Statewide County HI Archives News.....Important People - Part 20. August 13, 2008 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/hi/hifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 August 12, 2008, 9:16 pm Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands August 13, 2008 Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E.Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 August 13, 2008. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Hawai'i Keepers of the Culture A Study in Time, of the Hawai'ian Islands Important People - part 20. by Darlene E. Kelley ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Part 20. Important People -- Kamehameha II LIHOLIHO (1796 -1824 ) Son of Kamehameha I by Keopuolani, Liholiho was somewhat spoiled in the Court. When his father died in the critical year of 1819, Liholiho was told by the favorite queen, Kaahumanu, that by the will of Kamehameha I, she was to share the kingdom as kuhina nui or joint ruler. Liholiho and his advisors soon overthrew the ancient kapu system by having men and women of the court, eat at the same table. At the end of this ceremony, he announced that the heiau temples should be destroyed and all the old idols overthrown. A chief named Kekuaokalani led a brief revolt but was defeated and killed by royal forces led by Kalanimoku. The reign of Kamehameha II was notd for the large income to the chiefs from the trade in sandalwood and for the beginning of whaling in the islands. The arrival in 1820 of the first company of American missionaries added to the problems of the kingdom. Liholiho also led a stormy voyage to Kaua'i and brought back as his vassel the king to that island, Kaumualii. He believed lie his father, that his kingdom was under the protection of Great Britain, and decided to visit the capital of that country to increase his knowledge of the world. He left in the English whaling ship, L'Aigle on November 27, 1823, along with his favorite wife, Kamamalu, Governor Boki of O'ahu and his wife Liliha, Kekuanaoa, and several other chiefs, and his secretary, a Fenchman named John Rives. The ship arrived in England in May, 1824, and the Captain led the group to London. Here they were lodged in a luxury hotel and the government of King George IV planned for them a program of royal entertainment. Sadly, the party was attacked by a disease unknown to them ---- measles --- and dispite every care, Kamamalu died on July 8. Liholiho,stricken with grief as well as the disease, died on July 14, after a short but importantant reign. The bodies were brought back to the islands on a British vessel commanded by Lord Byron. +++++++++++++++ KAMEHAMEHA III [ KAUIKEAOULI ] ( 1813-1854 ) The ruler who held the throne of the islands for the longest reign in history, was a son of Kamehameha I and Keopuolani and a younger brother of Kamehameha II . He was nine years old when his brother left for England, naming him heir to the monarchy, and was proclaimed king in 1825 under a regency with Kaahumanu as kuhina nui. When she was succeeded by Kinau, the young man threw off the control of his half-sister and began a two year period of dissipation; gambling, drunkeness, and dancing the hula were a reaction to the puritanism preached by the American missionaries. However, the king was reconciled to Kinau and the council of chiefs began to face the need for written laws to control growing problems ----- ---- especially those caused by the increasing settlement of foreigners in the kingdom. As early as 1836 the chiefs empoyed William Richards to teach them political science. The first result was the declaration of rights of June 7, 1839, which has been called the Hawai'ian Magna Charta. Persecution of Catholics was stopped when the king issued an oral " edict of toleration " the same month . The rights of residents were repeated in the Constitution of 1840, the first of several such documents, which was signed by the king on October 8. Other improvements in government was carried out. In 1842, the king appointed a treasury board consisting of Dr. Geit P. Judd, Timothy Haalilo, and John Young II that separated the prvate property and reformed the system of taxation; by 1846 the national debt was paid off. John Ricord was appointed attorney general in 1844, and worked out a series of organic acts that included the " Great Mahele," the first legal basis for land ownership in the kingdom. In 1846 the executive branch was organized and divided into five departments with a minister in charge of each; Robert C Wyllie, who had taken over from Dr.Judd in 1845, was the first minister of foreign relations. The third organic act made badly, needed improvements in the judiciary system; the work of Ricord was completed by a young American lawyer, Willam L.Lee also incorporated many political gains in th Constitution of 1852. The need for international recognition of Hawai'i's independence was even more pressing, and a series of threatening visits by French gunboats under the command of Captains like -- " A. du Petit-Thouars (1838), C. P. T. LaPlace ( 1839 ), S.Mallet (1842) Legoarant de Tromelin (1849), and Louis Emile Perrin ( 1851 ), made it appear that Hawai'i was doomed to become a colony of France, as had happened to the Society and Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific. Moreover, for five months in 1843, Hawai'i was annexed by the British Empire under the domination of Lord George Paulet. The threat of a takeover by American filibusters in 1851 was averted by the strong action by Marshall William C. Parke. The question of annexation by the United States was first discussed during the trouble year of 1853, but the death of the king the following year, put an eed to this possibility for decades. During the long reign of Kamehameha III the economy of the kingdom was put on a much firmer footing. It saw the decline of the sandelwood trade, the rise and decline of whaling, and the rise of the profitable sugar growing industry that is still important today. Churches and schools were built, and life in the islands was influenced even more than before by foreign customs. Kamehameha III married Kalama on February 14, 1837, but they were childless, and at his death, the throne was occupied by his named sucessor, his younger nephew Alexander Liholiho, who became Kamehameha IV. ++++++++++++++++++ KAMEHAMEHA IV [ALEXANDER LIHOLIHO] (1834 -1863 ) Son of Mataio Kekuanaoa and Kinau, grandson of Kamehameha I, Alexander was the younger brother of Lot Kamehameha ( Kamehameha V) and elder brother of Victoria Kamamalu. Lke his brother Lot, Alexander attended the Royal School and went with Dr. G.P. Judd on a mission to Paris, London, and the United States. During his visit to New York City, the young prince had been mistaken for a servant by a railway conductor and ordered out of the car. His anger at racial discrimination was deepened by fear that his country might be taken over by th United Sttes as part of its " manifest destiny." and he gradually swung away from using Americans as his closest advisors and toward a revival of British influence in the kingdom. Alexander was proclaimed king at the death of his uncle, Kamehameha III, in December, 1854. An early event of the reign was the marriage of the king on June 19,1856, to Emma, to whom he had long been engaged. She had been adopted as a child by Dr.T.C.B. Rooke, an English medical man who had married Emma's aunt, and she also inclined toward the British way of life. Emma was thereafter to play an important role in Hawai'ian politics. The birth of a son, Albert, was an even more joyous event for the royal couple, who held court in European style. Like his brother Lot, Kamehameha IV was concerned about the decimation of his subjects by disease, and on April 20, 1859, signed a law setting up a hospital in Honolulu for sick and destitute Hawai'ians. Along with Emma, he personally solicited funds to erect the Queen's Hosptal, named in her honor; this building was the first to stand on the same site in downtown Honolulu. This hospital, of which Dr. Willam Hillebrand was the first head, is one of the two monuments to the reign of Kamehameha IV. The other is the establishment of the Anglican Church in Hawai'i, under the direction of Thomas N. Staley. The king was an intelligent and articulate gentleman, fluent in both English and Hawai'ian, and translated into the latter language the English Book of Common Prayer. The reign was marred by a personal scandal at Lahaina when the king, unjustifiably jealous, shot and wounded his secretary, a young American named Henry A. Neilson. Remorse over this affair was aggravated by grief when the promising little prince died in August, 1862. Weakened by asthma and sorrow, Alexander Liholiho died on November 30, 1863, at the age of twenty-nine, and was succeeded by his elder brother, Lot Kamehameha as Kamehameha V. ++++++++++++++ Kamehameha V [ Lot Kamehameha ] (1830-1872) Son of Mataio Kekuanaoa and Kinau, Lot was four years older than his brother Kamehameha IV, and like him was to reign for nine years. Lot attended the Royal School and along with his brother accompanied Dr. Judd on a mission to paris, London, and the United States. During the last six years of hs brother's reign he served as a minister of the interior and for more than a year as minister of finance. He traveled in 1850 to the Pacific Coast to visit Califoria and British Columbia. Lot was the first president of a graziers' association started on O'ahu in 1856 to promote the cattle industry. When Kamehameha IV died on November 30, 1863, Lot was immediately proclaimed his successor. Kamehameha V has been called " the last great chief of the olden type." He believed that the example of his grandfather Kamehameha I, gave him the right to lead the Hawai'ian people personally, and favored a stronger monarchy that verged on despotism. He was, however, a kidly despot, and wanted to protect his subjects from waste and idleness. When it was proposed that the law against selling strong liquor to Hawai'ians should be repealed, he defeated the proposal by saying, " I will never sign the death warrant of my people." He tried to restrict hula dances and other parties that would keep workers away from their crops He liked to visit his friend John Cummins at his plantation at Waimanalo, and to avoid the harsh Pali trail, he purchased a small steamboat in which to ride aound the shore in royal style. He also had a small railway built between the boat landing and Cummin;s house. " There was no trivial royal nonsense about him, " wrote Mark Twain on Kamehameha V in 1866; " he dressed plainly, poked about Honolulu, night or day, on his old horse, unattended; he was popular, greatly respected, and even beloved." Lot Kamehameha's action in 1864 resulted in the formation of two political parties in the kingdom. On August 13, when it appeared that a new constitution could not be agreed on, he declared that the constitution of 1852 should be replaced by one he wrote himself. Although the constitution of 1864 freed the king from the control of the privy council and the kuhina nui and limited the privilege of voting, the new law remained in force for twenty three years --- a longer period than that of any other constitution before annexation. Only one minor ammendment was made during the reign. But a strengthening of the throne at this time aroused opposition that eventually overthrew the monarchy. Kamehameha V was known as "the bachelor King." His sister, Victoria Kamamalu, was named as his successor, but she died in 1866 and it was often suggested that he should marry and give the kingdom an heir. It is said in his youth he was engaged to marry Bernice Pauahi, but she chose instead to marry Charles Reed Bishop. An hour before his death on December 11, 1872, Lot called Bernice to his bedside and asked that she become his successor, but she modestly declined his offer. The King's body lay in state in the shadow of dark kahili standards, and was then conveyed to the Royal Mausoleum. The decision of Kamehameha V not to name a successor to the throne resulted in invoking the constitutional provision for electing Kings of Hawai'i. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ To be continued in part 21. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/statewide/newspapers/importan41nnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/hifiles/ File size: 12.7 Kb