American Indian Culture and Research Journal

INTRODUCTION On 16 January 1893, American marines landed in peaceful Hawai'i armed with Gatling guns, Howitzer cannons, carbines, and other instruments of war, as well as double cartridge belts filled with ammunition. The United States troops marched along the streets of Honolulu, rifles facing Iolani palace, the seat of Hawai'i's sovereignty. The following day, resident conspirators numbering eighteen, mostly Americans, sneaked to the back steps of a government building a few yards from where the American troops had lodged the night before. There, Henry Cooper, an American lawyer and resident of Hawai'i for less than a year, proclaimed that he and seventeen others were now the government of Hawai'i. Calling themselves the "provisional government" and selecting Sanford Dole president, they were to exist for the explicit purpose of annexing Hawai'i to the United States. American minister plenipotentiary John L. Stevens immediately recognized the "provisional government" as the government of Hawai'i. He then joined in their demand that Queen Lili'uokalani, the constitutionalmon-arch of the Hawaiian nation, surrender under threat of war with the United States. Faced with such a threat, the queen eventually capitulated, but not without protest.