Sanford Dole

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Sanford Dole was a leader in the Committee of Safety that overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom. In 1893, the Committee of Safety conspired with American minister John L. Stevens. Stevens ordered the American troops in Honolulu Harbor to come ashore and seize the Royal Palace by force.

Queen Liliuokalani, wanting to avoid the bloodshed of her people peacefully complied with the revolutionist’s demands. The Queen went to Washington and appealed to the American President, Grover Cleveland. After his own investigation Cleveland declared, the overthrow had been an act of war against the Hawaiian Kingdom. Cleveland ordered Sanford Dole, the President of the newly formed republic, to reinstate Queen Liliuokalani to her rightful thrown.

Dole refused, insolently accusing President Cleveland of interfering. Dole remained the illegitimate political leader of Hawaii, until Cleveland was elected out of office. In 1898, only five years after Queen Liliuokalani had been deposed with support from the American military and acknowledge as the rightful ruler. The newly elected American president William McKinley signed the Newsland Resolution that annexed Hawaii and made it a territory of the United States. Ending any legal or military possibility of restoring the Queen and the Hawaiian Kingdom.



Sanford Dole was a among a group of businessmen, mostly descendants of New England Missionaries to Hawaii in the late 19th Century.

They conspired and then proceeded to first, subvert the Hawaiian national constitution in King David Kalakaua's reign and then after his death overthrew Queen Liliuokalani and thus, (bloodlessly) conquered the country in 1893 under threat of the warships of the U.S. Navy "stationed" in [Honolulu] harbor.

This group established what they called The Republic of Hawai'i, with Sanford Dole as "President" and with the intent of having it annexed to the United States. The population of the islands who universally loved and respected both recent monarchs protested against this action, perhaps delaying it somewhat, but in 1912, the political climate in Washington DC was such that the US declared it a territory.

There is even in this day (2005) a widespread sovereignty "movement" based upon the illigitemate seizure of the country. Its chances of success are considered low because of the tremendous amount of investment by American and Asian capital in the land and infrastructure of the Islands.