Hawaii Annexed: McKinley Signs Newlands Resolution

President William McKinley signed the Newlands Resolution on July 7, 1898, formally annexing Hawaii as a United States territory. The resolution bypassed the treaty process — which required a two-thirds Senate vote that annexation supporters could not muster — by using a joint resolution of Congress that needed only simple majorities. The legal maneuver was constitutionally dubious, but the Spanish-American War had made Hawaii s strategic value as a Pacific naval station impossible for expansionists to ignore. The annexation was the culmination of five years of American machinations in Hawaii. In January 1893, a group of American and European businessmen had overthrown Queen Liliuokalani with the support of 162 U.S. Marines from the USS Boston, who came ashore to "protect American lives and property." The revolutionaries established a provisional government and immediately petitioned Washington for annexation. President Grover Cleveland investigated, concluded the overthrow was illegal, and refused to annex. The Republic of Hawaii operated as an independent but American-dominated state until McKinley took office. Native Hawaiians organized massive opposition to annexation. The Hui Aloha Aina and Hui Kalaiaina organizations collected petitions with over 21,000 signatures opposing the resolution — representing more than half the Native Hawaiian population. Four delegates traveled to Washington to present the petitions to Congress. The signatures were filed and ignored. The strategic argument for annexation crystallized during the Spanish-American War in 1898. American naval vessels needed coaling stations and supply bases across the Pacific to support operations in the Philippines. Pearl Harbor, which the United States had already secured exclusive use of through the 1887 Bayonet Constitution, was the obvious choice. Military necessity gave political cover to what had been a controversial proposition. Hawaii remained a territory for sixty-one years before achieving statehood in 1959. In 1993, Congress passed a formal apology resolution acknowledging that the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy was illegal and that Native Hawaiians had never directly relinquished their sovereignty. The apology carried no legal remedy or reparations.