Hello! Hello! Hello! Welcome to episode 29 of We Don’t Talk About P-word! Today, we continue the commemoration of our 50th state’s path to statehood. Welcome to the fourth installment of our celebration of Paradise.

Last week, we ended with Kalakaua elected as King of Hawaii. Following the Courthouse Riots, tensions were high. They wanted to formalize his reign immediately, so he was sworn in the day after the election. The speed at which they moved meant that there was no time for an official coronation. 

Kalakaua did not want to make the same mistakes as his predecessors. He immediately named his brother, Leleiohoku II, as his successor. Later, after his brother’s death, he would name his sister Lili’uokalani. 

Like Lunalilo, Kalakaua recognized the need to improve the Hawaiian economy. In 1875, he led a delegation to Washington D.C., leaving his brother in charge as regent. His visit was historic, being the first reigning monarch to visit the United States. He was also the honoree at the very first White House state dinner hosted by President Ulysses Grant. 

Why did he take this historic trip, you ask? Also, like Lunalilo and Alexander before him, he wanted a reciprocity agreement.

The biggest sticking point for any reciprocity agreement had always been about land. The United States wanted Pu’uloa. They had been after it since the 1850s and insisted on the cession of the land. Hawaii only wanted to let them lease it. This is what ended the pursuit of a reciprocity agreement under Kamehameha III. 

The United States saw Pu’uloa as a strategic location for protecting its interests in the east. The Hawaiian people feared that ceding any land would result in eventual annexation. The business community pushed hard for the treaty and was willing to cede land to get it. Kalakaua’s election platform had been “Hawaii for Hawaiians.” He couldn’t easily change that stance, but he agreed to go because of the urgings of the business community. 

Fortunately for Kalakaua, he did not have to renege on his campaign promise. He was able to achieve a reciprocity agreement without ceding land. Some Hawaiian goods like rice and sugar would be imported to the United States tax-free. In exchange, American goods would not be subject to import taxes in Hawaii. The deal also stated that only American goods could enter Hawaii duty-free. This benefited US manufacturing, letting them earn more profit than other nations. 

In Hawaii, the treaty had overwhelming support. In the United States, it was heavily debated. Sugar-producing states in the South were against the treaty. Others argued that the government was subsidizing Hawaiian sugar planters. The other side argued that it protected the United States' strategic interests. There was a fear that not ratifying it would force Hawaii into another nation’s orbit. It also opened new markets for American goods.
The treaty was signed in May of 1876, and sugar planters raced to get more land in Hawaii, eager to reap the benefits.

In 1881, Kalakaua again left the islands. The expanded sugar industry and declining native population had created a labor shortage. The king launched a campaign to encourage contract laborers to immigrate to Hawaii. He decided to travel the world and extol the island paradise. He left his sister Lili’uokalani as regent, as their brother had passed away due to rheumatic fever in 1877.

Though he sailed to San Francisco first, his trip officially began in Japan. The Hawaiian mission was welcomed with all the pomp a king would expect. Emperor Mutsuhito (posthumously renamed Emperor Meiji) ruled China at the time. During his visit, it was obvious that Western encroachment was on his mind.

While in Japan, Kalakaua made three proposals to the Japanese emperor. The first was for a league of Asian nations to counter Europe. The emperor informed him that the Asian nations were far from unified. Within the next twenty-five years, Japan would fight a war with both China and Russia. Both were overwhelming victories for Japan. 

Second, Kalakaua proposed marriage between his niece and the emperor’s son. The request went unanswered. Based on the customs of the time, it was unlikely the emperor even entertained it. Political situations may have also had him worried. The marriage might have antagonized Western powers. 

Third, Kalakaua expressed interest in an undersea telegraph cable connecting the nations. Nothing came of these proposals, but they were well received. The visit was cut short by news of the assassination of Czar Alexander II of Russia.

Leaving Japan, the Hawaiians set off on their continuing journey around the world. They gained success in Portugal, negotiating an expansion to their current treaty. Finally, they headed for the United States. Here, Kalakaua visited the now-elevated President Chester Arthur. He had become President within the previous week following President Garfield’s assassination. He also met Thomas Edison, who captivated him with his work on the electric lightbulb. He concluded his trip by traveling across the US to San Francisco before heading home. 

Throughout this trip, they were well received by leadership and the public alike. Although, they were still subject to the bigotry of the time. All told Kalakaua set foot in nineteen nations and once again made history. He became the first reigning monarch to circumnavigate the world. During his travels, he also sat in on court and government proceedings. He immersed himself in their customs and religions. 

The Hawaiian people questioned the purpose of this trip. Many thought it was a leisure cruise. Some thought that he was shopping Hawaii out to other nations. Regardless, they celebrated his homecoming for days.

Kalakaua was an optimistic, fun-loving monarch who loved the pomp of being king. He earned his nickname of the Merry Monarch. He enjoyed a good party with all the music and dancing. He was an early adopter of the ukulele and became proficient after it arrived on the islands. He brought back the hula, which had been illegal since the reign of Kamehameha the Great. He brought back the meles and chants of Ancient Hawaii. He ensured they were not only preserved but also practiced.

Flattery and blind loyalty would get you everywhere with Kalakaua. This often attracted friends with more plans than follow-through. When you surround yourself with friends like that, you are asking for trouble. That trouble is exactly what these friends would cause him throughout his reign. For many, they saw this as a lack of good judgment, which is a skill usually desired in a monarch. 

One of these “friends” he met while negotiating the Reciprocity Treaty in 1874. Italian Celso Moreno was the type that tried to make himself more important than he was. He would claim friendships with influential people who he had never met or who preferred not to know him.

Moreno had recently presented a grand plan to Congress. He proposed laying an underwater telegraph cable connecting Asia. Nothing ever came of the legislation passed by Congress, as he didn’t have access to the funds that he said he did. Even so, Kalakaua was enchanted by the boisterous adventurer. He arrived in Hawaii in late 1879 and enthralled Kalakaua with his stories and grand schemes. The people of Hawaii saw right through him.

The king would support Moreno’s schemes and the legislature would strike them down. In one such scheme, Moreno claimed James Garfield supported his telegraph idea. Garfield, who was in the House of Representatives at the time, strongly denied it. 

Finally, Moreno settled on opium. He pushed for bills that would allow for its distribution. At first, the legislature was against it, but after the king demanded its passage, they agreed. Public outcry ended up forcing the king to veto the first two most liberal drafts of the bill. Instead, a third bill was introduced that liberalized the existing opium laws. They postponed the debate, and the bill was put on hold.

Because they denied him, the king decided to go after his cabinet. He moved for a no-confidence vote to remove them. This was not popular with the legislature, but Kalakaua did it anyway. The same day, he appointed a new cabinet. Celso Moreno became foreign minister, having been naturalized only that morning. Eventually, Moreno would resign, but not before dividing the white and native communities. Natives believed in the ultimate power of the king. The white community believed in the will of the people, or more accurately, the will of the wealthy. They wanted the entire cabinet dismissed, not just Moreno.

Moreno, always the charlatan, tried to use that to his benefit, but the natives were not having it. He left Hawaii, but he wasn’t done; the king gave him a secret mission to negotiate with other nations. It didn't take long for this to come to light. Claus Spreckels convinced the king that his decisions had made him a laughingstock. (Spreckels was another one of... those friends, but we’ll discuss him more in a moment.) In response, he dismissed his cabinet and canceled Moreno’s commission. The new cabinet he appointed contained no native Hawaiians. 

One would think this would be the end of Moreno. It wasn't. He was still conducting one final mission. He was the ward for several Hawaiian students studying abroad in Italy. During the king’s 1881 trip around the world, he found that Moreno had been using his name to gain favor. He also lied about the king’s relationship with the Hawaiian students. As a result, he was finally dismissed from service to Hawaii.

Around the same time that Celso Moreno came into Kalakaua’s life, so did Claus Spreckels. Claus was born in Germany but came to the United States as an adult. By this point in history, he had become a successful businessman in San Francisco. As a sugar refiner, he opposed the reciprocity agreement with Hawaii. Once it passed, he decided “if you can’t beat them, join them.” He purchased and leased land in Hawaii, and in 1878, he moved there to start Spreckelsville. I know. You are thinking, “No way that’s the real name,” but it was. Spreckelsville was a company, town, and sugar plantation. It would become the largest sugarcane plantation in the world.

He had money and unwavering loyalty to the crown, which were two things admired by the king. Spreckels became close friends with Kalakaua. This put him in proximity to his Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the two of them began a scheme to defraud the crown. Spreckels would lend the king money. The crown would increase his land holdings and water rights. A later scheme would lead to Spreckels falling out of favor. He was later driven out of Hawaii when he found a death threat graffitied on his house.

The last friend I want to highlight is… well, let’s say I saved the worst for last. Walter Gibson was an American adventurer always looking for his fortune. He didn’t care how he achieved it. He ran guns in the Caribbean and was imprisoned in the East Indies for fomenting rebellion. He received a death sentence but escaped. While in prison, he claimed to have a vision from God. He said he was told to “build up a kingdom in these isles, whose lines of power shall run around the earth.”

He joined the Church of Latter-Day Saints and convinced Brigham Young to let him start a colony in Hawaii. He bamboozled Young from the start. He arrived in Hawaii in 1861, and bought land with money provided by the church in his own name. He was accused of maladministration, embezzlement, and preaching false doctrine. This resulted in his excommunication from the church. Gibson then purchased a newspaper in Hawaii. From here, he launched his quest to achieve political prominence. 

His pro-monarchy and pro-Hawaii views endeared him to the King. They became friends, and Gibson was appointed the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1882. In this role, he helped Claus Spreckels increase both of their fortunes. By 1886, he would become Prime Minister. Gibson, more than most, hastened the end of the Kingdom of Hawaii. 

The return of the king to Hawaii from his trip around the world was a cause of great celebration. The party went on for days after, but not all were celebrating. A reverend was preaching racism from the pulpit. He linked Hawaii’s ongoing struggle with leprosy to moral inferiority. You know, it definitely wasn’t the Europeans bringing it to an isolated nation. He equated music, revelry, and song to moral degradation. This became a common racist trope uttered by those later known as the Missionary political Party.
While he was away, his sister the Princess Regent had served her people well. While leading the kingdom, she had to deal with a smallpox outbreak and the eruption of Mauna Loa. The eruption spewed lava for many months, endangering cities like Hilo. 

Soon after his return, the King decided that he wanted a grand palace like the Monarchs of the world. The dilapidated termite ridden Iolani Palace was no longer cutting it. Walter Gibson encouraged him. Serving in the legislature, he pushed through appropriations for its construction. He did this for many of the king’s pet projects, which further endeared him to the monarch.

In the 1882 elections, Gibson made a strong showing with the help of his newspaper empire. Once the legislature reconvened, Gibson attacked the lame-duck cabinet. It was no longer supported by the legislature. The ministers resigned, and the King allowed Gibson to name their replacements. He assigned himself the dual role of Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs. 

Like Moreno before, many Hawaiians did not trust Gibson and his motivations. His support for the king’s reckless and indulgent spending was not popular. One of these passion projects was the before-mentioned reconstruction of Iolani Palace. A wooden home built in 1844, it was in serious disrepair by Kalakaua’s reign. At a cost of $340,000 to renovate, it was not a popular project. To put it in perspective, that would be over ten million dollars in today’s terms.

Iolani Palace was designed and rebuilt in a Western style. Aside from Hawaiian artifacts on display, it was indistinguishable from a European palace. After meeting Thomas Edison during his travels, Kalakaua became obsessed with electricity. As a result, Iolani Palace became the first place in Hawaii to have electric lights. Upon its completion in 1882, he held a party for his Freemason lodge to celebrate. 

Two months later with Gibson's support, the king made another controversial decision. He determined that he had waited long enough for a coronation. Since he had been hastily crowned in 1874, he never got to enjoy the pomp of a coronation. The result was a grand ceremony and festivities that lasted two weeks. It included nightly hula performances, balls, and horse races. It ended with an enormous luau where five thousand people feasted. The final cost is unknown but estimated to have exceeded $50,000, or roughly $1.5 million today. 

The coronation was controversial and not supported by all. The white community was the most outraged, calling it a waste of the nation’s funds. Some called it a bizarre melding of Hawaiian and Western cultures. Those who supported the king said it was necessary to rouse Hawaiian pride. To be honest, it was a mixture of all the above. 

The monarchy was feeling the pressure of the white community to abolish it. The king hoped a fun party would shift public support. Unfortunately, it became a political football, easily tossed around by his adversaries. The newspapers, mostly controlled by whites, used the coronation to ridicule the monarchy. The religious used it to frame Hawaiian culture as ‘pagan practices’. Racists, prevalent in each, used caricature and satire to belittle Kalakaua.

Following the coronation, a series of bad choices plagued the King. Of course, Gibson supported them all. A Hawaiian coinage scheme failed because the business community refused to use them. The outcome enhanced Spreckels and Gibson’s fortunes, but not so much Kalakaua’s. In 1886, a birthday party for the King was thrown. The legislature approved $15,000 for the party, but it ended up costing $75,000. That’s almost $2.5 million today. Early in his reign, Kalakaua reconstituted the military. Throughout his reign, the military was manipulated through legislation. These changes would increase, decrease, and change the leaders and number of units. This would eventually result in a military unit controlled by the white community.

The beginning of the end for the kingdom of Hawaii came in 1887. There was a standoff in the Polynesian kingdom of Samoa. It was between Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Germans arrived, looking to expand their empire. They fueled a civil war that alarmed other Western powers. This was out of their own selfish intentions, of course. With little way to oppose them, Germany took control of the island nation.

Kalakaua was always looking to form an alliance to counter Western expansion. He watched these events closely. He tried to insert himself into the talks between the three powers. The offer was initially laughed at and then ignored. Kalakaua was warned to stay out of it, but the king, always supported by Gibson, decided to make a move anyway. Money, a warship (built over budget), and a delegation prepared to travel to Samoa. 

This delegation caused more issues than it helped. It raised tensions between Hawaii and Germany that almost led to war. It complicated political matters between all parties and the United States. Eventually, the crew’s conduct would embarrass Hawaii. They were guilty of heavy drinking, being a general nuisance, and mutiny. Years later, the situation would devolve, and the kingdom of Samoa would be no more. Instead, split in two, it would become protectorates of both Germany and the United States.

Early in 1887, another unpopular event would weaken the monarchy. The Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 expired in 1882. The United States saw no benefit to new negotiations at the time, so it continued on a year-to-year basis. Due to changes in tariffs in the US, Hawaii looked to renegotiate in 1884. By this point, Hawaii was dependent on the United States for its economy, and the United States knew it. As a result, the United States got what they wanted. In exchange for a new treaty, they received exclusive use of Pu’uloa. Here, they would set up a ship coaling and repair station. This would be the future site of Pearl Harbor.

While the Samoa crisis was unfolding, reports surfaced of the king’s acceptance of a bribe. It came from a Chinese opium business hoping for favorable legislation. This was the final straw for the white community in Hawaii, and they saw this as an opportunity to weaken the king. They formed a secret organization called the Hawaiian League. Their goal was a Constitutional, representative government. They quietly took control of the Honolulu Rifles, an all-white militia.

At the same time, merchants began importing crates of rifles. The purpose was to arm like-minded citizens. When the king heard of this, he became concerned. He sought counsel from the American Minister to Hawaii, who told the king what he already knew. The League demanded the removal of the cabinet. The king did so, but it was a hollow request and changed nothing. They held a mass meeting, while the king called the Honolulu Rifles to secure the peace. He attempted to appease the mob but to no avail. A league-approved cabinet was installed and a new constitution written. Realizing he had been outplayed, the king signed the Constitution.

From this point on, the King was no more than a figurehead. Elected officials conducted all government work. The king could veto legislation, but it could be overridden. He could appoint a cabinet but could not call for their resignation. The nobles lost power and were subject to election.

The right to vote became more of a privilege. They added property requirements and literacy tests. Asians were blanket-banned from voting. The legislature authorized dual citizens to hold office. This left wealthy Hawaiians and the white community in control of the government. The new constitution would become known as the Bayonet Constitution. This is in reference to the threat of force used to enact it. It was the first overt action to overthrow the Hawaiian kingdom. 

Gibson was arrested and eventually fled to California, where he died soon after.

In 1889, Robert Wilcox led a revolt to restore the previous constitution. He was one of the students that had studied abroad as a ward of Celso Moreno. He had learned the ways of war in Italy. The king was afraid Wilcox wished to make him abdicate in favor of his sister. As a result, he was not at the palace when it launched. The Honolulu Rifles quelled the rebellion after a fierce battle. Wilcox was arrested and tried. He was found innocent by a jury of his peers and would go on to form a political party to protest the changes. Though popular, it never had widespread support. They were unable to rival the power of the corporate and religious parties.

Most say that the King was never the same again. The Merry Monarch no longer merry, Kalakaua’s health declined. In late 1890, he set sail for California to rest and recuperate, once again leaving his sister in charge. While traveling in California, the king suffered a stroke and lapsed into a coma on January 18, 1891. Two days later, Kalakaua, the last king of Hawaii, died.

On January 29, 1891, Lili’uokalani ascended to the throne as the first ruling Queen of Hawaii. She would also be its last monarch.