Sanford Ballard Dole

Sanford Ballard Dole (born April 23, 1844, Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands—died June 9, 1926, Honolulu) was a lawyer, legislator, and jurist who led the provisional government of Hawaii established after the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown in 1893. He later served as the first president of the Republic of Hawaii (1894–1900) and first governor of the Territory of Hawaii (1900–03) after the islands were made territory of the United States.

The son of American Protestant missionaries in Hawaii, Dole went abroad to study for two years in the United States (1866–68). He first attended Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and then read law in the office of Boston lawyer William Brigham. He returned to Hawaii, practiced law in Honolulu (1869–87), and was twice elected to the Hawaiian legislature (1884 and 1886). An opponent of the policies of Hawaiian King Kalakaua, Dole was a leader of the reform movement that forced Kalakaua to adopt a constitution in 1887—called the Bayonet Constitution, for the threatening manner in which it was presented to the king for his signature—that was more favorable to the non-native business population at the expense of the king and the islands’ Native Hawaiian population. Later that year Dole was appointed a justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii.

In January 1893 the newly created Committee of Safety, representing largely American and European business interests, was formed to overthrow Queen Liliuokalani (who had succeeded her brother, Kalakaua, in 1891) and to seek annexation of Hawaii by the United States. The group had decided to take action because the queen wanted to abolish the Bayonet Constitution. Although Dole was not an official member of the committee, he agreed to the committee’s request that he lead the provisional government that would be installed to rule in place of Liliuokalani. Prior to that, Dole had asked the committee if, rather than abolishing the monarchy, they could instead just remove the queen and establish a regency for the young Princess Kaiulani, but this proposal was rejected.

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The committee deposed the queen and installed a provisional government with Dole as president on January 17, 1893. The overthrow occurred with the support of U.S. Minister John L. Stevens and U.S. Marines, whose presence discouraged resistance by the royal government. Dole’s government soon signed an annexation treaty with the administration of U.S. Pres. Benjamin Harrison, which then submitted it to the Senate for ratification. Before it could be ratified, Harrison was succeeded as president by Grover Cleveland, who withdrew the annexation treaty from the Senate in March and ordered an investigation into the circumstances of January 17. In December 1893 Cleveland rejected annexation efforts and demanded the restoration of Liliuokalani to the throne. Refusing to recognize Cleveland’s authority to intervene in what they regarded as Hawaii’s domestic affairs, Dole and his colleagues instead established the Republic of Hawaii on July 4, 1894, with Dole as president, and continued to seek annexation.

The next U.S. president, William McKinley, supported annexing Hawaii, and in 1898 Congress annexed the islands, though it did not immediately grant territory status. In the interim between annexation and eventual territory status, Dole and his administration continued to govern the islands. Many Native Hawaiians opposed both the overthrow of the monarchy and annexation by the United States.

When, finally, formal territorial government was established under the Organic Act of 1900, Dole was appointed the first governor of the Territory of Hawaii by McKinley. In 1903 Dole resigned to become judge of the U.S. district court of Hawaii, a post he held until his retirement in 1915.