“I was saying about Japan, that there is a good deal of evidence that the Yellow Menace would be glad to take Hawaii if the United States doesn’t.”
“Do you think so?” Micah asked fearfully.
“What more natural?” Whip asked, shrugging his shoulders.
“Do you think Japan would extend herself so far from her own islands?”
“Not by design, but if we don’t get Hawaii into the United States, she’ll have to.”
“I am terribly afraid of that,” Micah admitted. “And if not Japan, then England or Germany.”
“Obviously, if we allow the islands to lie around unwanted, someone will surely grab them.”
“But suppose the monarchy cleansed itself,” Micah temporized. “Suppose we got rid of Liliuokalani and put somebody else on the throne?”
Wild Whip saw that his uncle was clutching at straws, so he hammered home his points: “The revolutionists will tolerate no Hawaiian monarch. None that you could propose, Uncle Micah, would be acceptable.”
His nephew’s position startled the white-bearded old man and he said, “Then even though you are uncertain of what comes next, you’re determined to overthrow the monarchy?”
Whip was not to be trapped into such an admission of irresponsibility. Suavely he replied, “But we are certain of what comes next, Uncle Micah. You come next. You justify us before world opinion and lead us into the United States. It’s what you’ve always wanted. It’s what you know is right.”
The two men fell into silence, as Micah, a leader on whom all the glories and perquisites available to the kings of Hawaii had been visited, considered what he must do. He was caught in wild currents of confusion, and any antagonist other than Wild Whip Hoxworth would have retired at this moment and allowed his uncle to study the matter through the remainder of the night, but now the mark of Whip’s character stood out. He rose from his chair, went to the door, stretched as if he were leaving, looked out at the stars dancing over Diamond Head and turned back toward his uncle. Lifting a chair and placing it so that its back faced Micah, he sat with his arms folded across the top of the back and his legs straddling the seat. This brought his scarred face close to his uncle’s, and he said coldly, “Uncle Micah, so far we’ve been sparring. Now we’ve got to get down to the bedrock base of this revolution. There’s no escape. You’ve got to stand before the public.”
Micah replied: “I cannot betray the Hawaiians who have befriended me.”
Whip said: “But you’re ready to betray the Americans who own these islands.”
Micah replied: “When I took my oath of allegiance to Hawaii, I believed what I was doing. I became a Hawaiian.”
Whip said: “I didn’t. I remained an American. I’m going to call on American warships to protect my property for me.”
Micah replied: “You can act that way. I can’t.”
Whip said: “That is not the action we’re talking about, Uncle Micah. I’m saying that I am determined to lead a revolution against a weak and corrupt form of government. I’m going to win my part of the revolution. But only you can carry it to its logical conclusion: union with America.”
Micah replied: “And that I refuse to do.”
Whip said: “If you shared your stubborn conclusion with the silly queen, she’d applaud. But if you told Aunt Malama how you were wasting the tides of history and allowing them to slip away from you, even though she’s a Hawaiian she’d say you were stupid.”
Micah replied: “I cannot betray these good people.”
Whip said: “Then you will allow the forces of history to betray them to Japan.”
Micah replied: “That’s a risk we’ll have to take.”
Whip said: “It’s not a risk, Uncle Micah. It’s a certainty. These islands are doomed. There is only one way to save them. Pick up our revolution and lead it to a good end.”
Micah replied: “I will not prostitute myself to protect a gang of sugar robbers.”
Whip said: “Unless you protect us, every good thing you have ever wanted for Hawaii will be lost.”
Micah replied: “I would relinquish even union with America rather than attain it as a result of unchristian acts.”
Whip said: “I am surprised you speak of Christianity. Are you willing to abandon these islands to opium, lotteries, debauchery, with streets unsafe for women?”
Micah replied: “These are problems we must solve within the framework of established government, not by revolution.”
Whip said: “Where was the framework of your established government when the late king used to convene his Ball of String Society?”
Micah replied: “That was an aberration. God has surely punished him for that.”
Whip said: “It was the mark of the monarchy. The old fool stood facing a crowd of beautiful women and threw a ball of string at them. He held one end and the girl who caught the ball followed him obediently to bed.”
Micah replied: “I hardly expected you to preach morality.”
Whip said: “I’ll preach anything that will end the monarchy.”
Micah replied: “The one evil thing I did in my life was to ally myself with your grandfather against my own father. God has never forgiven me for this, and I often wake at night in dreadful sweat and lie there for hours reflecting upon the devilish compact I made with Captain Hoxworth. Now you ask me to make a worse with his grandson. I can’t risk any more sleepless nights, Whipple.”
Whip said: “The alliance between you and old Rafer Hoxworth may have been unholy in its inception. But look at the good it’s done Hawaii. The building, the jobs, the ships, the fields. Somebody had to accomplish those things, Uncle Micah. Your influence in doing them the right way was fundamental. Now you have got to ally yourself with me to insure a proper culmination to our revolt.”
Micah replied: “Must a good man always use such evil instruments as you and your grandfather?”
Whip said: “Yes. Because good men never have the courage to act. You can only direct and safeguard movements already set into motion by men like me.”
Micah replied: “I will not compound the evil I did once. I will not help you, Whip.”
Whip said: “You do not hurt me, Uncle Micah, but you destroy the future of these islands.”
He bowed and left his austere uncle. It was nearly three in the morning when he walked down the path to King Street, and his last view of Micah was of the white-bearded old man sitting erect at his desk, staring at his books.
At the secret meeting of the committee held the next day, Sunday, January 15, Wild Whip reported frankly to his conspirators: “Uncle Micah will not join us.”
“Then I can’t either,” said David Hale. Two of the Hewletts also withdrew.
John Janders suggested: “We’d better not try to force the revolution. If Micah Hale’s against it, he might inflame public opinion against us. Then we’d be lost. I’m going to call off tomorrow’s mass meeting.”
There was a buzz of excitement and Wild Whip could feel the resolve of the would-be revolutionists ebbing away like the surf after a high tide. Men in groups were discussing how, having just coached Ed Hewlett in what to tell the mob tomorrow, they must now cancel his oratory.
“You may have misunderstood me,” Whip said quietly. The revolutionists stopped retreating, eager to hear any words of direction. “I meant to say that Uncle Micah will not join us willingly. What I didn’t say was that I shall force his hand, and make him join. Everything goes ahead as planned. In two days, gentlemen, Hawaii will be a republic, and the men in this room will govern it. With Micah Hale as our face to the world.”
“How do you propose accomplishing that?” one of the Hales asked. “If Uncle Micah makes up his mind …”
“Your uncle is a patriot,” Whip replied. “He loves Hawaii and is loyal to it. He will never see these islands disintegrate into formless revolution. He’ll be with us.”
“How will you force his hand?”
“I think we can get the American tro
ops to march ashore tomorrow night … just after the mass meeting. This will accomplish two ends. It will encourage our side and scare hell out of the monarchists. We occupy the government buildings, throw the queen out, and on Monday morning Micah Hale will have to join us.”
“Are you certain of this?” one of the trembling Hales asked.
“I am going to begin drafting the proclamations now,” Whip replied, “for him to sign, and I want David Hale and Micah Whipple to help me.”
The revolution that overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy and passed the government into the hands of the sugar planters was under way. In her palace, the wild-willed queen shuddered as she saw American troops file ashore to invade her territory. She was disposed to fight them, for she knew that this was a cruel perversion of the ordinary relationships between sovereign nations, but the sugar planters quickly immobilized her loyal troops, and she was left defenseless, a stubborn, anachronistic woman in her mid-fifties, regal in appearance but totally unaware that the nineteenth century was ebbing to a close and taking with it the concepts of government to which she adhered.
However, in the dying moments of her reign she was not completely without support, for after her troops were disbanded without firing a shot, a squad of volunteer loyalists materialized from the alleys of Honolulu and marched out to defend their queen. In their ranks, and typical of their quality, waddled the old kanaka maile gatherer, Kimo. He had a musket that he had grabbed from a man in a pool hall and he held his uniform—a pair of sagging pants and that was all—about his waist with a length of red rope. His hair had not been combed for some days, he needed a shave and he was barefooted, but like his companions he gave every evidence of being willing to die for his queen. The sparkling American troops with new rifles watched in amazement as the volunteers marched up to give them battle, but a courageous officer in whites ran unarmed to the leader of the irregulars and said, “There’s no war. The queen has abdicated.”
“She’s what?” the leader of the loyalists asked.
“She’s abdicated,” the young American said. Then he shouted, “Anybody here speak Hawaiian?”
A haole bystander idled up and asked, “What you want, General?”
“Tell these men that there is to be no war. The queen has abdicated.”
“Sure,” the haole agreed. Turning to Kimo and his men he said, “Eh, you kanaka! Liliuokalani pau. She go home. You pau too. You go home.”
And so far as the actual fighting was concerned, in this manner the revolution ended. Kimo trundled his unused musket back to the poolroom and listened to the gibes of his friends. Then in great disturbance of spirit, for he knew that he had participated in the death of a world he had loved—the horses prancing in gold tassels, the royal guard marching in bright uniforms, the queen going forth in a gilt carriage—he walked slowly down Beretania Street and up Nuuanu to the small house where he lived with his wife Apikela and his Chinese family. He went directly to bed and lay there without talking or laughing until he died.
The provisional government, with Micah Hale as ostensible head and the sugar planters directing from behind, swept away the seventeenth-century anachronisms proposed by Queen Liliuokalani. Each act of the efficient new government was directed toward one clear goal: union with America. David Hale and Micah Whipple were rushed to Washington to force a Treaty of Annexation through the Senate before congenial President Harrison and his Republicans left office on March 4, because it was known that the newly elected President, Grover Cleveland, opposed what had been happening in Hawaii; and soon frantic appeals for moral support were speeding back to Honolulu, for the treaty commissioners Hale and Whipple reported: “There is considerable opposition to the manner in which the revolution was carried out. Cannot Micah Hale make a strong statement, relying upon his faultless reputation to give it force? Else we are lost.”
It was under these circumstances, in February, 1893, that Micah Hale retired to his study on King Street and wrote for a New York journal: “Any sane man looking at these islands today has got to admit that they require supervision by the United States of America. The indigenous citizens are for the most part illiterate, steeped in idolatry, committed to vain shows of monarchical display and totally unsuited to govern themselves.” In these harsh but true words, the son of a missionary, in his seventy-first year, summarized what his group had accomplished; but since he wrote as a profound patriot and as one who loved Hawaii above all else, he did not understand what he was saying. Furthermore, he went on to point out a great truth that others both in Hawaii and America were overlooking: “Hawaii cannot lie idle and unwanted in the middle of the Pacific. The islands seem to lie close to America, but they also lie close to Canada and on the route from that great land to Australia and New Zealand. There is every reason for Hawaii to become Canadian. They also lie close to Russia-in-Asia and except for an accident of history might even now belong to that great power. And to anyone who has sailed from Honolulu to Yokohama or to Shanghai, these islands lie perilously close to Japan and China. For more than half a century I have believed that their destiny lies with America, but it is not as I once thought an inevitable destiny. If at this crucial moment of history, our logical destiny is frustrated, an illogical one will triumph and Hawaii, the gem of the Pacific, will belong to Canada or to Russia or to Japan. It is to prevent such a catastrophe that we pray for the United States to accept us now.” This widely reprinted article was taken from the Hale mansion on King Street by Wild Whip Hoxworth and delivered to one of his ships waiting in the harbor, but as old Micah Hale handed it to his nephew, he was freshly appalled that he should be using such an evil agent to accomplish so good a purpose.
Micah’s plea achieved nothing, for Louisiana and Colorado sugar interests prevented the lame-duck Senate of February, 1893, from jamming the Treaty of Annexation through, and five days after Grover Cleveland assumed the Presidency he sternly withdrew the treaty and rebuked those who had sought to foist it upon the American public. Now doleful news reached Hawaii. The Secretary of State wrote: “The United States will not accept the Hawaiian Islands on the terms under which they have been offered. It would lower our national standard to endorse a selfish and dishonorable scheme of a lot of adventurers. I oppose taking these islands by force and fraud, for there is such a thing as international morality.”
President Cleveland was of a similar opinion and personally dispatched an investigator to Honolulu to inquire into America’s role in the unsavory revolution, and by one of the tricks of history the investigator turned out to be a Democrat from Georgia and a member of a family that had once held slaves. When preliminary news of his appointment reached Hawaii, the Committee of Nine were apprehensive lest he report against them, but when his slave-holding status was revealed, they sighed with visible relief. “As a good Southerner he’ll understand our problems,” John Janders told the conspirators, and they all agreed.
But Whip Hoxworth, considering the matter carefully, judged: “We may be in for deep trouble. Since Cleveland’s investigator comes from Georgia, he probably despises niggers.”
“Of course he does,” Janders agreed. “He’ll see through these Hawaiians right away.”
“I doubt it,” Whip cautioned. “Granted that he hates niggers. As a sensible human being he’ll try to compensate and prove that he doesn’t hate other people with dark skins.”
“Why would he do that?” Janders demanded.
“Don’t ask me why!” Whip replied. “Just watch.”
And when the investigator arrived he did exactly as Whip had predicted. Hating Negroes at home, he had to like Hawaiians abroad. It was a profound compulsion and it permitted him, a Georgia man, to understand the revolution better than any other American understood it at the time. He talked principally with Hawaiians, was bedazzled by the idea of speaking directly with a queen, became an ardent royalist, and suppressed evidence given by white men. His report to President Cleveland was a crushing rebuke to the sugar men; they had, he discovered, con
spired with the American Minister to overthrow a duly constituted government; they had worked in league with the captain of an American vessel; they had deposed the queen against the will of the Hawaiian people; they had done all this for personal gain; and it was his opinion that Queen Liliuokalani, a virtuous woman, should be restored to her throne.
His report aroused such a storm in Washington that David Hale and Micah Whipple saw there was no hope of forcing the United States to accept Hawaii, and they returned to Honolulu with the glum prediction: “We will never become part of America while Grover Cleveland is President. His Secretary of State is already asking, ‘Should not the great wrong done to a feeble state by an abuse of the authority of the United States be undone by restoring the legitimate government?’ There’s even talk of restoring the queen by force of American arms.”
“What would happen to us?” members of the Committee asked.
“Since you’re American subjects,” a consular official explained, “you’d be arrested, hauled off to Washington, and tried for conspiring to overthrow a friendly power.”
“Oh, no!” the conspirators protested. “We’re Hawaiian subjects. Our citizenship is here.”
September and October, 1893, were uneasy months in Hawaii, and Wild Whip’s gang maintained power by only a nervous margin. Each arriving ship brought ominous news from Washington, where sentiment had swung strongly in favor of Queen Liliuokalani, and it was generally assumed that she would shortly be restored to power; but just before this was about to occur the obstinate woman committed an act so appalling to the Americans that she forever discredited the monarchy. What Wild Whip had been unable to gain for himself, the queen won for him.
Late in the year President Cleveland dispatched a second investigator to check upon the specific terms under which Liliuokalani should be returned to her throne, for as Cleveland pointed out, America never wished to profit from the misfortunes of her neighbors. The new investigator plunged the Committee of Nine into despair by announcing that the annexation of Hawaii by America was no longer even under discussion, whereupon he entered into formal discussions with the queen as to what steps she wanted America to take in restoring her crown.
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