Captive Paradise: A History of Hawaii Read Online Free Page B

thousands of the voices of my people that have come to me, and I am prepared to grant their request. The present Constitution is full of defects, as the Chief Justice here will testify.… It is so faulty that I think a new one should be granted. I have prepared one in which the rights of all have been regarded—a Constitution suited to the wishes of the people. I was ready and expected to proclaim the new Constitution today as a suitable occasion for it … but with regret I have to say I have met with obstacles that prevent it.… You have my love and with sorrow I now dismiss you.”
    Now the humiliation would have to be repeated before the crowd that had gathered outside to welcome the restoration of their rights. Her people had despised the Bayonet Constitution that stole the vote from them, and they had petitioned her relentlessly to do what she had done. She knew they would rise up if she asked them to, but she did not want anyone’s blood on her soul. More to the point, she knew that she would be blamed for any violence, and she knew that the United States would respond fiercely if any of their people, property, or investments were threatened. Although she was angry, the queen could not be responsible for any replay of the 1874 riots.
    With bitterness but determination, the queen mounted the iridescent koa staircase and appeared on the palace balcony, motioning the crowd for quiet. She spoke in Hawaiian and in the style of the epic chants: “O, ye people who love the chiefs!” she hailed them. “Hereby I say unto you, I am now ready to proclaim the new constitution of my Kingdom, thinking that it would be successful. But look you! Obstacles have arisen. Therefore I say unto you, my loving people, go with good hope and do not be disturbed in your minds. Because within the next few days now coming, I will proclaim the new constitution.”
    The crowd grumbled and began to disperse, but the listening Americans—including Lorrin Thurston and others of the Annexation Club—buzzed among themselves. What had she said? Many of them spoke Hawaiian, but it was an ambiguous language: Ua keia mau la . 14 Had she actually meant the next few days now coming, in a short time, or had she merely meant sometime? They must not take the chance, and the members of the secret Annexation Club dispersed to gather again immediately at William O. Smith’s law office.
    Harking back to the French Revolution and the goodwill that it might buy them from the United States, they formed a Committee of Safety—mostly the same people as the Annexation Club—which decided breathlessly that the time had come to abolish the monarchy and establish a provisional government. They therefore set to work at what they did best—drafting documents.
    The next day, Sunday, they shared their work with Peterson and Colburn, who were not prepared to go quite so far. After conferring with proroyalist leaders, they believed that the queen’s pledge not to change the constitution would suffice to head off such a drastic step. By now word of a mass antigovernment meeting for Monday was abroad, with all the trouble that portended. Lili‘uokalani sent urgently to U.S. minister Stevens to learn whether the government could count on American protection, of which Stevens declined to assure her. Some advised the queen to declare martial law and round up the conspirators before things went any further, but that could ignite the fighting she dreaded. Lili‘u chose a milder course: simply calling a competing mass meeting for the next day, as though her supporters could merely shout down the annexationists.
    On Monday afternoon, January 17, several hundred royalists gathered in Palace Square, having been adjured to be peaceful and give no excuse for an intervention. Wilcox and Bush, who were back in the queen’s camp, addressed them, and read a statement that Lili‘uokalani had issued, declaring that she would make no further attempt to change the constitution except