Hawaii's King Forced: Bayonet Constitution Signed

Armed militiamen surrounded Iolani Palace while a group of American and European businessmen presented King David Kalakaua with a new constitution and demanded he sign it. The king had no realistic option to refuse on July 6, 1887 — the men behind the document controlled the Honolulu Rifles, the only significant armed force in the kingdom, and had made clear they would depose him if he resisted. The document became known as the Bayonet Constitution for the manner of its adoption. The constitution was drafted by Lorrin Thurston, a Hawaiian-born lawyer of American missionary descent who led the Hawaiian League, a secret organization of white businessmen determined to reduce the monarchy s power and secure their commercial interests, particularly in the sugar trade. American sugar planters had grown enormously wealthy in Hawaii but resented the king s efforts to maintain Hawaiian sovereignty, develop relationships with other Pacific powers, and preserve Native Hawaiian cultural practices. The Bayonet Constitution stripped the monarchy of most executive power, transferring authority to a cabinet that the king could no longer dismiss without legislative approval. More devastatingly, it restructured voting rights to exclude most Native Hawaiians and Asian immigrants through property and income qualifications while extending the vote to non-citizen foreign residents — effectively giving American and European businessmen control of the legislature in a kingdom where they were a small minority. Kalakaua signed under protest and spent the remaining four years of his life attempting to restore Hawaiian sovereignty. His efforts were hampered by the same power imbalance that had forced the constitution upon him. He died in San Francisco in 1891, reportedly of kidney disease exacerbated by the stress of his political humiliation. His sister Liliuokalani succeeded him and attempted to promulgate a new constitution restoring royal authority. The Bayonet Constitution was the critical precursor to the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893, when the same network of American businessmen deposed Queen Liliuokalani with the backing of U.S. Marines from the USS Boston. Hawaii was annexed as a U.S. territory in 1898 and became the fiftieth state in 1959. The events of 1887 remain a foundational grievance for the Hawaiian sovereignty movement.