Provisional Government of Hawaii

Provisional Government of Hawaiʻi Aupuni Kūikawā o Hawaiʻi
← 1893–1894 →
Flag
Provisional Government of Hawaii
Capital	Honolulu
Language(s)	Hawaiian, English
Government	Provisional government
Provisional Government
- 1893-1894	Committee of Safety
Historical era	New Imperialism
- Monarchy overthrown	January 17, 1893
- Republic declared	July 4, 1894
Currency	Hawaiian dollar, U.S. dollar

Provisional Government cabinet, (left to right) James A. King, Sanford B. Dole, W. O. Smith and P. C. Jones

The Provisional Government of Hawaiʻi abbreviated "P.G." was proclaimed on January 17, 1893 by the 13 member Committee of Safety under the leadership of 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.

Provisional Government

Following the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and the establishment of the Provisional Government in Hawaiʻi, a commission including 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 DC 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 Harris 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, commanded by Hugh Gunn; and C Company made up of ethnic Portuguese volunteers, commanded by Joseph M. Camara. The regulars were D company made up, like B Company, from the Honolulu Rifles, commanded by John Good.

The military was active under the Provisional Government of Hawaii where 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 companies entered the Army National Guard system and became part of the Hawaii Army National Guard.

Home front

Under the new administration the Government was made more restrictive, including denying citizenship to Chinese immigrants. The Hawai'i Department of Education drove 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 Blount Report.^{[citation needed]}

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 with the Newlands Resolution.

See also

History of Hawaii
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