The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-03-13

many occasions, and 1t was long
time before the king could feel that
his throne rested on that broad found.
alton of general popular support with
out which thrones in this last quarter
of the nineteenth century are very
precariOus structures.
The purpose of this paper, however,
is not to give q history of the acces-
sion of Kalakaua, but of the trial of
Kahoalii. The foregoing narrative of
occurrences, which are all matters of
history and probably familiar to the
majority of readers, is intended sim
ply to supply those who may not be
as well informed with that knowledge
of surrounding and antecedent cOndi-
tions without which it is difficult if
not impossible to obtain correct i'm
pressions Of historical events of even
recent occurrence.
A few months after Kalakaua's
coming into power q native partisan
of the Queen Dowager named John P.
u. KahOalii, acting with the lack OF
wisdom quite common in ignorant
people who have, or think they have,
Il grievance and lack the intelligence
to Judge of the practicability or desir-
ability of any proposed remedy, pre-
pared petition to be presented to the
French diplomatic representative
here, setting forth with considerable
of the situation already described as
held by his party, and asking the rep
resentative in question to forward the
same to his home government, with
the request that. the French Republic
should intervene and see justice done
by ousting Kalak ,ua from his ILL
gotten power and putting Emma in
his place. This petition, which is
now on file with the other documents
in the case, is in the Hawaiian lam
guage and fills five foolscap pages. It
is written in a small and very neat
hand, and is signed John p. Zephy-
rino Kahoalii. Attached to the peti-
tion are six fOolscap pages of sigma
lures, in double columns, there being
347 names in all.
Although the matter was kept as
secret as possible, the Government
soon got some inkling of what was
going on. 1t was very difficult, how
ever, to locate the paper 1t was
heard of as having been seen, now
here, now there, but always evading
ton, who was then Deputy
satisfied him as to who had
possession of the document just then,
and going to the rarity with perfect
ly assured and confident manner, de-
manded it. The person in question
concluding that concealment or denial
was useless, Immediately handed it
over. On the margin of the petition
there is written in pencil, "Rec'd from
Napahukapu, Aug. 5th, 1874"
views held in official circles at that
time on the subject of appealing to
foreign powers to overthrow the exist
ing government were quite different
from those which have prevailed for
the past two years. Although the
movement had never got beyond the
embryonic stage, the petition having
never been presented to the person to
whom it was addressed, he was
promptly arrested and indicted for
treason. He was brought TO trial at
before the late Judge Harris and
native jury, of which F. Pahia was
foreman, the prosecution being con-
Quoted by r. II. Stanley, the Attorney
General, and the defense by the late
J. Porter Green and a native lawyer
named Kauai. The evidence being
all in and the case summed up by the
respective counsel, the defense sub
mitted q written memorandum of
points Wnlcn Lney aSReu 10 nave lie
cluded in the charge to the jury.
These were six in number, the most
important being in substance that as
the petition had never been presented
there had been no overt act of treason
committed within the meaning of the
statute. The Court instructed the
jury that they need consider but two
points: first, Was tue defendant the
author of the petition, and second, if
so, was it written with the intent and
for the purpose therein set forth? If so,
his act was clearly within the mean
ing of the law. It only remained for
the jury to consider the sufficiency of
the evidence. Acting on these in
structiOns, the jury, composed it will
be remembered entirely of Hawaiians,
retired aud, after being out twenty
five minutes, returned a unanimous
verdict of guilty. Death being at that
time the statutory penalty for treason,
the prisoner was sentenced to be
hanged This sentence was afterward
cOmmuted TO Imprisonment. While
in prison serving out his sentence,
Kahoalii developed'leprosy, was trans
ferred TO the leper settlement on MOlO-
kai and there ended his days.
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