Darkness Over Hawaii: Annexation Myth Greatest Obstacle to Progress,” Copyright 2015 Professor Williamson B.C

Williamson B.C. Chang, “Darkness over Hawaii: Annexation Myth Greatest Obstacle to Progress,” Copyright 2015 Professor Williamson B.C. Chang, University of Hawaii at Manoa April 23, 2015 This Article Has been Accepted for Publication by the Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal - University of Hawaii for Volume 16, Spring 2015, If citing Please make the Appropriate Attribution or Citation to that Journal, Page 1 Darkness over Hawaii: Annexation Myth Greatest Obstacle to Progress Williamson Chang, Professor of Law, University of Hawaii at Manoa, William S. Richardson School of Law Copyright 2015 To: Delegates to the Hawaiian Convention to Establish a Governing Entity Synopsis: Native Hawaiians are not ready for a convention. We are not ready for big decisions. We know little about the world. The world is ignorant about Hawaii. Justice Scalia in his recent remarks on the law and history pertaining to Hawaii displayed some of that ignorance. His remarks revealed the extent and consequences of the campaign of deception asserting that Hawaii was acquired by a joint resolution. This claim is not only false. It is impossible. Justice Scalia is not the only one deceived. The Hawaii Supreme Court, in a 2013 ruling on the effects of annexation, blithely ignored the most basic of all state laws—those describing the boundaries of Hawaii. Truth telling through re-education of Hawaiians and the rest of the world is just beginning. Whether one supports restoration of the Kingdom or Tribal recognition, what Hawaiians need now is more scholarship about the world-- particularly as to the world of newly emerging sovereign states and the history of decolonization. We should not let Washington push us into tribal status. The path we take must be fully informed and selfless. Part I: Introduction: The Myth that Hawaii was annexed by the United States The world, and particularly America, is deeply ignorant about Hawaii. In 1897, the United States failed to ratify a treaty that would have acquired Hawaii. 1 A year later, the United States 1 1 William Adam Russ, Jr. , The Hawaiian Republic (1894-98) And Its Struggle to Win Annexation pages 178-227 (1961) (Susquehanna Press London and Toronto) Williamson B.C. Chang, “Darkness over Hawaii: Annexation Myth Greatest Obstacle to Progress,” Copyright 2015 Professor Williamson B.C. Chang, University of Hawaii at Manoa April 23, 2015 This Article Has been Accepted for Publication by the Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal - University of Hawaii for Volume 16, Spring 2015, If citing Please make the Appropriate Attribution or Citation to that Journal, Page 2 turned to legislation, a Joint Resolution of Congress to annex Hawaii. Americans believe that Hawaii is territory of the United States and accept the claim that Hawaii was acquired by a Joint Resolution of Congress in 1898. This is the official view of the United States.2 Based on this claim the United States exercises sovereignty and jurisdiction over the Hawaiian Islands as territory of America. This paper shows that these claims are false. Since 1898, the governments of the United States and the State of Hawaii have deliberately misled the people of Hawaii, the United States and the world. Current scholarship in Hawaii, such as here, are proving these claims false. Yet, the grip 2 The United States Department of State, Office of the Historian states the following about the acquisition of the Hawaiian Islands: The McKinley Administration also used the war as a pretext to annex the independent state of Hawaii. In 1893, a group of Hawaii-based planters and businessmen led a coup against Queen Liliuokalani and established a new government. They promptly sought annexation by the United States, but President Grover Cleveland rejected their requests. In 1898, however, President McKinley and the American public were more favorably disposed toward acquiring the islands. Supporters of annexation argued that Hawaii was vital to the U.S. economy, that it would serve as a strategic base that could help protect U.S. interests in Asia, and that other nations were intent on taking over the islands if the United States did not. At McKinley’s request, a joint resolution of Congress made Hawaii a U.S. territory on August 12, 1898. See United States Department of State, Office of the Historian, Milestones, Milestones: 1866– 1898 The Spanish-American War, 1898 http://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/spanish- american-war [Last Visited February 22, 2015 1:30 PM HST]. The website describing the Annexation of Hawaii was taken down in the Fall of 2014: Annexation of Hawaii, 1898 Notice to readers: This article has been removed pending review to ensure it meets our standards for accuracy and clarity. The revised article will be posted as soon as it is ready. In the meantime, we apologize for any inconvenience, and we thank you for your patience. http://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/hawaii. [Last Visited February 22, 2015 1:25 PM HST] Williamson B.C. Chang, “Darkness over Hawaii: Annexation Myth Greatest Obstacle to Progress,” Copyright 2015 Professor Williamson B.C. Chang, University of Hawaii at Manoa April 23, 2015 This Article Has been Accepted for Publication by the Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal - University of Hawaii for Volume 16, Spring 2015, If citing Please make the Appropriate Attribution or Citation to that Journal, Page 3 of the century of deception, denationalization and brainwashing reaches far and deep into American and Hawaiian society. The destruction of this falsehood is the most important next step for Native Hawaiians. Whether they seek restoration of the Kingdom of Hawaii or Recognition as a Federal Indian Tribe Native Hawaiians must learn the truth about Annexation. Annexation was strongly opposed in 1898 during the Senate debate. That debate came to be known as “Great Debate to Save the Older America.”3 Yet, those American voices of opposition in 1898 have long been forgotten. That debate and opposition, a transformative event in American history, has virtually disappeared from American history. Ignorance about the Great Debate is also pervasive in Hawaii. Many Native Hawaiians do not bother to educate themselves. They assume that restoration of a Native Hawaiian government is so slim a possibility that seeking the truth is an exercise in futility. As such, many Native Hawaiians are willing to accept the status quo. Or, they favor the alternative of United States recognition of a limited number of Native Hawaiians as a Native American Indian Tribe. Such status as a tribe offers Native Hawaiians few lands and few new benefits. Recognition as a Tribe is far less than what Hawaiians deserve and far less than what the truth commands. Other Native Hawaiians are quickly learning the true status of the Hawaiian Islands. At the Department of Interior hearings on proposed tribal recognition during the summer of 2014 Native Hawaiians in opposition frequently echoed the words of those Senators who sought to block annexation in 1898. These were the words heard from Native Hawaiians during those summer hearing. “The Joint Resolution was incapable of acquiring Hawaii. Only a Treaty could annex Hawaii. The Treaty of 1897 was never ratified by the United States. Annexation by resolution was unconstitutional. It would destroy the integrity of the Constitution and undermine the basis of the American Republic.” 3 William Adam Russ, Jr., The Hawaiian Republic (1894-98) And Its Struggle to Win Annexation (1961) (Susquehanna Press London and Toronto) “The debate in Congress over the joint resolution was, says Dennett, “One of the greatest . in American congressional history.” See page 299. The “Older America” was the America of the values of the founders of the Constitution: America should not become an imperial nation with colonies. The strict letter of the Constitution should be followed. The United States should be limited to the 48 contiguous states. The United States should not acquire any territory or nation without the consent of the people of that territory or nation. Williamson B.C. Chang, “Darkness over Hawaii: Annexation Myth Greatest Obstacle to Progress,” Copyright 2015 Professor Williamson B.C. Chang, University of Hawaii at Manoa April 23, 2015 This Article Has been Accepted for Publication by the Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal - University of Hawaii for Volume 16, Spring 2015, If citing Please make the Appropriate Attribution or Citation to that Journal, Page 4 Their statements were virtually the same words used by Hawaiian patriots who spoke against annexation in 1897. Native Hawaiians today should recognize that many Americans in 1898, particularly these Senators who opposed annexation, stood by the Hawaiian people. That alliance has disappeared. It should be resurrected today. Such an alliance could begin again by education- both in Hawaii and the United States. This article has three parts. In Part II, I describe the “Great Debate to Save the Older” America, where Senators opposed to annexation filibustered hoping to stave off annexation. In Part III, I show that only two senators could conjure arguments that the joint resolution could acquire Hawaii. Both attempts failed as they were based on faulty reasoning. In Part IV, I show that the greatest proof of the myth of annexation by the Joint Resolution lies in the trail of subsequent problems left by the Joint Resolution. Such problems reveal its failure: a failure, most of all, to be found in the very laws of the United States describing its claim to the Hawaiian Islands. The impotency of the Joint Resolution and the fact that it was not a treaty led to two federal statutes that plainly acknowledged this failure. Those statutes admit that the Joint Resolution never acquired Hawaii. Both the plain language of the Organic Act of 1900,4 which created the Territory of Hawaii and the plain language of Act of Admission in 19595, which admitted Hawaii as a State, intentionally exclude the Hawaiian Islands from the dominion of the Territory and the State.

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