sovereign.” 1 That was a remarkable sentiment for Stevenson to write, in view of the fact that Kalakaua had befriended and hosted him and his traveling suite generously enough.
Not many of those who offered Lili‘uokalani advice, however diffident and sugarcoated it was, appreciated how keenly she in fact grasped her situation. She had a powerful mind of her own and knew how to express it, even in pointed criticism of her brother that she could deliver (privately) with such reckoning that it almost put the name he gave her—“Smarting of the Royal Ones”—in a new context. The business community became well acquainted with her strength of will during her stint as princess regent while Kalakaua was traveling the world. She had no hesitation in closing the ports to prevent the spread of smallpox, shutting off exports and blocking the influx of labor, unswayed by the heated editorials in the American press. That was when they first marked her as “bad for business”; they were wary of her, and it was perhaps no accident that when they moved against Kalakaua with the Bayonet Constitution, they did it when she was out of the country.
Now as queen, she did not wait for them to strike; she assembled her brother’s haole cabinet and asked for their resignations. They demurred in something approaching disbelief, pointing out that under the new constitution, ministers could only be dismissed on a no-confidence vote of the legislature. Surely, she insisted, a new sovereign at the beginning of a reign was entitled to a cabinet that held her confidence. The chief justice of the supreme court was now Albert Francis Judd, and she took her case to him, with the additional argument that the present cabinet had performed in a way “hurtful to the standing of a good and wise government.” The court agreed to consider the matter.
When word of this initial skirmish reached Charles Bishop in San Francisco, he realized that she might win this battle but set herself up to lose much more. Bishop’s marriage to her hanai sister had been everything that her own marriage was not, and Bishop had the standing to offer private advice and encouragement to Lili‘u that she likely would not have accepted from others. On March 5 he wrote her a long and loving—but at its heart didactic—letter:
Your love for our dear Bernice would of itself win my regard. Were she living now her large heart would be full of sympathy for you in every trial, and of joy for every honor that you may gain.… Permit me now, dear friend, to congratulate you upon your grand opportunity for usefulness and honor—and to give some advice which you have not asked for, but which I trust will not seem to be bad. I regard the moral influence which you can execute upon the community, and especially upon your own race, as of much more importance than anything you can do in the politics or business of the country.… In the politics and routine of the Government the Ministers have the responsibility, annoyances and blame—and usually very little credits. Let them have them, and do not worry yourself about them.
Bishop went on to register the opinion that the cabinet she found objectionable would likely resign whatever the supreme court decided, but he thought the justices would sustain them. If not, then they would surely resign, and she could begin her reign with a slate of her own choosing. 2 It was sage advice on constitutional government from an experienced man who cared about her very much. But as he perceived, she—like her brother and her distant relative Kamehameha V—was determined to rule. The Bayonet Constitution was an odious document whose legitimacy could be questioned as a historical exercise, but its ink was three years dry, and Kalakaua had closed out his reign obeying its terms. If she opened her reign by declaring war on that constitution, it would be a dark and dangerous business.
First, Kalakaua had won election as king by playing on the growing
Not many of those who offered Lili‘uokalani advice, however diffident and sugarcoated it was, appreciated how keenly she in fact grasped her situation. She had a powerful mind of her own and knew how to express it, even in pointed criticism of her brother that she could deliver (privately) with such reckoning that it almost put the name he gave her—“Smarting of the Royal Ones”—in a new context. The business community became well acquainted with her strength of will during her stint as princess regent while Kalakaua was traveling the world. She had no hesitation in closing the ports to prevent the spread of smallpox, shutting off exports and blocking the influx of labor, unswayed by the heated editorials in the American press. That was when they first marked her as “bad for business”; they were wary of her, and it was perhaps no accident that when they moved against Kalakaua with the Bayonet Constitution, they did it when she was out of the country.
Now as queen, she did not wait for them to strike; she assembled her brother’s haole cabinet and asked for their resignations. They demurred in something approaching disbelief, pointing out that under the new constitution, ministers could only be dismissed on a no-confidence vote of the legislature. Surely, she insisted, a new sovereign at the beginning of a reign was entitled to a cabinet that held her confidence. The chief justice of the supreme court was now Albert Francis Judd, and she took her case to him, with the additional argument that the present cabinet had performed in a way “hurtful to the standing of a good and wise government.” The court agreed to consider the matter.
When word of this initial skirmish reached Charles Bishop in San Francisco, he realized that she might win this battle but set herself up to lose much more. Bishop’s marriage to her hanai sister had been everything that her own marriage was not, and Bishop had the standing to offer private advice and encouragement to Lili‘u that she likely would not have accepted from others. On March 5 he wrote her a long and loving—but at its heart didactic—letter:
Your love for our dear Bernice would of itself win my regard. Were she living now her large heart would be full of sympathy for you in every trial, and of joy for every honor that you may gain.… Permit me now, dear friend, to congratulate you upon your grand opportunity for usefulness and honor—and to give some advice which you have not asked for, but which I trust will not seem to be bad. I regard the moral influence which you can execute upon the community, and especially upon your own race, as of much more importance than anything you can do in the politics or business of the country.… In the politics and routine of the Government the Ministers have the responsibility, annoyances and blame—and usually very little credits. Let them have them, and do not worry yourself about them.
Bishop went on to register the opinion that the cabinet she found objectionable would likely resign whatever the supreme court decided, but he thought the justices would sustain them. If not, then they would surely resign, and she could begin her reign with a slate of her own choosing. 2 It was sage advice on constitutional government from an experienced man who cared about her very much. But as he perceived, she—like her brother and her distant relative Kamehameha V—was determined to rule. The Bayonet Constitution was an odious document whose legitimacy could be questioned as a historical exercise, but its ink was three years dry, and Kalakaua had closed out his reign obeying its terms. If she opened her reign by declaring war on that constitution, it would be a dark and dangerous business.
First, Kalakaua had won election as king by playing on the growing
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