CHAPTER VII

HAWAII AN AMERICAN TERRITORY

THE annexation of the Hawaiian Islands was a more natural procedure than in the case of the acquisition of any other Pacific territory by the United States. An accident of war brought the Philippines into the American political organization; the difficulties of joint international control led to the occupation of the island of Tutuila in Samoa; and in Alaska at the time of cession, neither American institutions nor American population could be found. But in Hawaii there was a community which drew the best features of its life from America; its laws and constitutions, its Christian belief, its business methods, its progressive population were all products of the intercourse of the islands with the United States. From at least 1820 onward Americans exercised an influence which was greater than that of any other nation, and which dominated the councils of kings and chiefs. Legally and socially the annexation of Hawaii was more logical than the occupation of Porto Rico; while in both cases the United States acted as a complementary force in the insular industries, drawing the needed agricultural products to its markets and sending manufactured goods to the islands. Economically, Hawaii, thirty years ago, passed through the stage which Porto Rico is now witnessing: the process leading to the remarkable growth of wealth through the American demand for cane sugar.

So strong were the intellectual and commercial ties of the Hawaiian Islands to the United States that at an early date the development of a formal political union of the islands was anticipated. In 1826 Hawaii's first treaty with a foreign state was made with the United States. In the years 1839, 1851 and 1853, while entangled in difficulties with European states, the Hawaiian king offered to cede his territory to the United States, and in the latter year a formal treaty of annexation was drafted, which, but for the king's death, probably would have received his approval.

The paramount interests of the United States in the islands and the manifest destiny of annexation have been frequently recognized by American statesmen. Tyler, in 1842, expressed the opinion that five-sixths of the vessels entering Hawaiian ports were American, and that no European nation could colonize the islands or subvert the native government without dissatisfaction upon the part of the United States. Fillmore expressed the same opinion; Pierce openly favored annexation; and Johnson believed that the people of the islands would "at no distant day, voluntarily apply for admission into the Union." Arthur, through his secretary of state, Blaine, expressed the opinion that the islands were "the key to dominion of the American Pacific."

For a full generation after 1840, therefore, annexation had been frequently mooted and was popularly believed to be inevitable. The first formal step toward American control of the islands came in 1875 with the ratification of a reciprocity treaty. This treaty, as has already been mentioned, opened American markets to Hawaiian agricultural produce and proved the beginning of a still more intimate economic dependence of the islands upon the United States. In addition to its economic clauses, the treaty contained the provision, expressive of American predominance in the islands, that, during the continuance of the treaty, no cession of land should be made by the Hawaiian government to any other government, nor should the same trade privileges be granted to any other country. On November 9, 1887, the

treaty was extended for seven years, and the harbor of Pearl River was given to the United States for its exclusive use as a coaling and naval station. The latter cession meant American naval control of the islands, for the Pearl River Harbor is the only port capable of adequate fortification within the archipelago.

Thus American commercial and naval supremacy in Hawaii were legally established. The position of the United States is illustrated by its action in 1881, when England. under the "most favored nation" clauses of her treaties demanded privileges equal to those granted to the United States. Secretary of State Blaine, in the correspondence growing out of this question, stated that the position of the Hawaiian Islands demanded their benevolent neutrality toward the United States, and when such an attitude was found impossible by Hawaii, the American government would meet the new situation "by seeking an avowedly American solution" of the difficulty. Commercially, said he, "the reciprocity treaty makes them practically members of an American zollverein, an outlying district of the State of California."

Again, in 1888, the American government was desired by England and Germany to join them in a joint guaranty of the neutrality of the islands. This offer was rejected by President Cleveland and Secretary of State Thomas F. Bayard. The latter, in commenting upon the matter nine years later, said, "The obvious course was to wait quietly and patiently and let the islands fill up with American planters and American industries until they should be wholly identified in business interests and political sympathies with the United States. It was simply a matter of waiting until the apple should ripen and fall."

Against this natural tendency, appreciated as almost inevitable by Americans at home and in Hawaii, the policy of King Kalakaua and of Queen Liliuokalani came as an opposing force. Their attempt to revive native control, although the native population was rapidly declining in

number, led to the use of force by the foreigners. In the early part of 1887 the foreigners and the "missionary party", as the friends of good government and American control were called, started a secret political society, imported arms, and drilled a volunteer company called "the Rifles." With a mere show of force they compelled Kalakaua to accept the new constitution of 1887, and to reform at least his political habits. A similar movement, opposed to the native policy' of Queen Liliuokalani, resulted in the revolution of 1893.

The revolutionists were encouraged by the actions of Minister John L. Stevens who appears to have been ambitious of accomplishing the annexation of the islands during his tenure of office. In November, 1892, he addressed a lengthy letter to the American secretary of state in which he elaborately argued in favor of annexation upon moral, political, and economical grounds. As early as March, 1892, he contemplated the possibility of overturning the government by an orderly and peaceable revolution, and wished instructions as to "how far the present minister and naval commander may deviate from established international rules and precedents." Within an hour after the proclamation of the Provisional Government, on January 17th, he had recognized it as the lawful Hawaiian government, and on February 1st, upon the request of the Provisional Government he raised the American flag in Honolulu and declared the existence of an American protectorate over the islands. On the same day he wrote to the State Department, "The Hawaiian pear is now fully ripe, and this is the golden hour for the United States to pluck it."

Fully as strong an interest in annexation was felt by the Provisional Government as by the United States minister. The proclamation made in the afternoon of January 17, 1893, contained the condition that the Provisional Government should "exist until terms of union with the United ̧ States had been negotiated and agreed upon." Two days later a specially chartered steamer carried commissioners from the Provisional Government to the United States, who