The Hawaiian Purge
The abrupt removal of the Great Hawaiian Monarchy
Thesis
Minister John L. Stevens
President William McKinley
William McKinley was the next president in line for office after Cleveland had finished his term. He was one who believed in New Imperialism. He had saw Hawaii as a gold mine for great opportunities, especially Pearl Harbor. During this process, he was in favor of annexation and highly supported any means of overthrowing the monarchy. He had actually signed a treaty of annexation and submitted the treaty to the U.S. Senate for ratification. In response to this, The Queen and delegates had submitted a petition to run against the treaty. Due to this, the treaty was defeated in the end but McKinley hadn't given up at that point. He had them brought up a so-called Joint Resolution in which simply majority vote in both houses which had resulted to the Newlands Resolution. This resolution was signed into law on July 7, 1897. William McKinley was a confident and headstrong man.
President Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland was in fact against the annexation of Hawaii and felt that the Hawaiians had deeply wanted to be left alone as is. He sends Secretary James Blount to right a report on what was currently going on in the area. As requested, Secretary Blount had delivered a report with more than 1,400 pages stating the current situation. In that specific report he explained how illegal and immoral the overthrow was and was an act of war. Cleveland, who was shocked, had gone to Hawaii only to find Stanford B. Dole and a bunch of American marines in an act of power. Frustrated and angry, Cleveland had ordered Dole to return Hawaii back to the Queen, only to fought back by a standing opposition of Dole. Dole had insisted that if Cleveland were to oppose the annexation, Cleveland would have to kill American blood to which Cleveland took in. In the end, he had done nothing to stop the overthrow of the monarchy.