page_title: Kaʻiulani
section_title: Education and unrest in Hawaii 1879–1893
hierarchical_section_title: Kaʻiulani / Education and unrest in Hawaii 1879–1893
caption_attribution_description: English: 'Poppies', oil on canvas painting by Princess Kaʻiulani, 1890
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: From a young age, Kaʻiulani was educated privately by governesses and private tutors starting with the British Marion Barnes, from 1879 until her early death of pneumonia in 1884, and the American Gertrude Gardinier, who became Kaʻiulani's favorite governess. After Gardinier's marriage in 1887, her governesses included the French Catalina de Alcala or D'Acala and the German Miss Reiseberg, with whom Kaʻiulani did not develop as strong as a bond. Her governesses taught her reading, writing letters (often to relatives), music practices and social training. She also read biographies about her namesake Queen Victoria.
  Kalākaua championed future Hawaiian leaders attaining a broader education, with his 1880 Hawaiian Youths Abroad program. His niece Kaʻiulani would not be the first Hawaiian royal to study abroad. Her cousins David Kawānanakoa (known as Koa), Edward Abnel Keliʻiahonui and Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole were sent by the Hawaiian government in 1885 to attend Saint Matthew's School in the United States. Keliʻiahonui died young in 1887 while Kawānanakoa and Kūhiō would travel to England in 1890 to finish their education a few months after Kaʻiulani's own departure for an education abroad.
  Months after the death of Kaʻiulani's mother Likelike, political unrest gripped Hawaii. Kalākaua's cabinet under Prime Minister Walter Murray Gibson was accused by local business men of influence peddling in elections and manipulation of legislative governance. Although the Gibson cabinet was replaced by the Reform Cabinet, the business community was not satisfied. The Committee of Thirteen business men under the leadership of Lorrin A. Thurston, drafted what became known as the Bayonet Constitution, codifying the legislature as the supreme authority over actions by the monarchy. Thurston is believed to have been the principal author of the new constitution. Presented to Kalākaua for his signature on July 6, 1887, it limited the power of the monarchy and increased the influence of Euro-American interests in the government.
caption: 'Poppies', oil on canvas painting 1890
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