Committee of Safety (Hawaii)

Formation

The Committee of Safety originated from a leadership group when members of the Missionary Party began to run as Independent Party candidates. For the elections of 1884 the Missionary Party strictly ran all candidates as Independent Party candidates. To ensure that Missionaries were on the Independent ticket the "Committee of Nine" was formed January 14, 1883, to assume the leadership position of the Independent Party. The Committee of Nine were staunchly loyal to the Missionary Party, having social and economic philosophies that reflected the Missionary values. The Independent Party won 13 seats and was the minority party in the Hawaii legislature. For the following elections of 1886 the committee reconvened, this time calling themselves the "Committee of Thirteen" due to the change in members. Their intent was to make the Independent Party the majority party in the legislature. At the end of the elections the Independents won ten seats, a net loss of three seats.

Hawaiian League

In January 1887, the Committee of Thirteen formed a secret society called the Hawaiian League. The founding of the organization was an illegal act under Kingdom law. Membership required one to swear the following oath -

"I do solemnly promise upon my honor, that I will keep secret the existence and purposes of this League, that I will not, in my position as a member of any military organization, oppose or oppress the white citizens of this Kingdom, that I will stand by and support my military supervisors in their necessary efforts to protect the white community of this Kingdom against any arbitrary or oppressive action of the Government, which may threaten the lives, liberty, or property of the people and will at all hazards protect and defend the members of the League who may be jeopardized in its service."

No official records were kept, but Lorrin A. Thurston (the grandson of American missionaries Asa Thurston and Lorrin Andrews) drafted the group's constitution and maintained a log of the group's 405 members. Its members were of European or American descent and varied citizenship. Ralph Kuykendall notes that "[i]t was a haole organization; there are no identifiable Hawaiian names on the roll, but there were a few members of part-Hawaiian ancestry." However, Kuykendall gives no further explanation or evidence to support the latter claim. There were members who were Hawaiian citizens of non-Hawaiian descent.

Although its political wing changed its name from the "Missionary Party" to "Reform Party", many Hawaiian League members wanted annexation by the United States, not just monarchal reform. The Hawaiian League was also called the Annexation Club, although not often in public.

The Hawaiian League was also supported by a German social and political group known as Drei Hundert, organized by Charles W. Zeigler.

Hawaiian League members exerted substantial control over the Honolulu Rifles, gaining de facto control by early 1887. The Honolulu Rifles consisted of approximately 200 armed, non-Hawaiian men under the command of enthusiastic annexationist Volney V. Ashford. The company officers of the Honolulu Rifles were also Hawaiian League members. In June 1887, the Hawaiian League used the Rifles to force King Kalākaua to enact the Bayonet Constitution which limited his power. After Queen Liliʻuokalani came to power in 1891, she attempted to restore power to the throne. This caused the group to act again.

Overthrow

The precipitating event leading to the overthrow was the attempt by Queen Liliuokalani to promulgate a new constitution which would have strengthened the power of the monarch relative to the legislature in which Euro-American business elites held disproportionate power, a political situation that was a direct result of the 1887 constitution. The conspirators' stated goals were to depose the queen, overthrow the monarchy, and seek Hawaii's annexation to the United States.

On January 16, the Marshal of the Kingdom Charles B. Wilson was tipped off to the imminent planned coup. Wilson requested warrants to arrest the 13-member Committee of Safety and put the Kingdom under martial law. Because the members had strong political ties with United States Government Minister John L. Stevens, the requests were repeatedly denied, fearing if approved, the arrests would escalate the situation. After a failed negotiation with Thurston, Wilson began to collect his men for the confrontation. Wilson and Captain of the Royal Household Guard Samuel Nowlein had rallied a force of 496 men who were kept at hand to protect the Queen.

The Revolution ignited on January 17 when a policeman was shot and wounded while trying to stop a wagon carrying weapons to the Honolulu Rifles. The Committee of Safety feared the shooting would bring government forces to root out the conspirators and stop the coup before it could begin. The Rifles garrisoned Ali'iolani Hale across the street from ʻIolani Palace and waited for the Queen's response.

As these events were unfolding, the Committee of Safety expressed concern for the safety and property of American residents in Honolulu. United States Government Minister John L. Stevens, advised about these supposed threats to non-combatant American lives and property by the Committee of Safety, obliged their request and summoned a company of uniformed U.S. Marines from the and two companies of U.S. sailors to land on the Kingdom and take up positions at the U.S. Legation, Consulate, and Arion Hall on the afternoon of January 16, 1893. 162 sailors and marines aboard the USS Boston in Honolulu Harbor came ashore well-armed but under orders of neutrality. The sailors and marines did not enter the Palace grounds or take over any buildings, and never fired a shot, but their presence served to intimidate royalist defenders. Historian William Russ states, "the injunction to prevent fighting of any kind made it impossible for the monarchy to protect itself." Due to the Queen's desire "to avoid any collision of armed forces, and perhaps the loss of life" for her subjects and after some deliberation, at the urging of advisers and friends, the Queen ordered her forces to surrender. The Honolulu Rifles took over government buildings, disarmed the Royal Guard, and declared a Provisional Government.

The Committee of Safety issued the following proclamation, read aloud on January 17 by its chairman Henry E. Cooper to a large crowd assembled in front of the royal residence Iolani Palace:

"First – The Hawaiian monarchial system of government is hereby abrogated.

Second – A Provisional Government for the control and management of public affairs and the protection of public peace is hereby established, to exist until terms of union with the United States of America have been negotiated and agreed upon".

The Hawaiian League unofficially adopted the American flag to appeal to the US and promote annexation. The flag was raised over ʻIolani Palace by Stevens on January 17, 1893. The flag was eventually lowered by James H. Blount that April for spreading a false presumption that the US had taken control.

International response

During the overthrow, the Japanese Imperial Navy gunboat Naniwa was docked at Pearl Harbor. The gunboat's commander, Heihachiro Togo, who later commanded the Japanese battleship fleet at Tsushima, refused to accede to the Provisional Government's demands that he strike the colors of the Kingdom, but later lowered the colors on order of the Japanese Government. Along with every other international legations in Honolulu, the Japanese Consulate-General, Suburo Fujii, quickly recognized the Provisional Government as the legitimate successor to the monarchy.

Every government with a diplomatic presence in Hawaii recognized the Provisional Government within 48 hours of the overthrow, including the United States. Countries recognizing the new Provisional Government included Chile, Austria-Hungary, Mexico, Russia, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Japan, Italy, Portugal, Great Britain, Denmark, Belgium, China, Peru, and France. When the Republic of Hawaii was declared on July 4, 1894, immediate recognition was given by every nation with diplomatic relations with Hawaii, except for Britain, whose response came in November.

Members of the committees

Committee of Nine

• Joseph B. Atherton
• William R. Castle
• Sanford B. Dole
• William W. Hall (1841–1910) Business partner of his printer father Edwin Oscar Hall
• James A. Hopper (1831–1900)
• Peter C. Jones
• Henry W. Mist (1833–1895)
• John H. Paty
• William O. Smith

Committee of Thirteen

• Joseph B. Atherton
• Jonathan Austin
• William H. Bailey
• William R. Castle
• Benjamin F. Dillingham
• Sanford B. Dole
• Henry F. Glade (1883–1894) German consul to Hawaii
• William W. Hall
• Peter C. Jones
• Thomas May
• John H. Paty
• Lorrin A. Thurston

Committee of Safety

Six Hawaiian subjects, five American citizens, a German subject, and a British subject signed the January 16 letter:

Hawaiian Kingdom subjects:

• Crister Bolte, naturalized Hawaiian subject of German birth, member
• William Richards Castle, Hawaiian subject, born in Honolulu 1849, attorney general for Kalākaua 1876, Hawaiian legislator 1878–88, member
• Chairman Henry Ernest Cooper, American citizen who arrived in 1890, denizen of the Kingdom, named chairman at mass meeting January 14, 1893
• William Owen Smith, Hawaiian subject, born on Kauai 1838 of American missionaries, member
• Lorrin A. Thurston, Hawaiian subject, born in Hawaii of American grandparents, member
• Henry Waterhouse, naturalized Hawaiian subject of Tasmanian birth, came to Hawaii 1851, member
• William C. Wilder, naturalized Hawaiian subject, brother of Samuel Gardner Wilder, member

Non-subject Members:

• Andrew Brown, Scottish, member
• John Emmeluth, American citizen, member
• Theodore F. Lansing, American citizen, member
• John A. McCandless, American citizen, member
• Frederick W. McChesney, American citizen, member
• Edward Suhr, German citizen, member

Others who assisted in the overthrow:

• Charles L. Carter, American, naturalized Hawaiian subject, member, son of Henry A. P. Carter, brother of George R. Carter, died during the 1895 counter-revolution
• Samuel Mills Damon, Hawaiian subject with American parents, vice president of Provisional Government
• Sanford B. Dole, Hawaiian subject with American parents, selected to head Provisional Government and Republic
• Peter Cushman Jones, American, naturalized Hawaiian subject, provisional government minister of finance
• James A. King, Scottish, named minister of interior

References

References

1. Thomas A. Bailey, "The United States and Hawaii during the Spanish–American War" ''American Historical Review'' 36#3 (1931), pp. 552–560 {{JSTOR. 1837915 {{doi. 10.2307/1837915
2. (2019). "Remembering the Committee of Safety: Identifying the Citizenship, Descent, and Occupations of the Men Who Overthrew the Monarchy". Hawaiian Historical Society.
3. McWilliams, Tennant S.. (Feb 1988). "James H. Blount, the South, and Hawaiian Annexation". Pacific Historical Review.
4. "Chapter LII: An An Act to Prevent Unlawful Secret Associations," pages 102–104 in ''Na Kanawai o ka Moi Kalakaua I., Ke Alii o Ko Hawaii Pae Aina. I Kau ia e ka Hale Ahaolelo Kau Kanawai i ke Kau Ahaolelo o 1884''. Honolulu: P. C. Advertiser Steam Print, 1884. qtd in Williams, Ronald, Jr. "Hawaiian League Membership, 1887." ''Hawaiian Journal of History'' 57 (2023): 97-112. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/hjh.2023.a913605.
5. Lorrin Andrews Thurston Manuscript Collection, M144 Box 1 Folder 2, Hawai'i State Archives. qtd in Williams, Ronald, Jr. "Hawaiian League Membership, 1887." ''Hawaiian Journal of History'' 57 (2023): 97-112. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/hjh.2023.a913605.
6. Thurston, Lorrin A.. (1936). "Memoirs of the Hawaiian revolution.". Advertiser publishing co., ltd..
7. A transcribed list of members can be found in, Williams, Ronald, Jr. "Hawaiian League Membership, 1887." ''Hawaiian Journal of History'' 57 (2023): 97-112. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/hjh.2023.a913605.
8. Ralph Simpson Kuykendall. (1967). "Hawaiian Kingdom 1874–1893, the Kalakaua Dynasty". University of Hawaii Press.
9. Thurston, Lorrin A.. (1936). "Memoirs of the Hawaiian revolution.". Advertiser publishing co., ltd..
10. Twombly, Alexander. (1900). "Hawaii and its people". Silver, Burdett and company.
11. Kinzer, S. (2006) America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. p. 30. [Minister Stevens] "certainly overstepped his authority when he brought troops ashore, especially since he knew that the 'general alarm and terror' of which the Committee of Safety had complained was a fiction."
12. William Adam Russ. (1992). "The Hawaiian Revolution (1893–94)". Associated University Presses.
13. Westervelt, William Drake, "Hawaiian Historical Legends", Forgotten Books Easy Reading Series, 2008.
14. [http://morganreport.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=1102-1127#SWORN_STATEMENT_OF_ROSWELL_RANDALL_HOES. The Morgan Report, p1106-1107], "The receipt of your communication, dated the 17th instant, inclosing a copy of proclamation issued on the same day, informing me that for reasons set forth in said proclamation the Hawaiian monarchy has been abrogated and a Provisional Government established, which is now in possession of the Government departmental buildings, the archives, and the treasury, and requesting me on behalf of H. I. J. M.'s Government to recognize said Provisional Government as the de facto Government of the Hawaiian Islands, pending the receipt of instructions from H. I. J. M.'s Government, to whom advices of your action and of the position which I have taken in relation thereto have been despatched."
15. "1103-1111 - TheMorganReport".
16. Andrade, Ernest. (1996). "The Unconquerable Rebel". The University Press of Colorado.
17. (June 1, 1910). "In Memoriam, William W. Hall". The Hawaiian Star.
18. (December 21, 1900). "Body Comes on Sierra-James A. Hopper". The Hawaiian Gazette.
19. (October 25, 1895). "Death of Captain Henry Wentworth Mist - Newspapers.com". The Independent.
20. (January 29, 1902). "Death of Henry F. Glade Occurs in Fatherland". The Honolulu Advertiser.
21. (1894). "Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the Congress". U.S. Government Printing Office.
22. (2019). "Remembering the Committee of Safety: Identifying the Citizenship, Descent, and Occupations of the Men Who Overthrew the Monarchy". Hawaiian Historical Society.
23. "Hawaiian Kingdom - Registry of Naturalized Subjects - B".
24. "Hawaiian Kingdom – Registry of Denizens (c. 1840–1893)".
25. "Hawaiian Kingdom – Registry of Naturalized Subjects – W".