The San Francisco Call: Haywood Gratified, Mohailani Very Sad

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This article in the San Francisco Call newspaper was sent by Willy Kauai, a doctoral candidate in Political Science at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. Kauai’s doctoral research centers on Hawaiian nationality or citizenship, which spans from its origin under the reign of King Kamehameha I, progenitor of the Hawaiian Kingdom, through its legal evolution during the 19th century, and its maintenance under the laws of occupation to date.

Kauai’s research also addresses the racial discrimination injected into the population of the Hawaiian Islands since the usurpers seized temporary control of the Hawaiian government in 1887, which served as the precursor to the United States invasion and unlawful overthrow of the government of the Hawaiian Kingdom, and the ultimate occupation since the Spanish-America War in 1898.  The title of Kauai’s dissertation is “E/racing Hawaiian Citizenship Amid US Occupation.” Kauai will be defending his dissertation in April 2014 and is expected to graduate the following month with his Ph.D. degree.

On July 28, 1898, the San Francisco Call newspaper published responses by individuals in the Hawaiian Islands as to their reaction to the passing of the joint resolution by the United States Congress to annex the Hawaiian Islands titled “Passing of Hawaii as a Nation: How News of Annexation is Received at the Islands.” One particular response was titled “Haywood Gratified, Mohailani Very Sad.” Just ten months earlier, the San Francisco Call published a front-page story covering Hawaiian opposition to annexation titled, “Strangling Hands Upon a Nation’s Throat.” As a result of this opposition the United States Senate was unable to ratify a so-called treaty of annexation signed between the insurgents and the McKinley administration. Unable to accomplish the task by treaty, annexationists in the Congress introduced a joint resolution, instead. The Congress knew that a joint resolution, being a Congressional law, had no force beyond the borders of the United States, but they disguised the process as if it did, through propaganda, in order to conceal an illegal occupation of a foreign State for military purposes.

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Consul_General_HaywoodHONOLULU, July 20.—“I am naturally gratified that annexation has at last been accomplished,” said Consul General Haywood when the news of annexation reached him. “It is what I came to these islands to see done, and I am glad I have not had to go home disappointed. The United States has given to the people of these islands what I consider to be the greatest gift they could receive—American citizenship—which carries with it stable government and protection from the nations of the world. It only remains with the people here to make the most of the gift. This can only be done by forgetting past animosities and working harmoniously for the public good. Americans will then make of these islands not merely the paradise of the Pacific, but the Paradise of the world.”

HONOLULU, July 20.—To the Editor of the San Francisco Call: You ask me how we Hawaiians have received the news which has deprived us of our country and our nationality. I can only say that my countrymen are yet unable to realize the fact that the great republic which boasts of its democratic and republican principles has committed the unholy act which in history will be known as the “Rape of Hawaii.”

We had hoped that the joint resolution would be defeated in the Senate, and we were stunned when we learned of the vote, which results in the annihilation of our beloved country and in the driving to the wall of all Hawaiians. I can assure you that there is not one Hawaiian who in his heart favors annexation. What would you think of any man or woman who with indifference could see the flag of his or her country go down and their individually absorbed by a foreign race which, whatever you may say, does look down on us as their inferiors and despises our color and our way of living?

I can tell you, and few men have the opportunity of knowing the Hawaiians as I do, that many tears were shed when the news by the Coptic reached the homes of those who know no other country than these islands, which once were justly called the Paradise of the Pacific. We cannot be happy under our new conditions. We will feel like strangers among the people who will rule us, and with whose ideas, mode of living and political principles we cannot harmonize.

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Our women feel it even worse than we men do. The teachings of the New England missionaries, the rum they brought with them, the diseases following in their train, have enervated the Hawaiian men. We can talk, don’t you forget it, but we cannot fight. If we had yet the fighting qualities of our ancestors, the overturn of our monarchy would never have taken place, and during the past years we would have been entitled to interference in the name of humanity in our struggles against the usurpers.

Our women have shown more energy, more solid patriotism and more strength than we have. The women of Hawaii to-day stand as a unit in their hatred toward America and everything American. And can you blame them? They see before them a future where their children will be forced into competition with your pushing, rushing, money-grabbing race. The dolce far niente of Hawaii must disappear and the struggle for life will begin in which the strongest will survive, and the gentle, indolent, easy-going Hawaiian will have no show in that battle for life, and who can blame us for feeling sad over a future which necessarily means destruction of our race?

I cannot deny that one great reason for our opposition to annexation is that we fear that we will be called “niggers” and treated as you do that class in your “free” country. We have been assured that such will not be the case, but experience tells us differently. Our countrymen who have traveled in the States have often been subjected to great humiliation and insult on account of their skin, and we expect that the day will come when we will risk similar affronts right in our streets, and remember that we have neither the wealth nor the inclination to strike our tents in other climes. We have no other home than Hawaii, and that home we have lost.

And what will our position be in the political and social life of these islands after your flag floats over the palace of our chiefs?

Senator Morgan of Alabama told a large assembly of Hawaiians, when he visited here, that he could promise them equal political rights with any American in any State of America. He told us that each of us would have as good a chance to become President of the United States as has Grover Cleveland. (I believe him in that.) He said that Hawaii would be a State, and that by the power of our majority we would control the affairs of Hawaii and enjoy true self-government. He paid a glowing tribute to our intelligence and excellent qualities, and told us how he loved “colored” people.

We didn’t believe a word of what that ex-slave driver from Alabama said, and there is no man more despised and loathed among the Hawaiians than Senator Morgan, who now is to frame a government for Hawaii.

The Hawaiians have at present no intention of taking any active interest in the government of their country. They feel like the children of Israel did when they sat down in exile and bemoaned their fate. What has happened cannot be undone, but none of us can see what your great country has gained by adding to the Union such unwilling and hostile people. We are not savages, as your Indians of Alaska, or ignorant as your “greasers.” For nearly a century we have conducted a fairly good government and lived in harmony with the white man who benefited from our hospitality and whose descendants now rob us of our country.

Go ask any man, woman or child what he thinks to-day of the “haole” (the foreigner), and you will get an answer in a very emphatic and plain language.

When Chinese and Japanese coolies are stopped from coming here as contract laborers we will have the satisfaction of laughing at the men who make their money out of slave labor and who brought on annexation to gain the benefit of the sugar bounty. But that satisfaction is very slim when we realize the fact that we will be trodden under foot by the invaders, and that when your flag, which we admire in its proper place, waves over Hawaii, to pronounce the fact that we are homeless and that our country has ceased to exist.

MOHAILANI

(It is not known who Mohailani is, but Hawaiians were known for using a pseudo name when authoring commentaries of a political nature. “Mohailani” is literally translated in the Hawaiian language as the “GREAT SACRIFICE.”)

14 thoughts on “The San Francisco Call: Haywood Gratified, Mohailani Very Sad

  1. Aole to the Eurocentric way of life and what it has done to destroy the aina and the aboriginals of the earth,now we see the days of the great shaking ahead,they will reap what they have sown.

  2. It makes me sick in my na’au to know that as our Kingdom, our Country, our culture, our language and our Aina where being RAPED, STOLEN and DESTROYED, our Kupuna were being told that ” they should be thankful for the gift they were being given”. All while the plague, sickness, and disease that was and still is the united states of america infested our Hawaii. I pray that I’o (Akua / God ) will grant us his sovereign grace to continue to show Aloha, as we continue towards the restoration of our HAWAIIAN KINGDOM, because when I read these accounts of our history I only feel Rage.

    • Kimo, my heart is racing, my gut is twisting and I am ready to march in a protest line for my Queen and our HAWAIIAN KINGDOM.

      I must say you’re right! We were RAPED, STOLEN DESTROYED AND VIOLATED of our rights. My grandparents could not speak their language in public or out loud and they claim to be Hawaiian and not American.

      These insurgents and their families today feel no guilt. I went to court in Hilo as a pro se against one of the insurgent for land that were stolen from my family. Yes! I got only 1-1/3 acres and that’s where my tutu house was once stood. The family of this particular insurgent has an attitude problem and spoke to me as if I was dumb by making hand signals along with a smirk, sarcasm attitude as if they were in the right. In my lifetime I surely wish to see the movement of our Kingdom be given back to the people and all current elected officials should be removed and replace with official that knows the need of our people and not the needs of the Developers.

      • The disgust I feel is as deep as if was felt even as far back as when the insurgents imposed the Bayonet Constitution. Please include me to be part of that march too.

        Mahalo Willy Kauai for your kuleana. Blessings to you on your dissertation.

        `Eo!

  3. We are forever in the belly of the monster which is called the United States of America. We are born Hawaiian but forced to be American.

    • NO! Not forever! This, we must remember and continue to fight for. Our history, and the “absolute” of international law MUST set us free from the belly. Like Keanu said, “patience is not a weakness.”

  4. It is so wonderful to feel the love for NATION AND ITS PEOPLE. I feel their love for us and our homeland. This is a necessary part of going forward, GOING BACK IS GOING FORWARD! It’s so amazing that we can go back and forward at the same time. Thank you everyone for the love. I know that our destiny is more real then we can imagine. We are there. We just need to see it together! If we can go back we can go forward. With the same love and passion for our Kupuna and our Aina THAT THEY HAVE FOR US. WE ARE A NATION! That is not something only us can give to ourselves. We are free! Free to assemble, Free to Love. Free to study. Free to Learn, Free to Understand. Free to Think we are KANAKA. That is ours given to us by the Almighty. WE ARE BLESSED! MAHALO KE AKUA!

  5. As a child growing up, I was raised and knew I was a Hawaiian and not a U.S. American. I am embolden to know that finally a great many of the Hawaiian subjects have caught up with some of us that knew this all along. Welcome to the fold now that the scales of blindness have been removed from your eyes, Ku’e I ka pono. For some of us, we don’t feel like a voice in the wilderness as before.

  6. Wow, I am moved by the article and the comments. I am American who as I learn of the atrocious behavior of America against other nations, in particular the Native American nations, the African nations and the Hawaii Kingdom, has increasingly become ashamed to be an American. I support the Kingdom of Hawaii is it’s quest to reclaim and regain your country.

  7. While fools rush in wanting to become a “Nation within a Nation” of the renegade nation that stole their nationality!

  8. It is not the land that has been taken but the people’s heritage transformed into dominators and capitalism’s as their conquers culture…The natives of old are no longer…what lives today is the remnants of the missionaries conversion of the Hawaiian language, religion, supplements i.e. They brought sickness, greed, dishonors, undisciplined mannerisms’…and most of all illiteracies’… It’s known as an American Citizen….can one be proud as such….only time will tell after the quantum is no longer… MOHAILANI

  9. While we all participate in this process we are preparing to participate in the Kingdom of Hawaii. We are the mouthpiece and the arms and legs of our posterity. We must all continue to learn and understand the laws as it applies to us and participate in the process in whatever way we can. We have so much to be grateful and responsible for. ACTIVE PARTICIPATION is required for a strong literate nation. Like our Kupuna we need to know our responsibilities and our rights in the Kingdom and out of the Kingdom. Ke Akua please bless all of us as we surge forward to remember our gifts and who we are. Mahalo everyone for commenting.

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