Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 5, 1 May 1988 — Uluhaimalama and the Queen [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Uluhaimalama and the Queen

Part II The story began last month with Lizzie Nakanealoha Mana; her husband, John Mana; and the father of her children, William Austin Whiting, who was an attorney from Boston but who had become a judge in the Circuit Court under the new government; and how their

activities coincided with the symbolic planting of Uluhaimalama, the Queen's garden, on October 11, 1894. The story continues as the interrelationships develop in the framework of time following the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom. By fate or coincidence, Judge Whiting, originally from Boston, also lived in the Pauoa neighborhood. Although the loeahon of his home has not been verified, the existence of Whiting Street 150 yards or so makai of the Uluhaimalama garden site gives us a elue. In the time following the planting of Uluhaimalama in 1894, the feeling among loyalist Hawaiians was that something should be done to save the monarchy. They bought rifles, pistols and other arms on their own accord for that purpose. On the still, moonlit Sunday evening of January 6, 1895, after hearing that a counter-revolution against the Republic was developing and that the conspirators were at the Henry Bertelmann home at the far end of Waikiki below Diamond Head, Capt. Robert Waipa Parker went there with a search warrant in hand, accompanied by some half dozen native polieemen. Shots were exchanged. As frequently happens after major political upheava!s, members of the community found themselves with divided loyalties. As expected, Hawaiians were situated on both sides. It should be noted, however, that the Hawaiians involved with the provisional government were not in any of the leadership positions. TTiey were the hired under-

lings who implemented the instructions of the governing entity. Interestingly, in the case of the overthrow, the American Caucasians, in general, were on the side of the new govemment, while many Caucasians from Europe were on the side of the Queen. The Hawaiian patriots led by Samuel Nowlein and Robert Wilcox were dedicated to restoring the Queen and the Monarchy. Although they began at Diamond Head, the skirmishes took £>lace mostly in the mountains behind Honolulu — on Mount Tantalus and the valleys of Palolo, Manoa and Pauoa. In the meantime, hundreds of Hawaiians and their haole sympathizers were arrested without warrants or other evidence except that the victims were known to be "friendly to Royalists." By Tuesday, January 15, the Bulletin reported that Wilcox, the last of the leaders was captured, and the "insurrection" was over. Of those loyal to the Queen, several had been wounded and some had been killed. The next day, on January 16, Deputy Marshall Arthur Brown and Capt. Parker served a warrant of arrest on the Queen. After placing Lili'uokalani under arrest, she was taken to Iolani Palaee and imprisoned.

The Queen was a model prisoner. In a letter to the Star-Bulletin in December 1970, Kupuna Thelma Bugbee wrote of her father: 'He often told us how he and the other men guarding the royal prisoner all fell under the spell of her graciousness, charm and loving goodness, convincing them there was something magic in this land of Queen "Lil" as they called her . . . .' Interestingly, Kup>una Bugbee added a little known fact that men like her father, Jacob William Sproat, had been "accosted outside a saloon (on California's Barbary Coast) and persuaded that an adventure in a Pacific paradise to help win it for the United States was of greater value (than going to the gold fields of Alaska) .... (After being recruited) (h)e participated in skirmishes that ensued and resulted in the takeover of the Hawaiian Kingdom by the Provisional Govemment." Such reports make it probable that the presence of

the United States warship "Boston" with its eontingent of Marines in Honolulu Harbor during the 1893 overthrow was no mere coincidence — it was part of a preconceived plan. The Marines were not here only to protect American lives. Lili'uokalani was brought to trial in her former throne room in the palaee on February 8 on the charge of "misprision of treason." In Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen, the Queen wrote: "The substance of my crime was that I knew my people were conspiring to re-establish the constitutional government, to throw off the yoke of the stranger and oppressor; and I had not conveyed this knowledge to the persons I had never recognized except as unlawful usurpers of authority, and had not informed against my own nation

The diplomatic corps, along with ministers of the gospel and a liberal representation from all classes, including many ladies of Honolulu society were present for the trial. In the centerof the room was the table before whieh sat the Military Commission, made up of non-Hawaiian supporters of the new government, that was to try the Queen. The leaders of the Republic made certain that the Queen would not be tried by a jury that included Hawaiians. The president of the Commission was none other than Judge William Austin Whiting! The Bulletin reported on January 16 that "President Dole introduced a bill to amend Act 46 of the Laws of the Provisional Govemment. It provides that vacancies of offices in military eompanies in active service or in times of insurrection may be filled by the Commander-in-Chief. There was a vacancy and it was desirable to have it filled by a man of lega) attainments to assist in the court martial for the trial of prisoners made during the insurrection. Judge Whiting had been selected to fill the vacancy, and he would be commissioned on the passage of the bill." On being appointed to the Military Commission, Judge Whiting resigned from his position as a judge of the circuit court. (to be continued)