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ASSOCIATION OF HAWAIIAN CIVIC CLUBS

A RESOLUTION

No. 2017 – 38

ACKNOWLEDGING THE HISTORY AND BEQUEST OF QUEEN LILI‘UOKALANI

WHEREAS, Lydia Liliʻu Loloku Walania Wewehi Kamakaʻeha was born September 2, 1838, to Analea Keohokālole and Caesar Kapaʻakea at Pu‘uowaina, Oʻahu; and

WHEREAS, at birth she was hānai to Abner Paki, kāne, and Laura Konia, wahine, parents of Bernice Pauahi; and

WHEREAS, after a short engagement to William Charles Lunalilo, Lili‘u married John Owen Dominis in 1862; they had no birth children but she hānai three children: Lydia Aholo, Joseph Ae‘a and John ‘Aimoku Dominis; and

WHEREAS, lying on his deathbed December 11, 1872, Lot Kapuaiwa offered the throne to his cousin Bernice Pauahi Bishop, but she declined the offer and he passed without naming an heir; and

WHEREAS, Lunalilo, as the first elected King of Hawai’i became the People’s King, the popular vote, held on January 1, 1873, was unofficial, he won by a large majority; and  

WHEREAS, Lunalilo reigned for one year and 25 days before succumbing to tuberculosis, and he never married and never named a successor; and

WHEREAS, David La‘amea Kalākaua and Queen Dowager Emma Rooke, wife of Kauikeaouli, Kamehameha IV, faced off in a bitter election campaign in which Kalākaua prevailed, on February 12, 1874, by a vote of 39 to 6 in the legislature and touched off the Honolulu Courthouse Riot when supporters of Queen Emma (known as Emma-ites) attacked the supporters of Kalākaua and caused the landing of American and British sailors and marines to quell the violence and allow Kalākaua to take the oath of office; and

WHEREAS, Kalākaua, in 1877, named his sister Liliʻuokalani as his heir apparent; and

WHEREAS, on January 18, 1891, King Kalākaua fell into a coma and he died two days later, and when word of his death reached Hawai‘i on January 29, 1891, Liliʻuokalani took the oath of office and before the cabinet minister and Supreme Court Justices, and swore to uphold the constitution of the kingdom; and

 

WHEREAS, Queen Liliʻuokalani presided over the longest legislative session in Hawaiian history, 171 days, as four political parties, the National Reform Party, Missionary/Reform Party, National Liberal Party, and Independents, battled for a majority; and

WHEREAS, immediately upon her accession, Queen Liliʻuokalani was engaged in discussions for a new constitution and received petitions from the citizens to promulgate a new constitution, the McKinley Tariff Act created an economic crisis by removing the tariffs on imports of sugar from other nations, Hawaiian sugar lost its economic advantage; and

WHEREAS, Queen Liliʻuokalani notified the legislature and her cabinet that she would be proposing a new constitution co-written with two legislators, Joseph Nāwahī and William Punohu White, that would restore voting rights to Hawaiian citizens and restore power to the monarchy, created a constitutional crisis; and

WHEREAS, Queen Liliʻuokalani dismissed her cabinet and put the legislature in recess, and Minister John L. Stevens caused marines from the USS Boston to land and support the takeover of the Hawaiian Kingdom by the Committee of Public Safety, made up of American businessmen; and

WHEREAS, Queen Liliʻuokalani was deposed on January 17, 1893, by the Committee of Public Safety, she relinquished her throne to the superior power of the United States, on February 1, the Kingdom was proclaimed a protectorate of the United States, and a provisional government was set up; and

WHEREAS, in November 16, 1893, Minister Albert S. Willis was sent by President Grover Cleveland to propose that the throne could be returned to Queen Liliʻuokalani if she agreed to amnesty for all involved in the overthrow, Willis reported to the Secretary of State that Queen Liliʻuokalani was intent on killing the culprits; and

WHEREAS, on December 18, 1893, Queen Liliʻuokalani changed her position on the punishment for the conspirators and Willis demanded that the provisional government return the Kingdom to Queen Liliʻuokalani, but the provisional government refused; and

WHEREAS, the U. S. Senate investigation, the Morgan Report, absolved all parties except Queen Liliʻuokalani for responsibility for the overthrow; and

WHEREAS, on July 4, 1894, the Republic of Hawaiʻi was proclaimed and Sanford B. Dole became its president; and

 

WHEREAS, on January 16, 1895, Queen Liliʻuokalani was arrested after a failed rebellion by Robert W. Wilcox and Samuel Nowlein, she was tried by the military commission of the Republic and found guilty of misprision of treason, knowing of treason and not reporting it to the authorities, sentenced to five years of hard labor, and fined $5,000; and

WHEREAS, while she was imprisoned she abdicated her throne in return for the release of her jailed supporters, and six were sentenced to be hanged including Robert Wilcox and Samuel Nowlein; and

WHEREAS, her sentence was commuted on September 4, 1895, to imprisonment in a bedroom at the ‘Iolani Palace, attended by her lady-in-waiting; and

WHEREAS, on October 13, 1896, the Republic granted her a full pardon with all her civil rights restored; and

WHEREAS, in July 1898, Hawaiʻi was annexed by joint resolution, the Newlands Resolution, to the United States; and

WHEREAS, on August 12, 1898, at ‘Iolani Palace the flag of the Republic of Hawaiʻi was lowered and the flag of the United States was raised in its place; and

WHEREAS, Liliʻuokalani wrote of her imprisonment and abdication of the throne, in her memoir, “Hawaiʻi’s Story By Hawaiʻi’s Queen”: “For myself, I would have chosen death rather than to have signed it; but it was represented to me that by my signing this paper all the persons who had been arrested, all my people now in trouble by reason of their love and loyalty towards me, would be immediately released. Think of my position, — sick, a lone woman in prison, scarcely knowing who was my friend, or who listened to my words only to betray me, without legal advice or friendly counsel, and the stream of blood ready to flow unless it was stayed by my pen;” and

WHEREAS, Liliʻuokalani was the last monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, the link to our history and continuity and the symbol of our nation

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs at its 58th Annual Convention in Seattle, Washington, in the malama of ʻIkuwā and the rising of Māhealani, this 4th day of November 2017, acknowledging the history and bequest of Queen Lili‘uokalani; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a certified copy of this resolution be transmitted to all Hawaiian Civic Clubs, as well as the Governor of the State of Hawai‘i, President of the State Senate, Speaker of the State House of Representatives, Chair of the State Senate Committee on Hawaiian Affairs, Chair of the State House Committee on Ocean, Marine Resources & Hawaiian Affairs, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and all County Mayors.

The undersigned hereby certifies that the foregoing Resolution was duly adopted in the malama of ʻIkuwā and the rising of Māhealani on the 4th day of November 2017, at the 58th Annual Convention of the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs in Seattle, Washington.

Annelle C. Amaral, President