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Queen Liliʻuokalani of Hawaiʻi
(September
2, 1838 –
November
11, 1917),
originally named Lydia Kamakaʻeha, also
known as Lydia Kamakaʻeha Paki, with the
chosen royal name of Liliʻuokalani, and
later named Lydia K. Dominis, was the last
monarch of
the
Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.
On
September 16, 1862,
she married
John Owen Dominis, who became Governor of
Oʻahu
and Maui. They had
no children; Liliʻuokalani's heiress for several
years was her niece
Victoria Kaʻiulani (1875–1899), although Kaʻiulani
predeceased her.
Liliʻuokalani inherited the throne from her
brother
Kalākaua on
January 17,
1891. Shortly after
she gained power, she tried to enact a new constitution, since the existing
constitution, known as the
Bayonet Constitution, limited her power. American and European Hawaiians,
threatened by the elimination of suffrage by the queen's proposed constitution,
asserted that the queen had "virtually abdicated" by trying to subvert the
constitution she swore an oath to, and organized to depose her. Besides the
threatened loss of suffrage, business interests within the Kingdom were
concerned about the removal of foreign tariffs in the American sugar trade due
to the McKinley Act (which effectively eliminated the favored status of Hawaiian
sugar due to the Reciprocity Treaty), and considered the possibility of
annexation to the United States (and enjoying the same sugar bounties as
domestic producers) as a welcome side effect of ending the monarchy. During the
overthrow in 1893 the American minister in Hawaiʻi
at the time,
John L. Stevens, ordered troops from the
U.S.S. Boston ashore, to protect American businesses and property.
The Queen was deposed on January 17, 1893, and a provisional government was
instituted.
The administration of
Grover Cleveland commissioned the
Blount Report, and based on its findings believed that the overthrow of Liliʻuokalani
was illegal and offered November 16, 1893 to give the throne back to her if she
granted amnesty to everyone responsible. She initially refused, saying that she
would have them beheaded. With this development, then-President
Grover Cleveland sent the issue to the
United States
Congress. Although she changed her mind on December 18, 1893, and U.S.
Minister Willis demanded her reinstatement by the Provisional Government, the
Provisional Government refused. Congress responded to Cleveland's referral with
another investigation, and submitted the
Morgan Report by the U.S. Senate on February 26, 1894, which exonerated both
Minister Stevens and the U.S. troops from any responsibility for the overthrow.
On July 4,
1894, the
Republic of Hawaiʻi was proclaimed and
Sanford B. Dole, one of the first people who originally called on the
institution of the monarchy to be abolished, became President. It was recognized
immediately by the United States government.
Liliʻuokalani was arrested on
January 16,
1895 (several days
after a failed counterrevolution by
Robert Wilcox) when
firearms were
found in the gardens of her home; she denied knowing that they were there. She
was sentenced to five years of hard labor in prison and fined $5000, but the
sentence was commuted to imprisonment in an upstairs bedroom of
ʻIolani Palace until she was released in 1896,
with the establishment of the Republic of Hawaiʻi.
She went home to
Washington Place, where she lived as a private citizen until her death in
1917 due to complications from a stroke. Hawaiʻi
was annexed to the United States through a joint resolution of the U.S.
Congress in
1898.
Failing in her attempt to regain the throne, she formally renounced her royal
claims. Much of the remainder of her life was spent in the United States, where
she unsuccessfully entered against the federal government claims totaling
$450,000 for property and other losses. The territorial legislature of Hawaii
finally voted her an annual pension of $4,000 and permitted her to receive the
income from a sugar plantation of 6,000 acres (24 km˛). She spent the rest of
her life in the house of her father-in-law and later died of a stroke.
Liliʻuokalani was an accomplished
author and
songwriter.
Her book,
Hawaiʻi's Story by Hawaiʻi's
Queen, told the history of her country. Some of her best-known musical
compositions include the anthem, "Aloha
ʻOe," which she composed during her captivity
(also known as "Farewell to Thee"). This was the end of the Hawaiian Monarchy.
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