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“Sammy’s Sugar-Plums”
No caption.
This
cartoon shows Uncle Sam as a gleeful child who is enjoying his Christmas
gift of sugarplums from the Sandwich Islands, a reference to the
annexation of Hawaii (formerly the Sandwich Islands) by the United
States in the summer of 1898, and to the land’s valuable staple crop
of sugar.
In 1840, King Kamehameha III
promulgated a written constitution for Hawaii, and the United States,
Great Britain, and France recognized its independence, although all
three nations continued to demonstrate strong economic and strategic
interests in the islands. In
1875, the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant signed a
reciprocal trade treaty with Hawaii, only the second in American history
(the first was with Canada). The Hawaiian trade treaty was renewed for seven years in 1887
during the first administration of President Grover Cleveland, with
provision for construction of an American naval base at Pearl Harbor on
the island of Oahu. As
Cleveland explained to Congress, “those islands …are virtually an
outpost of American commerce and a stepping-stone to the growing trade
of the Pacific.” A coup
in Hawaii forced King Kalakaua to establish a parliament, which ratified
the treaty.
In the early weeks of the
administration of President Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893), the U.S.
minister to Hawaii, Henry Carter, drafted a free-trade treaty with
Hawaii. The treaty intended
to transform the island nation into an American protectorate:
the United States would guarantee Hawaii’s independence at the
price of American veto power over treaties Hawaii negotiated with other
countries and American military authority over internal or external
threats. When a rebellion
broke out in July 1889, Harrison ordered 70 marines to land and restore
order in Hawaii, and thereafter stationed an American naval vessel off
the Hawaiian coast. The
next year, the McKinley Tariff removed the trade advantage of Hawaii
sugar producers, who relied overwhelmingly on American markets, by
putting sugar on the duty-free list and granting a bounty to American
sugar growers. The Hawaiian economy dropped into a depression, and as a
result, white sugar growers favored establishment of an American
protectorate or outright annexation.
Their plans were thwarted when Queen Liliuokalani, supported by
Hawaiian nationalists, ascended the throne in January 1891.
The February 1892 elections in
Hawaii resulted in a virtual deadlock between three parties.
Soon afterward, the new U.S. minister, John L. Stevens, requested
instructions on how to react should rebels, who had consulted with him,
overthrow the monarchy to establish a republic.
In May, Lorrin Thurston, a Hawaiian legislator and member of the
secret Annexation Club, arrived in Washington, D.C., to lobby the
Harrison administration to support a republican revolution.
He met with Secretary of State James Blaine and Navy Secretary
Benjamin Tracy, but was not allowed to see the president.
In his final annual message to Congress in December 1892,
Harrison endorsed development of the Pearl Harbor naval base and the
laying of a telegraph cable to Hawaii.
The Hawaiian cabinet resigned
on January 12, 1893. Two
days later, the queen announced a new constitution reasserting
monarchical powers, and the Annexation Club moved to create a
provisional government. On
January 16, Stevens ordered the 165-man U.S.S. Boston to land,
ostensibly to protect the American mission.
The next day the rebels proclaimed a republic headed by Judge
Stanford Dole, a wealthy planter. The
strategic placement of the American troops proved instrumental in
preventing the royal forces from effectively responding to the coup. On his own authority, Stevens recognized the new Hawaiian
government, proclaimed it an American protectorate, and ordered the
American flag flown on all government buildings.
Less than a month later, the
new Hawaiian government had drafted and passed an annexation treaty,
which it sent to the outgoing Harrison administration. After receiving
assurances from U.S. ministers in France, Great Britain, and Russia that
those nations would not protest, the Harrison administration signed the
annexation treaty on February 14 and forwarded it to the Senate.
Harrison warned that annexation would prevent Hawaii from falling
under the control of another great power, which would threaten American
interests and security. However,
there was not enough support in the outgoing Republican-controlled
Senate for the two-thirds vote required for ratification, and the
incoming Democratic Senate would certainly defeat it.
On March 9, the new president,
Democrat Grover Cleveland, withdrew the treaty and appointed a committee
to investigate American involvement in the bloodless Hawaiian coup.
The report, released on July 25, harshly criticized Stevens’s
role in the rebellion, argued that most native Hawaiians did not favor
annexation, and suggested that the annexationists were acting out of
economic self-interest. The
Cleveland administration requested that Dole and the provisional
government abdicate, and that the queen grant them amnesty and recognize
their acts while in office. Both
sides resisted, and in his December 1893 message to Congress, Cleveland
handed the dilemma to them. After
extensive hearings, and the rejection of various proposals, Congress
decided to leave the situation as it existed with the minority
government in power and Hawaii independent.
In March 1897, William
McKinley, the new Republican president, met with his advisors to discuss
whether it was preferable to annex Hawaii by treaty or congressional
resolution. In April, the
Hawaiian minister to the U.S. officially requested that the McKinley
administration begin negotiations on an annexation treaty.
Around the same time, the Republican-controlled Senate was
preparing to prohibit Hawaiian sugar from the American market.
On June 16, President McKinley sent an annexation treaty to the
Senate, stating that the annexation of Hawaii by the United States was
only a matter of time. Although
most Republicans supported the treaty, Southern Democrats looked upon it
with disfavor for reasons of economics (sugar interests) and race (the
native Hawaiian population); therefore, finding the requisite two-thirds
majority was again a problem.
It
was the Spanish-American War of 1898, a change in political strategy,
and the personal involvement of the president that won passage of
Hawaiian annexation.
The McKinley administration scrapped the treaty and substituted a
joint congressional resolution, which only needed a simple majority for
passage.
The administration also stressed that American possession of
Hawaii was vital for supplying American troops in the Philippines.
The resolution passed the House, 209-91, on June 15, 1898, and
two days later was taken up by the Senate, where it still faced an
uphill battle.
Intense lobbying by the president, however, resulted in a vote of
42 in the affirmative, 21 opposed, and 26 abstentions.
It was a narrow victory, but enough for Hawaii to became part of
the United States.
Hawaii officially became a territory in 1900, and a state in
1959.
Robert C. Kennedy
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