. . . and replaces it with a secular
republican (i.e., oligarchical) constitution.
Another job well done by the ‘Empire of Liberty’ in Hawai’i:
. . .
Unlike some other
parts of the world, western (in this case American) forces did not come to
topple a primitive and barbaric heathen people to save them from darkness and
suffering. Hawaii had its own savage history to be sure, but all of that was a
distant memory long before 1898. King Kamehameha the Great subdued the other
chiefs of the islands, uniting them under his rule and ending the many years of
sporadic warfare between the Hawaiian people. This was the start of the
establishment of the Kingdom of Hawaii. In 1819 he was succeeded by his son
King Kamehameha II and it was during his reign that Protestant Christian missionaries
came to Hawaii from the United States. They converted the Royal Family to
Christianity and this, in turn, brought an end to certain native customs and
taboos which were barbaric. With the 1840 Constitution of King Kamehameha III,
the Kingdom of Hawaii officially became a Protestant Christian monarchy.
Catholic and even Mormon missionaries arrived later but never attracted many
converts. The Kingdom of Hawaii was not a country of ignorant primitives when
Americans started to arrive on its shores in growing numbers, rather it was a
civilized, though simple, Christian monarchy with all of the trappings of any
other well established sovereign kingdom.
Then, more and more
Americans started coming to Hawaii but the native population, previously
reduced by wars and diseases brought by the first European visitors to the
islands, was assured that this was a good thing. The Americans bought land from
the natives, employed them and caused the economy to prosper. Members of the
Royal Family married Americans and any concern that the Hawaiians were being
displaced in their own country were hushed up by those who stood to benefit. To
be welcoming was the order of the day and to think about the economic
prosperity all of these newcomers brought with them. King Kalakaua, a jovial
man, embraced this attitude and encouraged more foreign workers to come to
Hawaii during his reign, which started in 1874. He signed an agreement with the
United States that proved very beneficial and granted the U.S. Navy the use of
Pearl Harbor for the establishment of a base and port facilities. He had big
plans, encouraged his people to be educated abroad and when Britain and Germany
started expanding in the Pacific, envisioned the Kingdom of Hawaii forming a
Polynesian Confederation to block them. However, King Kalakaua found out that
the many foreigners he had appointed to high office were more loyal to their
own people than they were to him.
In 1887, fearing the
King was about to take more direct control of matters, the Americans in Hawaii
staged a sort of armed uprising and forced King Kalakaua to sign a new
constitution, thereafter known as the "Bayonet Constitution" which
stripped the monarch of almost all of his powers. The Kingdom of Hawaii was
still to be democratic of course but the franchise was restricted to those who
owned land and, by this time, most of the land was owned by Americans.
Furthermore, in the interest of goodwill and compassion of course, Americans
were allowed to retain the U.S. citizenship while still being nominal subjects
of the King of Hawaii. In many ways, the fate of the Hawaiian kingdom was
sealed then and there and King Kalakaua died a bewildered man, bitter at his
betrayal by the foreigners he had believed were his friends, who had always
assured him that their presence and growing influence in the kingdom was for
the best and would benefit everyone in the end. It was, of course, not true.
They were Americans and not Hawaiians, their first loyalty was to the United
States and not the King of Hawaii, their kinship was with those like themselves
and not those native to the islands.
Even today there is a
degree of mystery that hangs around how all of this was accomplished. Why had
the King only encouraged more foreigners to come to Hawaii when clearly his own
people were being displaced in their own country and the American influence
grew ever stronger. One shady individual many have questioned was one Elias
Rosenberg, who appeared one day and was quickly appointed King Kalakaua's chief
adviser and who disappeared only three weeks before the "Bayonet
Constitution" was forced on the kingdom. In any event, the King died in
1891, leaving the throne to his sister Queen Liliuokalani. Her reign was not to
be a long one. Immediately, she began working on replacing the "Bayonet
Constitution" with a new government framework which would restore some of
the powers of the monarchy as well as broadening the franchise among the native
Hawaiian population. Unfortunately, there were already too many Americans and
they had too much power for this attempt to turn back the clock to succeed. The
foreign population reacted swiftly and launched a republican coup in 1893 to
prevent the Queen from changing the constitution. Sailors and Marines from a
nearby U.S. warship intervened to prevent any disorder, naturally siding with
their own countrymen. Queen Liliuokalani was deposed and a republic was
declared which immediately sought annexation to the United States of America.
In 1895 the Hawaiians
attempted a counter-revolution to overthrow the republic and put the Queen back
on the throne. Needless to say, this was again too little, too late as the
American presence had long become far too large and too powerful to dislodge.
The uprising was crushed at its outset and Queen Liliuokalani was arrested and
put in prison. However, by the following year, the republic pardoned the Queen
and released her, being in full control they had nothing to fear from her being
at liberty. The native Hawaiian population had, by then, become too greatly
displaced to ever pose a threat to the new American regime. A year later, in
1897, the President of the United States signed the treaty of annexation (thus
making Hawaii only the second U.S. state, after Texas, to join the Union by
treaty) with the official ceremony being held the following year on August 12.
Queen Liliuokalani spent the rest of her life in legal battles with the U.S.
government, trying to obtain compensation for her loss, mostly to no avail. She
was finally granted a pension of $1,250 a month in 1911 but by that time she
did not have long to collect as she died in 1917.
. . .
Source: http://madmonarchist.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-annexation-of-hawaii.html,
opened 1 Dec. 2017
Queen
Liliuokalani. Lord, have mercy on her departed soul. (Picture from same site as above.)
May
God soon grant Hawai’i her freedom under a Christian king once again.
--
Holy
Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema
to the Union!
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