white people.

Morgan: “We are not anxious to recruit soldiers from here... (speaking Hawaiian) We are not anxious to secure your land.

We are anxious to secure you from aggression from foreign powers.

(speaking Hawaiian) It makes very little difference whether you are smothered by a landslide or by an influx of Asiatics.

The result is the same.” (speaking Hawaiian) Narrator: A second U.S.

Senator, Richard Pettigrew, followed Morgan to Hawaii.

Pettigrew: “I had supposed when I came that many Hawaiians were in favor of annexation.

But I have talked with everyone who would talk with me and I have failed to find a native Hawaiian who was not opposed to annexation.” Michaelson: “The strongest memory I have of the islands is connected with a meeting at Hilo on the island of Hawaii.

The place was packed with natives and a crowd stood outside as well.

It was a woman's meeting but there were many men present.

Emma Nawahi said, ‘Sign this petition.

Those of you who love Hawaii, how many will sign?’ And in a moment, the palms of hundreds of hands were turned toward her.

A voice shouted from the rear.

‘I speak for those who cannot come in.

They tell me to say no annexation.

Never.’" Marian Michaelson, Reporter, San Francisco Call.

Narrator: On November 22, 1897, James Kaulia, and three other leaders of the Hawaiian political societies left for Washington, DC with the petition that eventually came to rest in the National Archives.

It has 21,000 names, as it was described in the Native Hawaiian language press.

A second petition was circulated by Hui Kalaiaina, as part of the same effort.

This second petition is described in the newspaper as having another 17,000 names, but it's whereabouts today is unknown.

Noenoe Silva: So together it was nearly 39,000 and the estimated Kanaka Maoli population at the time was 40,000.

Almost everyone.

Women, children and men expressing to the President and the Congress that every last Hawaiian was opposed to annexation, whether they were 2 years old, or 90 years old, whether they were a male voter, or a woman.

So it was about everybody saying we do not want to be annexed.

It wasn't a question of voter eligibility.

It was the whole nation expressing their will.

Narrator: Given the intricacies of Washington, the Hawaiian delegation had reason to believe their voices had been heard.

Noenoe Silva: There were already something like 56 votes for annexation and all that was needed was 60.

According to their story, they lobbied tirelessly.

Night and day, through the snow and the ice.

When they left, they finally left in February, it was down to 46 votes, and it was it was going to be impossible to pass the treaty with a two-thirds vote of the Senate.

And, it came back to Hawaii.

And they told the people we did it.

It's over the treaty's dead.

Narrator: Despite the Japanese scare, despite the lobbying of Theodore Roosevelt and Alfred Mahan, the annexation treaty failed to pass the 1897 Congress.

It was the second all-out campaign for annexation to fail in four years.

Kaulia: “Be steadfast in aloha for the aina and be united in thought.

Protest forever the annexation of Hawaii to America.” James Kaulia.

Narrator: An anti-imperialist movement was slowly organizing in America.

But letters written to the Republic of Hawaii reflected a growing excitement over America extending its boundaries to a distant tropical paradise.

Hoight: “Dear Sir, a party of young men here are talking strongly of going to the Sandwich Islands to settle.

Are we taking a liberty in asking you for information on the price of land?” D.C. Hoight, Owosso, Michigan.

Easly: “Dear Sir, will you kindly give me some information in regard to the schools in Hawaii?

What are the requirements, salaries paid and length of the school year?” N.D. Easly, Johnson City, Tennessee.

Parker Shoe Company: “Dear Sir, we would like to have a few names of the principal dealers there handling shoes.” Parker Shoe Company, Jefferson City, Missouri.

Narrator: Although dismayed by America's failure to take over Hawaii, Theodore Roosevelt was heartened by the possibility of war with Spain over Spain's treatment of Cuba, its Caribbean colony.

Roosevelt: “I should welcome any war for I think this country needs one.

All the great masterful races have been fighting races.” Narrator: The battleship Maine blew up in Havana Harbor in early 1898.

Theodore Roosevelt needed no investigation.

Surely, it was the result of Spanish treachery.

On a particular day, when the Navy Secretary was away, Roosevelt took it upon himself to redeploy ships and reassign the most promising fighting men to the ships that were most likely to be in battle.

Admiral George Dewey was put in charge of the Navy in the Far East, and ordered to undertake offensive operations in The Philippine islands in the event of war.

Lorrin Thurston, frustrated that the annexation of Hawaii was dropped from the national spotlight, stopped by Roosevelt's office at the Navy Department.

Thurston proposed stockpiling coal in Honolulu to support naval operations against Spain in the Pacific.

Roosevelt went to work on Thurston 's idea immediately, and the Republic set aside four vacant lots, which eventually were piled with coal eight feet high.

On April 19, at three in the morning, Congress passed a war resolution.

Northerners and Southerners alike joined together in singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

One of the oddities of the Spanish American War was that most Americans thought it was about Cuba, yet the fighting began in the Philippines.

On Roosevelt's broadly worded orders, Admiral George Dewey maneuvered the Asiatic Fleet into Manila Bay.

At dawn, the American sailors shouted "Remember the Maine!"

By noon, 11 of Spain's antiquated ships had gone down, and the last ship surrendered.

The Assistant Secretary of the Navy waited just long enough to read Dewey's cable to a crowd of reporters then resigned to fight the Spanish in Cuba.

An American army departed from the west coast to support Admiral Dewey in Manila.

The American troops were destined to fight not the defeated Spanish, but Filipino nationalists, who sought their independence from colonialism.

In Honolulu, thousands of troops were stopping for a rest, while their ships were refueled with Roosevelt and Thurston's stash of coal.

The little oligarchy at last seemed secure.

Pacific Commercial Advertiser: “These islands may ride into annexation on the war wave.

Millions of Americans for the first time, study the maps of the Pacific Ocean and know something about its geography.” Pacific Commercial Advertiser.

Narrator: One of those was President McKinley, who said that he had not known where The Philippines were located within 2000 miles.

McKinley's new diplomatic representative arrived in Hawaii, Harold Sewall, offspring of a family of shipbuilders from the Kennebec River and Maine.

Sewall was moved to ecstasy by a rally of annexationists.

Sewall: “The American flag floats over the Philippines and behind it is an irresistible force that will settle the problem of Hawaii, whose important geographical position must now be recognized.” Narrator: With the show of American Force, Hawaiians who are being further marginalized.

Ke Aloha Aina: “Hawaiians are being told to not only support annexation and give up all their land, but also become soldiers in an American army to fight the Spanish.

Now is the time for us to hold together.

For annexation is truly a poison for the Hawaiian people.

(speaking Hawaiian) Hawaii must not become a death companion in this war.” Ke Aloha Aina.

Narrator: Despite a war fever, American opponents of annexation continued to argue that the rights of the Hawaiian people to self-determination were being trampled, and that America was stepping off into overseas imperialism.

The Congressional instrument of annexation suddenly emerged from the House of Representatives in the form of a joint resolution, requiring only a bare majority vote in both the House and Senate.

Senators complained bitterly that their constitutional responsibility for approving treaties by a two-thirds vote was being taken from them.

The idea that annexation was a treaty between one sovereign nation and another had gone by the boards.

Speaking in opposition, the senator from Georgia, Augustus Bacon, said he could agree to annexation if a majority of Hawaii's people agree.

He was voted down.

Richard Pettigrew proposed that all males born or naturalized in Hawaii be given the right to vote.

His amendment was likewise crushed.

Now, the United States Congress was on record as agreeing with the oligarchy in Hawaii that given a choice, the Hawaiians would refuse annexation, and so at all costs, they must not be allowed to vote.

Two days after the fourth of July, the filibuster ended.

The United States Senate joined the House in passing the joint resolution of annexation.

Dr. Jon Kamakawiwoʻole Osorio: They took Hawaii when they were ready.

They took Hawaii when they were ready.

This idea of the United States as a suitor is a wonderful kind of image, then they stand, you know, they're basically going to make you run into their arms.

But essentially, they're not going to close up, they're not going to embrace you until they absolutely need you.

And that's what happens as a result of the Spanish American War.

And that kind of jingoism that explodes in America in 1898.

They waited and they waited and they waited and they finally culminated the relationship.

Annexation was an agreement between a small group of Americans who wanted this to take place to simply take the independence and the land and the dreams of a whole group of people and shift them over and give them over to the United States.

(music) Narrator: The ceremony of annexation was arranged to occur on August 12, which turned out to be the same day the Spanish American War ended.

Sanford Dole acted in what he called the interest of the Hawaiian body politic, ceding the sovereignty and property of the Hawaiian Islands, nearly half of all its lands to the United States government, along with other holdings of the Government of the Republic, including 200,000 rounds of ammunition.

The five-year process was complete.

A small band of white men, supported by the government of the United States had given away the national heritage of a 2,000 year old society.

The native Hawaiian political Hui called on their members to boycott the ceremony.

They issued their final petition.

(Speaking Hawaiian) Hui: “Whereas the declaration of American independence expresses that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.

(Speaking Hawaiian) We most vehemently protest this annexation.

Narrator: The Queen had just returned to Hawaii and Hawaiians flocked to greet her.

Ke Aloha Aina: “We are your Aloha Aina people.

From the time you left until today, we have kept an unshakable resolve and sealed inside each of our hearts is Aloha, for the land, and for our kūpuna, whose flesh has been wounded.” Ke Aloha Aina.

Liliuokalani: (Speaking Hawaiian) “I am taking your thanks as something for me to keep until the end of my days.

(music) Narrator: The following month, a thin volume titled The Transformation of Hawaii, appeared in what was to become a vast literature of denial.

Brain: “Hawaii was annexed not by purchase, nor by conquest, but by the vote of the Hawaiian people who offer them to us as a gift.

Belle Brain, Author.

Narrator: The day after the annexation ceremony, the Aloha Aina newspaper said "He oia mao no kakou” We indeed continue.

Narrator: Liliuokalani lived on at Washington place in Honolulu until her death at age 79 in 1917.

Sanford Dole, in the fragility of old age, was cared for by the family of his hanai Hawaiian daughter.

Lorrin Thurston's memoir set the tone for the written history of Hawaiʻi in the 20th century.

He described the annexation as an island drama, and blamed most of the trouble on Liliuokalani's stubborn ways.

The annexation of Hawaii was followed quickly by the American acquisition of parts of Samoa, Guam, the Northern Marianas Islands, and the Philippine Islands in the Pacific, as well as Puerto Rico and the Cuban base in the Caribbean Sea.

Over 4,000 Americans and 70,000 Filipinos were killed in the Philippine-American war.

Teddy Roosevelt ran for vice president with McKinley in 1900.

And in 1901, became president when McKinley was assassinated.

In 1902, Congress passed legislation to build a canal through the Isthmus of Panama, enabling American ships to pass quickly from the Caribbean to the new United States Territory of Hawaii.

From these bases, America's Navy dominated the approaches to both Latin America and Asia.

And with that, the stage was set for America to be a great naval power and a great power in the commerce of nations in what came to be celebrated as the American century.

(music) The preceding program was made possible by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Bishop Museum Native Hawaiian Culture and Arts Program, the Hawaii Committee for the Humanities, the Hawaii Community Foundation, the Gerbode Foundation and Pacific Islanders in Communications.