Dole Had Long Hawaiian Political Career Before and After Coup

1. BRIEF OVERVIEW OF SANFORD B. DOLE'S POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY
Sanford B. Dole was native-born at Punahou School, April 23, 1844. He spent eleven of his most formative years (ages 11-22) growing up Hawaiian-style, at Koloa, Kaua'i, where he became expert at konane (somewhat similar to checkers) and pahia (a special form of diving). After attending Williams College (Massachusetts) he became a lawyer, and included plantation laborers among his pro bono clients. He adopted a native girl (perhaps his biological child), whose descendants are Hawaiian community leaders today. His ties to Koloa remained strong, and he was elected to the Kingdom legislature 1884-86 from Koloa.
In 1887 he led the revolution that forced King Kalakaua to accept a new Constitution reducing him to a mere figurehead. Later that year Kalakaua appointed him to the Kingdom's Supreme Court. In 1893 Justice Dole honorably resigned his judgeship before the final revolution on January 17. He then led the Provisional Government afterward. He tried to rush a treaty of annexation through the U.S. Senate during the six remaining weeks while Harrison was still U.S. President (through March 3, in those days), but was unsuccessful because of the time it took to send a document to Washington by ship and train, and because of the slowness of the Senate. Immediately after taking power on March 4, 1893, the new U.S. President Grover Cleveland withdrew the proposed treaty of annexation, and on March 11 he sent a personal envoy to Hawai'i to conduct a one-sided secret "investigation" of the revolution. Following Mr. Blount's report, President Cleveland "ordered" Dole to undo the revolution and reinstate the Queen. President Dole wrote a blistering, lengthy letter of refusal, thereby confirming that Hawai'i remained an independent nation and not a puppet regime, even while desiring annexation. President Dole then helped form the Republic of Hawai'i and was its only President through four more years as an independent nation, recognized by all the nations who had previously recognized the Kingdom. His strong leadership allowed the Republic of Hawai'i to defy the U.S. President and to crush the attempted counter-revolution of 1895 which made use of rifles and bombs the U.S. permitted to be smuggled in to Robert Wilcox.