King Kalākaua of the Hawaiian Kingdom made a state visit to the United States during the period November 28, 1874, through February 3, 1875. Authorized by the legislature of Hawaii, the purpose of the visit was for the ratification of the reciprocity treaty. The 91-day round-trip journey across the United States began in Honolulu on November 17, 1874, and was completed on February 15, 1875. His arrival at San Francisco on November 28, made him the first reigning monarch of any nation to set foot in the United States. Upon his arrival in Washington, D.C., the United States Congress held the first joint meeting in the body's history, less formal than a joint session, to receive him. US President Ulysses S. Grant hosted him as honoree of the first state dinner at the White House.
A career politician who rose through the ranks of chiefs, Kalākaua had previously been to California and Canada with Prince Lot in 1860 as a 23-year-old government bureaucrat, more than a dozen years away from his accession to the throne. In 1874, the Hawaiian government sent him to Washington, D.C., this time to seek the elimination of tariffs on the kingdom's sugar exports, after previous attempts had failed. There had been concerns about Kalākaua's willingness to make the journey; however, after putting Elisha Hunt Allen in charge of the negotiations, he sailed for San Francisco, and journeyed across the United States by rail. He was well-received by government officials on federal, state and local levels, and accorded respect as a commander-in-chief by military representatives.
Although ill with a viral infection throughout much of his trip, the king accommodated the relentless attention of being in the spotlight across America. He accorded journalist requests for interviews, and interacted with the general public, shaking hands and signing autographs, while crowds of curiosity seekers grew with each stop. Anticipation had grown so strong by the time he reached Washington, D.C., that spectators gathered on rooftops to watch him pass by. Goodwill generated by Kalākaua is credited for doing much to help move legislation for the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 through the necessary channels. The resulting close economic ties between the Hawaiian islands and the United States became a major factor leading to the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893.
Background Kalākaua was a career politician who rose through the ranks of chiefs, and was named by Kamehameha III in 1844 as eligible to be king. Kamehameha V, the last of the Kamehameha dynasty, died on December 12, 1872, without naming a successor to the throne. Under the 1864 Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom, if the king did not appoint a successor, a new king would be elected by the legislature to start a new royal line of succession. Lunalilo became the first elected monarch of Hawaii, with Kalākaua holding the rank of Colonel on the royal military staff. Upon Lunalilo's death on February 3, 1874, a legislative election was held, with Kalākaua being sworn in as monarch on February 13. Two weeks after taking office, he reorganized the Hawaiian military and restored the Household Guards recently abolished by Lunalilo. Like his predecessors, he belonged to fraternal organizations, as a member of the freemasonry Lodge Le Progres de l'Oceanie, and as the founding member of the Ancient Order of Foresters in Hawaii.
When Kalākaua embarked on his state visit to the United States, nine months after being elected, he was the first reigning monarch to visit America, but not the first member of Hawaii's royal family to do so. He was the second reigning Hawaiian monarch to travel abroad, having been preceded in 1824 by King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu, who had traveled to the United Kingdom via the Strait of Magellan, both of them dying of measles while in London. Prior to either of their accessions, brothers Prince Liholiho (Kamehameha IV) and Prince Lot (Kamehameha V) had accompanied Dr. Gerrit P. Judd on a year-long diplomatic mission, from September 11, 1849, to September 9, 1850. Judd's mission took them to San Francisco, Panama, Jamaica, New York, London and Paris. Kamehameha IV's widow Queen Emma had visited New York and San Francisco in 1866 on her return from a personal visit to England and France.
Kalākaua had previously visited the United States in late 1860, when he was chief clerk of the kingdom's Department of the Interior. On that trip, he had accompanied Minister of the Interior Prince Lot, high chief Levi Haalelea, and Hawaii's Consul for Peru Josiah C. Spalding on a two-month tour of British Columbia and California.;
The quest for tariff easement
Since the days of visits by whaling ships, and the arrival of the first missionaries in 1820, Hawaii became increasingly populated by non-residents operating within the kingdom's business community. Many of them became friends and advisors to the monarchy. The Alien Land Ownership Act was written by American attorney William Little Lee who arrived in Hawaii only a year before being appointed Land Commissioner. The Act, passed by the legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom on July 10, 1850, allowed non-residents to own Hawaiian land.
During the reign of Kamehameha III, sugar production in Hawaii became a successful enterprise, with sugar refineries in Oregon and California as the primary customers, and the kingdom looking to expand its market, but being increasingly hampered by tariffs on their product. The kingdom also had strong economic ties to the United Kingdom. Queen Emma was descended from a British subject, and Queen Victoria had been the godmother of Emma's son Prince Albert Kamehameha. Anglo-American planters operated tariff-free within their own customer bases. In the latter half of the 19th century, the sugar trade had become a booming industry, but import taxes severely dampened Hawaii as a viable economic competitor.
Hawaii's sugar planters had worked for decades with the legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom to find a viable remedy to the global market impingement on their profits caused by the tariffs. Solutions debated were tariff reciprocity treaties, annexation of Hawaii by the United States, formal alliances with other countries, and the cession of Pearl Harbor. An 1854 treaty for Hawaii's annexation to the United States was submitted to Kamehameha III, but he never signed it. In 1867, a proposed reciprocity treaty got as far as the United States Congress, but was defeated in the Senate. An aborted 1873 effort to offer Pearl Harbor in return for tariff reciprocity was heavily favored by American owners of Hawaiian plantations. Strong opposition came from Kalākaua and other leaders among the Hawaiian people.
On August 1, 1874, Hawaii's legislature authorized Kalākaua to ratify a reciprocity treaty in Washington, DC There was speculation that he was lukewarm on the idea. Diplomat Henry A. Peirce, who was serving as the United States Minister to Hawaii, stated, "I don't think the King cares much about the Treaty, but he hopes, as we Americans say, 'to have a good time' generally." The king actually supported the idea of a reciprocity treaty, just not one that ceded Hawaiian land, and he did not want Hawaii to appear to be favoring a single nation. Concern arose that his absence might trigger a hostile takeover of the kingdom by a foreign power. After consulting with his privy council, he agreed to accompany the diplomatic team, but rather than being involved in the negotiations himself, Kalākaua appointed Hawaiian Kingdom Minister to the United States Elisha Hunt Allen to take charge.
After exchanges between Peirce and Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, the US government extended a formal invitation to the king for a state visit and placed the man-of-war ship at his disposal. The king would leave the negotiating to his appointed commission, and focused his own efforts on building goodwill between the two nations, raising the island nation's visibility with visits to government leaders across the United States. On October 18, Minister Allen and Privy Councilor Henry A. P. Carter, of C. Brewer & Co., sailed for the United States. The members of the reciprocity commission who traveled with the king included Peirce, Oahu Governor John Owen Dominis, husband of Kalākaua's sister Liliuokalani, and Maui Governor John Mākini Kapena, a full-blood Hawaiian who supported a reciprocity treaty but who, during the reign of Lunalilo, had spoken out against cession of Hawaiian territory.
Departing Hawaii (November 14–17, 1874)
At Iolani Palace on November 14, the doors were opened to native Hawaiians for a traditional "hookupu", a ceremonial giving of gifts to the king prior to his departure. Kalākaua appointed his brother Leleiohoku II to act as regent during his absence. Likewise, Dominis appointed William F. Allen as acting governor of Oahu, and Kapena appointed Luther Aholo acting governor of Maui. Minister of the Interior William Luther Moehonua closed all government offices on November 16, as a public day of thanksgiving on Kalākaua's 38th birthday.
Celebration of the king's birthday began with morning services by various Christian denominations, extolling the historical significance of the upcoming visit. Salutes were fired from the three foreign warships in Honolulu Harbor. At the commencement of the morning service at Kawaiahao, the king and members of the royal family entered the church around noon to address the assembled crowds. Rev. Moses Kuaea, of the Kaumakapili Church, offered a prayer, praised the king's efforts to save the nation's agricultural interest, and asked for the people to pray for his safety during his upcoming trip. The church choir performed "God Save the King", "He Mele Lāhui Hawaii", the national anthem written by Liliuokalani, and "Hawaii Ponoī", composed by the king and Henri Berger. In his farewell address, Kalākaua stated: "... I believe that if such a Treaty can be secured, the beneficial effects will be soon apparent to all classes, and our nation, under its reviving influences, will grow again.";
The royal party consisting of Kalākaua, his personal secretary E. M. Mayor, diplomat Peirce, governors Dominis and Kapena, and three or four servants departed Hawaii on the morning of November 17. The king was conveyed to the wharf on the personal carriage of Captain William E. Hopkins, of the Benicia. An estimated 3000 to 4000 well-wishers lined the wharf, and the crowds chanted Hawaiian mele, cheered, and wailed at the occasion of the king's leaving. The Hawaiian royal standard was unfurled and salutes fired from the ship as the king and his party boarded and sailed east.
San Francisco (November 28 – December 5, 1874)
Flying the Hawaiian royal standard, the ship docked in San Francisco the evening of November 28. A formal reception by local dignitaries, along with a 21-gun salute from the Alcatraz Citadel, took place the next morning. They were joined on board by Edward C. Macfarlane, General John Schofield and his chief of staff, William M. Wherry, and Hawaiian Consul for California Henry W. Severance. San Francisco mayor James Otis, members of the First Regiment National Guard, and the Presidio Band playing "He Mele Lahui Hawaii", escorted all to their suite at the Grand Hotel.
During the king's week-long stay in San Francisco, the city absorbed all costs. Consul Severance acted as the royal greeter for the in-suite November 30 public reception. The following morning, Severance and the king's entourage sat for a portrait at the Bradley and Rulofson photograph gallery. Celso Caesar Moreno, who would later serve in the king's cabinet, presented himself as owner of three telegraph cable charter companies, regaling Kalākaua with his tales of global adventures.