Difference between revisions of "Template:Nhsc-v1-267"

Latest revision as of 22:53, 23 April 2006

States would soon be lifted. Relief was relatively slow in coming, but: "after a year, upon President Grant's insistence, the treaty got to the Senate floor, and...Spreckels himself appeared to lobby against it...the Senate went into executive session. At the secret meeting, Secretary of State Hamilton Fish's special clause was read, which he was inserting in the treaty—and which would eventually tie Hawaii to the United States." 9/

This special clause, which is found in Article 4 of the Reciprocity Treaty, stated:

It is agreed, on the part of his Hawaiian Majesty, that so long as this treaty shall remain in force he will not lease or otherwise dispose of or create any lien upon any port, harbor, or other territory in his dominions, or grant any special privilege or rights of use therein, to any other power...10/

In a report of the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, "the majority frankly conceded that the main reason why the treaty should be ratified by the United States was on account of the danger of British absorption of the islands." 11/ Senator John T. Morgan of Alabama confessed as well that the treaty had political implications: "The Hawaiian treaty was negotiated for the purpose of securing political control of those islands, making them industrially and commercially, a part of the United States" 12/ as well as preventing any other power from acquiring a foothold on them.

Evidently Kalakaua had not been (or at least claimed he had not been) aware that this clause would be a part of the treaty. When the British Commissioner to Hawaii complained to the king about these exclusive rights, Kalakaua answered: "...how can I answer you about something which I have neither read nor approved?" 13/ The king, however, eventually did agree to this clause and the "treaty was approved by both the United States and Hawaiian governments in mid-1875. In August of the following year, Hawaii learned that Congress had passed the legislation necessary to put the treaty into operation. About the only Americans in the islands who were displeased...were those who believed in annexation." 14/ Proannexationists were concerned that the reciprocity treaty would delay annexation.

American Advisors' Influence

Several Americans and other foreigners became close advisors to the king at about this time. Claus Spreckels (who had opposed the treaty) was one of them. He saw opportunity even in his defeat and "arrived in Hawaii aboard the vessel which brought the news that the treaty had finally been approved in Washington. With his money and relentless drive Spreckels soon became the most powerful sugar man in Hawaii." Spreckels also had other interests, such as banking:

Once Kalakaua was in his debt he was also in his grasp, and Claus Spreckels was so important to the king that anyone who opposed his various deals, including cabinet members, was soon out of office. Eventually his hold on the government and business community was broken...15/

However, Spreckels remained a force in Hawaii, for many years. By 1884, he was known as "'the other king* of the Hawaiian Islands." 16/

Other private Americans, such as Walter Gibson, advised and swayed the king. 17/ Gibson, however, was