Liliuokalani

Queen of Hawaii (r. 1891-1892)

• Born: September 2, 1838
• Birthplace: Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii (now in Hawaii)
• Died: November 11, 1917
• Place of death: Honolulu, Hawaii

The last monarch of the Hawaiian kingdom, Liliuokalani struggled futilely to preserve her people’s independence against the pressures of American annexation.

Early Life

Born into Hawaii’s royal family, Liliuokalani (leh-LEE-ew-o-kah-LAH-nee) was the daughter of a chief named Kapaakea and his wife, Keohokalole. Kapaakea was one of the fifteen counselors of the king, Kamehameha III. Immediately after her birth, she was adopted into another family. A woman named Konia was her foster mother, and her foster father was a chief named Paki. This practice of adoption was the custom among the leading families of Hawaii; it was a way to cement alliances among the chiefs, who were the nobility of Hawaii. All of Liliuokalani’s ten brothers and sisters were also adopted into and reared by other families.

When Liliuokalani was four years old, she was enrolled in the Royal School, a boarding school run by American missionaries. The students of this school were all members of the royal extended family, which was made up of the families of the king and chiefs. In this school, Liliuokalani learned English and was taken to church every Sunday, but she said that she never got enough to eat. The school closed in 1848, when Liliuokalani was ten years old, and after that she attended a day school also run by American missionaries. Learning was important to Liliuokalani throughout her life.

After Paki’s death in 1855, Liliuokalani continued to live in his home, along with her sister Bernice and Bernice’s husband, Charles R. Bishop. The Bishops were to be a major influence on Liliuokalani’s life.

Although at one time she was engaged to be married to Lunalilo (also known as Prince William), who would become king in 1873, she ultimately was married to the son of an Italian-born sea captain and a New England woman. The man was named John O. Dominis, and the marriage took place on September 16, 1862. The couple began their married life at Washington Place, the estate built by the groom’s father for his family. This was to remain Liliuokalani’s private residence throughout her life.

Much of Liliuokalani’s adulthood before her accession as queen was spent on benevolent work for native Hawaiians. She was also a composer of music, and she wrote more than one hundred songs, including several Christian hymns, but is best known for the famous Hawaiian song “Aloha ’Oe.” In 1887, she attended Queen Victoria of England’s Jubilee celebration as an honored guest. She never had any children.

Life’s Work

A year after Liliuokalani’s marriage, King Kamehameha IV died, on November 30, 1863. Because the young king had recently lost his only son to illness, there was no direct heir to the throne. According to the Hawaiian Constitution of 1852, the king’s brother was elected as the new monarch by the cabinet, the privy council, and the kuhina nui (the queen, who served as coruler with the Hawaiian king). He became known as Kamehameha V. By the time he died in 1872, a new constitution had been passed (in 1864) that gave the king the right to choose his own successor. The successor he had named, however, his sister Princess Victoria, had died in 1866, and he had named no one else.

Now it was up to the Hawaiian legislature to elect a new king from among the nobility. This was when Liliuokalani’s former fiancé, Lunalilo, ascended the throne. He lived only a year longer, however, and also died without naming an heir. This time, Liliuokalani’s brother Kalakaua was elected, and in 1877 she was chosen as heir to the throne. She served as regent from January to October of 1881 while the king was making a trip around the world, which gave her a taste of what it would later be like to be queen. She took this role again in 1890 and 1891 while the king was in California on a trip meant to restore his failing health. He died in January of 1891, however, leaving his sister Liliuokalani as queen.

Liliuokalani was proclaimed queen on January 29, 1891, at the age of fifty-two. She inherited a government that had been, throughout the nineteenth century, a mixture of Hawaiian tradition, British constitutional ideals, Victorian influence, and American interference brought by missionaries, adventurers, and politicians. Symbolic of this mixture were the combinations of names held by the Hawaiian nobility. (Liliuokalani was also known as Lydia Kamakaeha Paki and Mrs. John O. Dominis.) This mixture was strengthened by the frequency of intermarriage between Hawaiians and people of European American extraction, of which Liliuokalani’s own marriage was an example.

Liliuokalani’s brother, influenced by American businesspeople, had led Hawaii on a course toward ruin by trying to return to a more despotic form of government. This led to revolution in 1887 and to increased American influence, because in the new constitution of that year members of the nobility were to be elected by voters of large income and property, which in practice meant large numbers of Americans and others of foreign birth or ancestry. Hawaii was also under the grip of an economic depression as a result of the McKinley Tariff Act, which removed tariffs on other importers of sugar to the United States. Because sugar had become the center of Hawaii’s economy, this act devastated the island nation.

This was the situation the new queen faced: political turmoil and economic difficulty. Her solution was to strengthen the monarchy. Liliuokalani was firmly opposed to the Constitution of 1887, which was far more democratic than previous constitutions had been. At the same time, the political strife and economic difficulties in the islands made the idea of annexation by the United States look rather appealing to some Hawaiians, and by 1892 there were secret organizations working toward that end.

After an attempt by the queen to promulgate a new constitution giving the monarchy more power, in January, 1892, a revolutionary committee took over the government and ended the monarchy, setting up a provisional government until a union with the United States could be worked out. The queen assented against her will, in order to avoid bloodshed, and retired to Washington Place. A treaty of annexation by the United States was drawn up and signed by the provisional government on February 14, 1893. It had not been acted upon, however, by the Senate of the United States by the time Grover Cleveland became president a few days later. A friend of Liliuokalani, Cleveland had received a letter from her about the coup d’état. After his inauguration, he withdrew the treaty from the Senate’s consideration and launched a lengthy investigation into the matter. Meanwhile, the provisional government remained in power.

When it became clear that annexation was not imminent, a constitutional convention in 1894 set up what was to be the Republic of Hawaii. Liliuokalani protested to both the United States and Great Britain, but to no avail. An attempt to restore the monarchy was quickly squelched, leading to Liliuokalani’s arrest and conviction on charges of treason. She was imprisoned in the Iolani Palace and forced to sign abdication papers. Hawaii was officially annexed to the United States on August 12, 1898, but the republic continued to govern the islands under the authority of the president of the United States.

Liliuokalani was pardoned in 1896, and in that year she traveled to the United States to visit her late husband’s relatives, trying to forget her sorrows over recent events. She returned in August of 1898, her enthusiastic welcome home showing how much support she still retained among both native-born and foreign-born Hawaiians.

While in the United States, she wrote her autobiography, Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen (1898), as well as translating an ancient Hawaiian poem. Liliuokalani died on November 11, 1917, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Significance

Although her reign was Hawaii’s last as an independent nation, Liliuokalani’s impact on Hawaii’s history cannot be denied. Because she was part of a tradition in which women played important roles, she never questioned her right to rule. Although she believed in a strong monarchy, Liliuokalani organized institutions for the improvement of the health, welfare, and education of her native Hawaiian compatriots. She was an educated woman who valued learning, and she was both an author and a composer. A native Hawaiian, she was also an enthusiastic participant in the Victorian-inspired society of her times. Her downfall was her accession to the throne at a time when her tiny kingdom, influenced as it was by both European and American values and politics, could no longer remain independent. Although she resigned herself to Hawaii’s annexation to the United States, she never agreed with the idea, always remaining convinced of the value of national autonomy for her islands.

Liliuokalani is something of a tragic figure. Trained and educated as a potential ruler, passionate about her country and her people, a woman of cosmopolitan learning and taste, she nevertheless came to power at a time when her method of rule came into conflict with the movement of history.

Bibliography

Kuykendall, Ralph S., and A. Grove Day. Hawaii: A History, from Polynesian Kingdom to American State. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1948. The parts of this book labeled books 3 and 4 (chapters 11 through 12) give a helpful chronicle of the events of the latter years of the Hawaiian kingdom. They help the reader understand the background to the situation that Liliuokalani inherited, as well as the outcome of her own reign.

Liliuokalani. Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen. Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle, 1964. The queen’s autobiography is the best source for learning about her early life. Although it is somewhat rambling, it is invaluable because it gives Liliuokalani’s perspective on events in her own words. It ends with her return from the United States in 1898.

Loomis, Albertine. For Whom Are the Stars? Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1976. A highly readable and sympathetic account of the end of the Hawaiian monarchy, discussing the revolution and events leading up to it, the first failure to annex Hawaii to the United States, the founding of the republic, the rebellion of 1895, and the queen’s arrest and trial.

“Native Hawaiians Seek Redress for U.S. Role in Ousting Queen.” The New York Times, December 11, 1999, p. A20. A report about a group of Hawaiians seeking redress for the U.S. involvement in Liliuokalani’s overthrow. Discusses then-president Bill Clinton’s apology for the incident.

Russ, William Adam, Jr. The Hawaiian Republic, 1894-98, and Its Struggle to Win Annexation. Selinsgrove, Pa.: Susquehanna University Press, 1961. This book follows up on Russ’s earlier book (below). This volume analyzes the years of the Hawaiian Republic, between the time of Liliuokalani’s abdication and Hawaii’s annexation by the United States.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Hawaiian Revolution, 1893-94. Selinsgrove, Pa.: Susquehanna University Press, 1959. Analyzes in readable detail the events of the revolution that deposed Queen Liliuokalani. It also examines the involvement of the United States and American interests in the overthrow of Hawaiian autonomy.

Tate, Merze. The United States and the Hawaiian Kingdom: A Political History. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1965. This book focuses on the period of Hawaiian history that included Liliuokalani’s life and work: 1864 to 1898. Chapters 4 through 7 deal specifically with various events of her reign: her attempt to change the constitution, the revolution of 1893, and annexation by the United States.

Young, Lucien. The Real Hawaii: Its History and Present Condition. New York: Doubleday & McClure, 1899. An eyewitness account of the revolution of 1893 and the events that followed. The author was on a ship stationed at Honolulu at the time. Written to discount the reports of James H. Blount, the envoy of Liliuokalani to President Cleveland, the book gives an account of Hawaiian culture, history, and economy as well as of the revolution and its aftermath.