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requirements to vote and hold office that effectively brought control of the government within the sphere of the planters and merchants and: "In return for this drastic housecleaning, [Kalakaua] was allowed to keep his job as king." 94/
In defending the actions of the reformers in forcing the king's hand, Attorney General C. W. Ashford stated:
- If the New Constitution had been submitted to the Legislature it would simply mean that at the end of two years the king would say "This does not suit me," and kill it by absolute veto. There was only one way to proceed, and that was to arbitrarily force the King into giving us a better form of government. 95/
Reciprocity Treaty Renewal—1887
While the reformers had been in the process of revolt, the commander of the armed wing of the revolutionaries (the Honolulu Rifles), Volney Ashford, "had been selected by the Gibson administration to go to Canada to negotiate a reciprocal trade agreement with that country." 96/ This occurred only days before the reformers took over and raised questions as to whether Ashford had pocketed some of his commission pay for protection money for the king. Because of the timing, it is not clear whether the government had seriously intended to make such a treaty with Canada.
With regard to the Reciprocity Treaty between Hawaii and the United States on the other hand:
- Between 1883 and 1887, the reciprocity treaty had neither been terminated nor renewed by the United States. The Senate had, at first, been in [the] mood to scrap it, but the State Department, worried over Britain's and Germany's high interest in the Pacific, had insisted on keeping the vacuous treaty alive. Suddenly now, after Kalakaua had been ignobly driven to the corner, the United States asked for the renewal of the agreement. This time it formally demanded cession of Pearl Harbor to the United States. This time—insistently prodded by the reform cabinet—the chastened and worried king signed a new and changed state document. 97/
Prior to approval of this agreement, Secretary of State Blaine had instructed U.S. Minister Comly (in 1881) that the American Government would not permit the transfer of Hawaiian territory or sovereignty to any European power. 98/ This was followed in 1884 by a resolution from the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations that not only advised the President to extend the reciprocity treaty, but also suggested that Hawaii should be requested to permit the establishment of a "naval station for the United States in the vicinity of Honolulu." 99/ Despite this attitude on the part of the Senate, "the supplementary convention with Hawaii was not agreed to by the Senate during the continuance of President Arthur's term of office." 100/
Again on April 14, 1886, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations made a favorable report on the supplementary treaty of December 6, 1884. 101/ The Committee also recommended an amendment that would give the United States the right to establish a naval base at Pearl Harbor. Of this recommendation one author says:
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