Title: Petition Against the Annexation of Hawaii | Encyclopedia.com
Headings: Petition Against the Annexation of Hawaii
Petition Against the Annexation of Hawaii
Petition Against the Annexation of Hawaii
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INTRODUCTION
PRIMARY SOURCE
PETITION AGAINST ANNEXATION OF HAWAII
SIGNIFICANCE
FURTHER RESOURCES
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Content: Trade agreements eventually helped sugar plantation owners dominate the local economies and national politics. Perceiving the King as dishonest, unreliable, and anti-American, and wanting large tariffs to be removed from their sugar sales, a group of American and European business leaders gained control of the monarch with assistance of an armed militia. A new constitution was implemented—called the Bayonet Constitution because it was signed by Kalakaua against his wishes—which limited the authority of the King's government, focused power with wealthy white land owners, and eliminated many rights from native Hawaiians. When Queen Lili'uokalani accepted her country's leadership upon her brother's death, she attempted to return power to the native Hawaiians and resume friendly relations with the American and European business and political leaders. However, on January 16–17, 1893, a group of American sugar farmers and business leaders, along with the help of U.S. Minister to Hawaii John Stevens and Marines from the U.S.S. Boston, deposed Lili'uokalani and overthrew her monarchy. They established a new government headed by Sanford Ballard Dole (1844–1926), an attorney, justice, and former advisor to the monarch. Without approval from the U.S. State Department, Stevens recognized the new government and declared Hawaii, as of February 1, 1893, to be a protectorate of the United States. Immediately, the leaders of the new government negotiated a treaty of annexation with the United States. However, President Grover Cleveland, who had succeeded President Benjamin Harrison in March 1893, did not agree with their imperialistic acts. After deciding that Stevens' actions were inappropriate, Cleveland stopped the treaty and ordered Queen Lili'uokalani to be returned to the throne.