Craig Space / Historia: Hawaiian Cry for Freedom

Hawaiian Cry for Freedom

"And just here let me say that I have felt much perplexity over the attitude of the American press, that great vehicle of information for the people, in respect of Hawaiian affairs.

Shakespeare has said it is excellent to have a giant's strength, but it is tyrranous to use it like a giant. It is not merely that, with few exceptions the press has seemed to favour the extinction of Hawaiian sovereignty, but that it has often treated me with coarse allusions and flippancy, and almost uniformly has commented upon me adversely, or has declined to publish letters from myself and friends conveying correct information upon matters which other correspondents had, either wilfully or through being deceived, misrepresented."
 (Hawaii's Story, page 370)

Liliuokalani made a last-ditch attempt at saving her people's freedom and sovereignty. She set sail for Washington, the home of Western democracy, filled with hope that she could appeal to the better nature of the American people. She thought that she could call on Americans, citizens of one of the only nations in the world successfully experimenting with democracy, to uphold their own noble ideals when it came to dealing with other societies.

Not everyone she approached wore red-white-and-blue coloured blinkers. Some of the press she received was honest. The American businessmen with interests in Honolulu were crassly opportunistic and devoted to their own power and wealth. They couldn't have cared less about democracy or any of the reasons they officially gave for their "revolution". Some reporters were aware of this

"The government of the Sandwich Islands (the old European name for Hawaii) appears to have passed from the hands of the king into the hands of a military oligarchy that is more domineering than Kalakaua ever was. Before the recent revolt of the Europeans in Honolulu the press of the city was very plain-spoken. It printed unadorned truths about the king, and the latter made no effort to suppress such unpleasant utterances. Now, under the new regime, the newspapers are kept in check with military thoroughness. It seems incredible, but it is an actual fact, that not one of the Honolulu journals dared to reprint the comments of the American (!) press on the so-called revolution, although such comment would have been very interesting reading to all Hawaiians. Even the reports of court proceedings are dry and matter-of-fact records, very different from the ordinary accounts. In a word, the freedom of the press of Honolulu is a myth under the reform party, and the man who looks for the facts in the Honolulu journals will not find them.
>From the San Francisco Chronicle, Monday, September 5th, 1887
Quoted in "Hawaii's Story", Appendix A

She wrote a book ("Hawaii's Story"), and tried to solicit support from prominent American politicians. Of course, Liliuokalani's valiant efforts failed, and her people's interests were ignored.

"For four years and more, now, these people have confiscated and collected the revenues reserved from all time in order that the chief highest in rank, that is, the reigning sovereign, might care for his poorer people. Never were the revenues of these lands included in government accounts. They comprise 915,000 acres out of a total extent of four millions, or about one-quarter, and yield an income of about $50,000 a year.

They are by legislative act and the rulings of the Supreme Court my own property at this day. But notwithstanding this, the doctrine that might makes right seems to prevail; and not content with depriving me of my income, and employing it to forward their own schemes, the present government is now striving to cede these lands, which they do not own and never can own, to the United States.
(Hawaii's Story, page 260)




Sources and Reading

Source for Quoted Text and Photographs:
"Hawaii's Story: By Hawaii's Queen", by Liliuokalani. First published 1898 by Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Co., Boston. Reprinted by Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc., Vermont, 1977.

Source for Other Images:
"The Legends and Myths of Hawaii", by His Hawaiian Majesty, Kalakaua. First published 1888. Reprinted by Mutual Publishing, Honolulu, 1990 .

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