1887 Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom

Last updated
King David Kalakaua signed the 1887 Constitution under threat of deposition. Kingdavidkalakaua dust.jpg
King David Kalākaua signed the 1887 Constitution under threat of deposition.
Lorrin A. Thurston was one of the constitution's writers. Lorrin A. Thurston, 1892.jpg
Lorrin A. Thurston was one of the constitution's writers.

The 1887 Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom was a legal document prepared by anti-monarchists to strip the absolute Hawaiian monarchy of much of its authority, initiating a transfer of power to a coalition of American, European and native Hawaiian people. It became known as the Bayonet Constitution for the rising by the armed militia which forced King Kalākaua to sign it or be deposed. [2] [3]

Contents

Rebellion of 1887

On June 30, 1887, a meeting of residents including the armed militia of the Honolulu Rifles, a group of soldiers that were secretly the Hawaiian League's military arm, [4] and politicians who were members of the Reform Party of the Hawaiian Kingdom, demanded from King Kalākaua the dismissal of his Cabinet, headed by Walter M. Gibson. Their concerns about Gibson stemmed from the fact that he supported the king's authority. [5] : 51, 100 

The meeting was called to order by Sanford B. Dole (cousin of then 9-year-old James Dole) and chaired by Peter Cushman Jones, the president of the largest sugarcane plantation agency in Hawaii. [5] : 142  The Hawaiian League and Americans had developed a vast majority of the Hawaiian Kingdom's wealth. Lorrin A. Thurston, the main instigator of the subsequent overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, prepared a list of demands to the king.

On the next morning, July 1, 1887, a shipment of arms was discovered from a neutral Australian ship (later found to be smooth-bore hunting guns used to scare birds from farmers' fields). The Honolulu Rifles took control and arrested and almost hanged Gibson. [6] : 56  Kalākaua called in US Minister George W. Merrill, and the British, French, Portuguese, and Japanese representatives and requested help, but they all suggested that he should comply with any demands, which he did. [7] : 363–364 

Thurston then became the powerful interior minister although Englishman William Lowthian Green was nominally head of the Cabinet as Minister of Finance. Gibson was later exiled to San Francisco. [8]

Over less than a week, the new constitution was drafted by a group of lawyers, including Thurston, Dole, William Ansel Kinney, William Owen Smith, George Norton Wilcox, and Edward Griffin Hitchcock. All were also associated with the Hawaiian League, which had explicitly wanted the end of the kingdom and its annexation by the United States since its inception. [2]

It stripped the king of most of his personal authority, empowering the legislature and cabinet of the government. It has since become widely known as the "Bayonet Constitution" because of the threat of force used to gain Kalākaua's cooperation. [9] While Thurston and Dole denied this use of coercion and threats, Queen Liliuokalani asserted that Kalākaua's life was threatened: "He signed that constitution under absolute compulsion." [10]

The new constitution was never ratified in the Hawaiian Kingdom's legislature. [2] [10]

Provisions

The 1887 constitution followed modern liberal principles. It replaced the previous absolute veto, allowed to the king, to one that two-thirds of the legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom could override.

It also took away the power of the king to act without the consent of his cabinet and gave the legislature the power to dismiss the cabinet instead of the king. It also removed language from the 1864 constitution implying that the king was above the law, replacing it with language that the king was required to obey his laws to the level of his subjects. The cabinet was now allowed to vote in the legislature, but to reduce the king's influence, he was not allowed to appoint legislators to any other government post. The legislature also gained the authority to imprison those that disrespected, published false reports or comments about or threatened or assaulted any of its members. [11]

The constitution also removed the monarch's power to appoint members of the House of Nobles (the upper house of the legislature), instead making it a body elected by the wealthy landowners to six-year terms and enlarging it to 40 members. Qualifications to serve as a noble or representative now came to include high property and income requirements as well, which stripped almost all of the native population of the ability to serve in the legislature until they met the requirements. [11] [12]

The 1887 constitution had also attempted to limit profligate spending, which had become a problem under Kalākaua's reign, namely with the costly construction and maintenance of Iolani Palace. The constitution stipulated that the King was required to appoint a Minister of Finance to oversee government spending and submit an annual budget proposal to the legislature.

The 1887 constitution made significant changes to voting requirements. It allowed foreign resident aliens to vote, not just naturalized citizens. Asians, including subjects who previously enjoyed the right to vote, were specifically denied suffrage. Hawaiian, American, and European men were granted full voting rights only if they met the economic and literacy thresholds. [13]

The 1864 constitution required that voters generate annual income of at least US$75 (equivalent to US$1461 in 2024) or own private property worth at least US$150 (equivalent to $2922 in 2024). The wealth requirements were removed during the short reign of Lunalilo in 1874. [3] That change extended voter eligibility to many more Hawaiians and was kept for the lower house. The legislature still had little power, however, this being concentrated in the monarch.

The 1887 constitution required an income of $600 (equivalent to US$20347 in 2024) or taxable property of US$3000 (equivalent to $101733 in 2024) to vote for the upper house (or serve in it). That excluded an estimated two-thirds of the Hawaiian population.[ citation needed ] Disproportionately, it was white male residents, wealthy from the sugar industry, who retained suffrage with the Bayonet Constitution.

Allocating the government's power to the Cabinet and then promptly appointing their members to the Cabinet, and securing the disenfranchisement of their opposition, the Hawaiian League seized complete control over the Hawaiian Kingdom.

The Bayonet Constitution was the first great implement in the decline of the monarchy. Though it did not depose the King, it did place considerable limitations on his power. [14]

Native Hawaiian response

Immediately after the adoption of the Bayonet Constitution, the Native Hawaiian population of the Hawaiian Kingdom sought to restore King Kalākaua's power and authority. A committee of Hawaiians met with Kalākaua to discuss dismantling the constitution because the king signed it under duress. According to Thurston, Kalākaua even defended the constitution to protesting natives. Queen Liliuokalani affirmed that he was threatened with violence should he attempt to undo the new constitution. She also said there were several petitions from natives that asked for a new constitution to restore her absolute rule. Out of 9,500 registered voters, 6,500 signed the petitions. Based on this Queen Liliuokalani proposed the removal of power from the legislature in January 1893, by a new constitution that would restore absolute monarchy. In response, the Hawaiian League overthrew her monarchy and the legislature took control of the country. [5] [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Republic of Hawaii</span> Transitional republic in Hawaii before US annexation, 1894–1898

The Republic of Hawaii was a short-lived one-party state in Hawaiʻi between July 4, 1894, when the Provisional Government of Hawaii had ended, and August 12, 1898, when it became annexed by the United States as an unincorporated and unorganized territory. In 1893, the Committee of Public Safety overthrew Queen Liliʻuokalani, the monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, after she rejected the 1887 Bayonet Constitution. The Committee of Public Safety intended for Hawaii to be annexed by the United States; however, President Grover Cleveland, a Democrat opposed to imperialism, refused. A new constitution was subsequently written while Hawaii was being prepared for annexation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sanford B. Dole</span> American judge and Hawaii politician (1844–1926)

Sanford Ballard Dole was a Hawaii-born lawyer and jurist. He lived through the periods when Hawaii was a kingdom, provisional government, republic, and territory. Dole advocated the westernization of Hawaiian government and culture. After the overthrow of the monarchy, he served as the President of the Republic of Hawaii until his government secured Hawaii's annexation by the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Committee of Safety (Hawaii)</span> Organization

The Committee of Safety, formally the Citizen's Committee of Public Safety, was a 13-member group of the Annexation Club. The group was composed of mostly Hawaiian subjects of American descent and American citizens who were members of the Missionary Party, as well as some foreign residents in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. The group planned and carried out the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi on January 17, 1893. The goal of this group was to achieve annexation of Hawaiʻi by the United States. The new independent Republic of Hawaiʻi government was thwarted in this goal by the administration of President Grover Cleveland, and it was not until 1898 that the United States Congress approved a joint resolution of annexation creating the U.S. Territory of Hawaiʻi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lorrin A. Thurston</span> Hawaiian politician

Lorrin Andrews Thurston was a Hawaiian-American lawyer, politician, and businessman. Thurston played a prominent role in the revolution that caused the Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom that replaced Queen Liliʻuokalani with the Republic of Hawaii, guided by American ideas. He published the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, and owned other enterprises. From 1906 to 1916, he and his network lobbied with national politicians to create a national park to preserve the Hawaiian volcanoes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John L. Stevens</span> American politician

John Leavitt Stevens was the United States Minister to the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893 when he conspired to overthrow Queen Liliuokalani in association with the Committee of Safety, led by Lorrin A. Thurston and Sanford B. Dole – the first Americans attempting to overthrow a foreign government under the auspices of a United States government officer. Apart from his work as a politician and diplomat, he was also a journalist, author, minister and newspaper publisher. He founded the Republican Party in Maine and served as Maine State Senator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Provisional Government of Hawaii</span> 1893–1894 post-coup government

The Provisional Government of Hawaii was proclaimed after the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom on January 17, 1893, by the 13-member Committee of Safety under the leadership of its chairman Henry E. Cooper and former judge Sanford B. Dole as the designated President of Hawaii. It replaced the Kingdom of Hawaii after the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani as a provisional government until the Republic of Hawaii was established on July 4, 1894.

The Wilcox Rebellions were an armed rebellion in 1888, a revolt in 1889, and a counter-revolution in 1895, led by Robert William Wilcox against the promulgation of the Bayonet Constitution in 1888 and 1889, and against the overthrow of the monarchy in 1895. He was considered a royalist and dedicated to the monarchy of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Wilcox's revolts were part of the Hawaiian Rebellions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proposed 1893 Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom</span>

The proposed 1893 Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom would have been a replacement of the Constitution of 1887, primarily based on the Constitution of 1864 put forth by Queen Liliʻuokalani. While it never became anything more than a draft, the constitution had a profound impact on Hawaiʻi's history: it set off a chain of events that eventually resulted in the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom</span> 1893 government overthrow

The overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom was a coup d'état against Queen Liliʻuokalani that took place on January 17, 1893, on the island of Oʻahu, and was led by the Committee of Safety, composed of seven foreign residents and six Hawaiian Kingdom subjects of American descent in Honolulu. The Committee prevailed upon American minister John L. Stevens to call in the U.S. Marines to protect the national interest of the United States of America. The insurgents established the Republic of Hawaii, but their ultimate goal was the annexation of the islands to the United States, which occurred in 1898.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawaiian Kingdom</span> Sovereign state on the Hawaiian Islands from 1795 to 1893

The Hawaiian Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, was a sovereign state located in the Hawaiian Islands which existed from 1795 to 1893. It was established during the late 18th century when Kamehameha I, then Aliʻi nui of Hawaii, conquered the islands of Oʻahu, Maui, Molokaʻi, and Lānaʻi, and unified them under one government. In 1810, the Hawaiian Islands were fully unified when the islands of Kauaʻi and Niʻihau voluntarily joined the Hawaiian Kingdom. Two major dynastic families ruled the kingdom, the House of Kamehameha and the House of Kalākaua.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawaiian rebellions (1887–1895)</span> Rebellions and revolutions against governments of Hawaii

The Hawaiian rebellions and revolutions took place in Hawaii between 1887 and 1895. Until annexation in 1898, Hawaii was an independent sovereign state, recognized by the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany with exchange of ambassadors. However, there were several challenges to the reigning governments of the Kingdom and Republic of Hawaii during the 8+1⁄2-year (1887–1895) period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luther Aholo</span> Politician of Hawaii

Luther Aholo was a politician who served many political posts in the Kingdom of Hawaii. He served multiple terms as a legislator from Maui and Minister of the Interior from 1886 to 1887. Considered one of the leading Hawaiian politicians of his generation, his skills as an orator were compared to those of the Ancient Greek statesman Solon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John F. Colburn</span> Hawaiian politician

John Francis Colburn was a businessman and politician of the Kingdom of Hawaii. He served as the last Minister of the Interior to Queen Liliuokalani. Even though he was part Hawaiian ancestry on his maternal side, Colburn was a key figure in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy and was a proponent of annexation to the United States. Colburn was the treasurer of the estate of Queen Kapiolani.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1892 Legislative Session of the Hawaiian Kingdom</span>

The 1892 Session of the Legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom, also known as the Longest Legislature, was a period from May 28, 1892, to January 14, 1893, in which the legislative assembly of the Hawaiian Kingdom met for its traditional bi-annual session. This unicameral body was composed of the upper House of Nobles and the lower House of Representatives. This would be the first session during the reign of Queen Liliʻuokalani and the last meeting of the legislative assembly during the Hawaiian monarchy. Three days after the prorogation of the assembly, many of the political tension developed during the legislative debates and the queen's attempt to promulgate a new constitution while her legislators were not in session led to the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom on January 17, 1893.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David William Pua</span> Hawaiian politician (1836-1896)

David William Pua, also known as D. W. Pua, was a politician during the Kingdom of Hawaii. He served as a legislator during the last years of the Legislature of the Kingdom of Hawaii and became a member of the Hui Aloha ʻĀina, founded after the overthrow of the monarchy to protest attempts of annexation to the United States.

Jonathan Austin was a veteran of the American Civil War, president of Paukaa Sugar Company, and Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Kingdom of Hawaii during the reign of Kalākaua.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liliʻuokalani's Cabinet Ministers</span>

Liliʻuokalani was the first queen regnant and the last sovereign monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. The queen ascended to the throne on January 29, 1891, nine days after the death of her brother Kalākaua, and inherited his cabinet ministers. The four cabinet positions were Attorney General, Minister of Finance, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of the Interior. The ministers were ex-officio members of the House of Nobles in the legislature and the Privy Council of State, a larger body of advisors.

The Hui Kālaiʻāina was a political group founded in 1888 to oppose the 1887 Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom, often known as the Bayonet Constitution, and to promote Native Hawaiian leadership in the government. It and the two organizations of Hui Aloha ʻĀina were active in the opposition to the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and the annexation of Hawaii to the United States from 1893 to 1898.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles F. Creighton</span> Kingdom of Hawaii official (1862–1907)

Charles F. Creighton (1862–1907) was a member of Queen Liliʻuokalani's Cabinet Ministers as Attorney General of the Kingdom of Hawaii for the period November 1–8, 1892. Following the Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, he was arrested for his involvement in the 1895 Wilcox rebellion attempt to restore the monarchy. He accepted temporary exile to the United States to avoid a lengthy incarceration. His father Robert James Creighton had served as Kalākaua's Minister of Foreign Affairs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1886 Hawaiian legislative election</span>

Legislative elections were held in the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1886 to determine the composition of the 28-member House of Representatives. During the elections the National Party and Independent Party bitterly campaigned for control of the House of Representatives. Despite their efforts, the Independents once again lost to Premier Walter M. Gibson's National Party.

References

  1. ↑ Spencer, Thomas P. (1895). Kaua Kuloko 1895. Honolulu: Papapai Mahu Press Publishing Company. OCLC   19662315.
  2. 1 2 3 Forbes, David W. (2003). Hawaiian national bibliography, 1780–1900. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 232–33. ISBN   978-0-8248-2636-9.
  3. 1 2 Anne Feder Lee (June 30, 1993). The Hawaii state constitution: a reference guide. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 4–5. ISBN   978-0-313-27950-8.
  4. ↑ Pitzer, Pat (May 1994). "The Overthrow of the Monarchy". Spirit of Aloha. Aloha Airlines.
  5. 1 2 3 Thurston, Lorrin A. (1936). Farrell, Andrew (ed.). Memoirs of the Hawaiian revolution. Honolulu: Advertiser publishing co. hdl:2027/mdp.39015039601383.
  6. ↑ Dole, Sanford B. (1936). Farrell, Andrew (ed.). Memoirs of the Hawaiian revolution. Honolulu. hdl:2027/uc1.b3477492.
  7. ↑ Ralph Simpson Kuykendall (1967). Hawaiian Kingdom 1874–1893, the Kalakaua Dynasty. Vol. 3. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN   978-0-87022-433-1.
  8. ↑ "Appointment of a New Cabinet!". Hawaiian Gazette. Honolulu. July 5, 1887. p. 4. Retrieved July 31, 2010.
  9. ↑ Wong, Helen; Rayson, Ann (1987). Hawaii's Royal History. Bess Press. p.  196. ISBN   978-0-935848-48-9.
  10. 1 2 3 Liliuokalani (1990). Hawaii's story by Hawaii's Queen. Honolulu, Hawaii: Mutual Pub. ISBN   0-93518085-0. OCLC   28821522.
  11. 1 2 Constitution of the Hawaiian Islands, Signed by His Majesty Kalakaua, July 6 and promulgated July 7, 1887. Hawaiian Gazette (Honolulu, HI), 1887. http://hooilina.org/cgi-bin/journal?e=p-0journal--00-0-0-004-Document---0-1--1en-50---20-docoptions-search-issue---001-0110escapewin&a=p&p=frameset&cl=&d=HASH01b8b242efc454f373219e6b.5.1.6
  12. ↑ Henry Edward Chambers (2009) [January, 1896]. Constitutional History of Hawaii. BiblioBazaar, LLC. pp. 25–27. ISBN   978-1-115-62585-2.
  13. ↑ Buescher, John. "What Happened to the Royal Family of Hawaii After the U.S. Took Over?" Teachinghistory.org, accessed 1 October 2011.
  14. ↑ James H Blount, Report of U.S. Special Commissioner James H. Blount to U.S. Secretary of State Walter Q. Gresham Concerning the Hawaiian Kingdom Investigation. Honolulu, HI. July 17, 1893. http://www.hawaiiankingdom.org/blounts-report.shtml.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.