page_title: Kaʻiulani
section_title: Visits the United States, 1893
hierarchical_section_title: Kaʻiulani / Overthrow 1891–1893 / Visits the United States, 1893
caption_attribution_description: English: A photo of Princess Ka'iulani and Mr. Theophilus Harris Davies taken in Boston, Massachusetts 1893.
context_page_description: Kaʻiulani was the only child of Princess Miriam Likelike, and the last heir apparent to the throne of the Hawaiian Kingdom. She was the niece of King Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani. After the death of her mother, Princess Kaʻiulani was sent to Europe at age 13 to complete her education, under the guardianship of English businessman and Hawaiian sugar investor Theo H. Davies. She had not yet reached her 18th birthday when the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom altered her life. The Provisional Government of Hawaii rejected pleas from both her father Archibald Scott Cleghorn, and provisional president Sanford B. Dole, to seat Kaʻiulani on the throne, conditional upon the abdication of Liliʻuokalani. The Queen thought the kingdom's best chance at justice was to temporarily relinquish her power to the United States.
  Davies and Kaʻiulani visited the United States to urge the restoration of the kingdom; she made speeches and public appearances denouncing the overthrow of her government and the injustice toward her people. While in Washington, D.C., she paid an informal visit to President Grover Cleveland and First Lady Frances Cleveland, but her efforts were in vain.
context_section_description: Many elements in Hawaii and abroad preferred restoring Kaʻiulani to the Hawaiian throne in place of Liliʻuokalani under a more restricted form of constitutional monarchy. James Hay Wodehouse, the British commissioner to Hawaii, reported to his superior in London that the natives would support and welcome Kaʻiulani as queen. Charles Reed Bishop, the widower of the High Chiefess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, wrote that "the better class of the British prefer her, and they would help to control her and make as good a government as possible." Dole, the leader of the Provisional Government, had stated that it would have been "far more tactful" to "hold the power of the throne" through "regency in the name of the young Princess Kaʻiulani until she reaches her majority".
  Kaʻiulani learned of the overthrow via a short telegram received by Davies on January 30, "'Queen Deposed', 'Monarchy Abrogated', 'Break News to Princess'". In the weeks after the overthrow, Davies wrote to the Hawaiian Minister to the United States John Mott-Smith in Washington suggesting that the Hawaiian electorate vote on a revised constitution, for the abdication of the queen and for the placing Kaʻiulani under a council of regency headed by Dole. Davies reiterated this stance in a later address. Davies advised Kaʻiulani to take her case directly to the American people.
  Kaʻiulani accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Davies, Alice, Annie Whartoff, as her lady-in-waiting and a chaperone, and a maid of Mrs. Davies traveled from Southampton to the New York City, arriving on March 1. Macfarlane and Mott-Smith met the party on their ship. Upon landing on the pier, Kaʻiulani delivered to the assembled press and curious onlookers a speech written by Davies:
  Seventy years ago, Christian America sent over Christian men and women to give religion and civilization to Hawaii. Today, three of the sons of those missionaries are at your capitol asking you to undo their father’s work. Who sent them? Who gave them the authority to break the Constitution which they swore they would uphold? Today, I, a poor weak girl with not one of my people with me and all these ‘Hawaiian’ statesmen against me, have strength to stand up for the rights of my people. Even now I can hear their wail in my heart and it gives me strength and courage and I am strong – strong in the faith of God, strong in the knowledge that I am right, strong in the strength of seventy million people who in this free land will hear my cry and will refuse to let their flag cover dishonor to mine!"
  During her first two days, Kaʻiulani and the Davies' toured New York and received callers including her cousin Kawānanakoa, although he was only allowed him to speak to her briefly.} Dissent developed between Davies and Liliʻuokalani's representatives in the United States over his influence over Kaʻiulani. Kawānanakoa along with Neumann, Macfarlane and Mott-Smith voiced criticism at Davies' action in bringing Kaʻiulani to the United States without the consent of Cleghorn or the queen. They felt Davies' public statements supporting a regency in place of the queen undermined the cause against annexation and created the impression of a "three-cornered fight." Macfarlane, himself of British descent, stated to the press, "Her coming will do no good, especially when she is under the wing an ultra-Britisher."
  From March 3 to March 7, Kaʻiulani visited Boston while Cleveland was waiting to be sworn in as President. She attended various social events, many in her honor, and toured the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (where Davies' son Clive attended) and Wellesley College. Arriving in Washington, D.C. on March 8, she was greeted at the train station by Kawānanakoa with a floral lei and stayed at Arlington Hotel where she awaited the chance to meet with the President. In the meantime, Cleveland, who espoused anti-imperialist views, withdrew the treaty of annexation on March 9 and appointed on March 11 James Henderson Blount as special commissioner to investigate the overthrow. On March 13, Kaʻiulani was received socially by President and Mrs
caption: Kaʻiulani and Theo H. Davies in Boston, 1893
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