KE AUPUNI UPDATE - MARCH 2025
US Tariffs and Regime Change…
Besides being the trigger for the sugar planters’ hijacking of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the McKinley Tariffs of 1890 also was a major factor in diverting President Cleveland from restoring Queen Liliuokalani and the de juré government of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
You see, when the hijacking occurred, Benjamin Harrison was still the US President. But he had lost re-election and was in what is called a “lame duck” period (like Biden was from November 6, 2024 to January 20, 2025 until Trump was inaugurated).
Harrison fast-tracked the “treaty of annexation”, signing it as soon as the representatives of the so-called Provisional Government from Hawaii could get to Washington, D.C. which was two weeks after the coup. The treaty was rushed to the US Senate for ratification (advice and consent). But before the Senate could do the deed, on March 4, 1893, Grover Cleveland was inaugurated as the US President (his second, non-consecutive term – sound familiar?).
In 1887, during his first term as president Grover Cleveland had hosted Queen Kapiʻolani and Princess Lili’uokalani when they were on their way to attend Queen Victoria’s jubilee celebration in London. Cleveland knew something was wrong, so his first significant act in his second term as President was to withdraw the Hawaii treaty of annexation from the Senate’s ratification process.
Cleveland then ordered an investigation of what happened in Hawaii, and 8 months later, sent a scathing message to Congress with his findings saying that US officials in Hawaii had overstepped their authority and committed an act of war against a friendly, sovereign nation. Furthermore, Cleveland concluded the US had both a legal and a moral obligation to assist in restoring Queen Lili’uokalani and the lawful, constitutional government of the Hawaiian Kingdom. An agreement for that restoration was reached between President Cleveland and Queen Lili’uokalani.
Unfortunately, Cleveland turned the matter over to Congress to execute and resolve so he could fully focus on America’s crisis of acute recession and bloody labor riots (greatly exacerbated by the infamous McKinley Tariffs of 1890). But Congress failed to act on the Cleveland/Lili’uokalani Agreement and when Cleveland left office in 1897, and William McKinley, a rabid imperialist and devotee of “Manifest Destiny” took the helm, his priorities as President were to forcibly expel Spain from the Americas (and the Pacific); to take Spain’s colonies; and to grab control of the Hawaiian Islands. A year later, McKinley and his cronies, faked the “annexation” of Hawaii claiming “military necessity” to fight the Spanish-American War.
McKinley’s fake annexation of Hawaii — and getting away with it — was the genesis of (and template) for the nasty American foreign policy habit of disruption and regime change to bully small countries into submission to America’s greedy ambitions.
Were it not for the McKinley Tariffs of 1890, the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom might have been averted, Cleveland might have restored the Hawaiian Kingdom government, and the trajectory of American imperialism and its toxic effects on today’s global stage might have been altered …
Aloha ʻĀina —
“Love of country is deep-seated in the breast of every Hawaiian, whatever his station.” — Queen Liliʻuokalani
Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono.
The sovereignty of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.
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For the latest news and developments about our progress at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva, tune in to Free Hawaii News at 7 PM, the first Friday of each month on ʻŌlelo Television, Channel 53.
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Malama Pono,
Leon Siu
Hawaiian National
