Memorial of Lilia K. Aholo, Secretary in Chief of Women's Patriotic League of the Hawaiian Islands
12/9/1897
On this introdcutory pages for the Memorial, Lilia K. Aholo, Secretary in Chief of Women's Patriotic League of the Hawaiian Islands, protests against the annexation of Hawaii to the United States citing 10,890 other native Hawaiian women whose signatures follow.
Lorrin A. Thurston, grandson of American missionaries, was a prominent lawyer, politician and businessman who played a major role in the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani. An advocate for annexation, he submitted a report detailing anomalies and other issues with the signatures on the anti-annexation petition. Among the issues he raised was that a significant percentage of the petitioners were minors (some as young as 2 years old) and that certain details (such as the age of petitioner) were altered.
Four delegates for the native Hawaiian Commission, James Kaulia, David Kalauokalani, John Richardson, and William Auld, arrived in Washington, DC, on December 6,1897 with the 556-page petition in hand. That day, as they met with Queen Lili'uokalani, who was already in Washington lobbying against annexation, the second session of the 55th Congress opened. The delegates and Lili'uokalani planned a strategy to present the petition to the Senate.
The delegation and Lili'oukalani met Senator George Hoar, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. In the following days, they met with many senators, voicing opposition to the annexation. By the time the delegates left Washington on February 27, 1898, there were only 46 senators willing to vote for annexation (several votes less than the 2/3 majority needed for treaty ratification). The treaty was defeated in the Senate.
The delegation and Lili'oukalani's victory was short-lived, however. After America went to war with Spain in 1898, proponents of annexation argued that Hawaii was needed to support military action in the Philippines. In July 1898, a joint resolution (requiring a simple majority as opposed to a 2/3 majority required by a treaty) passed control of Hawaii’s 6,450 square miles of territory to the United States.
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