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The Provisional Government of Hawaiʻi was proclaimed on January 17, 1893 by the 13 member Committee of Safety under the leadership of Lorrin A. Thurston and Sanford B. Dole. It governed the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi after the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani until the Republic of Hawaiʻi was established on July 4, 1894.
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Provisional Government
Following the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and the establishment of the Provisional Government in Hawaiʻi, Lorrin A. Thurston actively lobbied for annexation to the United States, negotiating a treaty with President Benjamin Harrison that was sent to the Senate for approval. At the same time Princess Victoria Kaʻiulani was in Washington D.C. to state that the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy was illegal.
President Grover Cleveland opposed the idea of annexation, being an anti-imperialist himself, and withdrew the treaty negotiated by President Benjamin Harrison upon taking office. After commissioning the secret Blount Report, he stated that the U.S. had inappropriately used military force and called for the reinstatement of Queen Liliʻuokalani. The matter was referred by Cleveland to Congress after Sanford Dole refused Cleveland's demands, and the U.S. Senate held a further investigation, culminating in the Morgan Report [1], which completely rejected that there had been any U.S. involvement in the overthrow. After the findings of this committee were submitted, Cleveland reversed his position, and accepted the Provisional Government as legitimate, and rebuffed further requests from the queen to interfere in the matter.
Hawaiian Army
Following the overthrow of the monarchy a military was formed on January 27, 1893 and put under the command of Colonel John Soper. This military consisted of four companies: three national guard companies and one regular army company. The national guard companies were the A Company made up of ethnic German volunteers, commanded by Charles W. Zeiler, B Company made up of members of the Honolulu Rifles and commanded by Hugh Gunn, and C Company made up of ethnic Portuguese volunteers commanded by Joseph M. Camara. The regulars were D company made, like B Company, from the Honolulu Rifles, commanded by John Good.
The military was active under the Provisional Government of Hawaii were they were activated in the Leprosy War in 1893 and the Republic of Hawaii and were again acivated during the 1895 Counter-Revolution in Hawaii in 1895. After Hawaii was annexed becoming the Territory of Hawaii in 1898 the it entered the Army National Guard system and became part of the present Hawaii Army National Guard.
The Leper War on Kauaʻi (1893)
Under a more suppressive government they enforced the 1865 act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy. In June 1893 a revolt broke out in Kauaʻi, against the forced relocation of all infected by the disease to the Leprosy Colony of Kalawao on the Kalaupapa peninsula.
The Leprosy War began when Louis H. Stolza, a deputy sheriff, attempted to force an isolated leprosy colony in Kalalau Valley, Kauaʻi to be deported, he was shot and killed by a leper named Koolau. Following the killing a platoon of the national guard, a howitzer, and a gunboat were sent to Kauaʻi, arriving July 1. The soldiers landed without incident and captured twenty seven lepers including Koolau’s sister as they searched the valley. They established a base camp called Camp Dole near the beach. As the Platoon advanced deeper into the valley they found Koolau with other refugees including his wife and son hiding in caves in the slope of one of the ridges that made the side of the valley. Some members of the group fought and repelled the guardsmen from a well camouflaged ledge and killed two guardsmen on different days and wounded others, while a third was killed when his weapon misfired. After the failure of the infantry assaults, the guardsmen shelled the leper’s position with the howitzer, then boarded their ship and left with their prisoners. The remaining members of the leprosy colony were never harassed again, while the captured lepers were sent to Kalawao.
Jack London wrote a short story about the incident titled “Koolau the Leper”
Home front
Under the new administration the Government was made more restrictive. Including denying citizenship to Chinese immigrants and used the DOE to drive the Hawaiian language, which rivaled the English language, to near extinction. They also restricted voting from 14,000 under the Bayonet Constitution to 4,000 people, most of them politicians in power of the population of approximately 100,000. James Henderson Blount would comment on this disproportion of voters and population in his report report.
The testimony of leading annexationists is that if the question of annexation was submitted to a popular vote, excluding all persons who could not read and write except foreigners (under the Australian-ballot system, which is the law of the land), that annexation would be defeated.’’
(from page 599 of the Blount Report)
Republic of Hawaii
Following the Morgan Report, and the Turpie Resolution which stated a policy of non-interference in Hawaiian affairs by the U.S., Lorrin A. Thurston and the Provisional Government of Hawaiʻi convened a constitutional convention and established the Republic of Hawaiʻi. This government maintained power until the U.S. annexed Hawaiʻi in 1898.
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