Anti-annexation Protest Documents - Liliuokalani to William McKinley (U.S. President), June 17, 1897[ View PDF ] -- [ View in MS Word ]-- [ Hawaiian Newspaper Report ][ Batch Download Page ] [ Return to Table of Contents ]Source = U.S. Presidential files(?)Scanned phtocopies of microfilmed original (English) and newspaper report (Hawaiian)I, Liliuokalani of Hawaii, by the Will of God named heir-apparent on the tenth day of April, A.D. 1877, and by the grace of God Queen of the Hawaiian Islands on the seventeenth day of January, A.D. 1893, do hereby protest against the ratification of a certain treaty, which, so I am informed, has been signed at Washington by Messrs, Hatch, Thurston, and Kinney, purporting to cede those Islands to the territory and dominion of the United States. I declare such a treaty to be an act of -wrong toward the native and part-native people of Hawaii, an invasion of the rights of the ruling chiefs, in violation of international rights both toward my people and toward friendly nations with whom they have made treaties, the perpetuation of the fraud whereby the constitutional government was overthrown, and, finally, an act of gross injustice to me.BECAUSE the official protests made by me on the seventeenth day of January, 1893, to the so-called Provisional Government was signed by me, and received by said government with the assurance that the case was referred to the United States of America for arbitration. BECAUSE that protest and my communications to the United States Government immediately thereafter expressly declare that I yielded my authority to the forces of the United States in order to avoid bloodshed, and because I recognized the futility of a conflict with so formidable a power.BECAUSE the President of the United States, the Secretary of State, and an envoy commissioned by them reported in official documents that my government was unlawfully coerced by the forces, diplomatic and naval, of the United States; that I was at the date of their investigations the constitutional ruler of my people. BECAUSE neither the above-named commission nor the government which sends it has ever received any such authority from the registered voters of Hawaii, but derives its assumed powers from the so-called committee of public safety, organized on or about the seventeenth-day of January, 1893, said committee being composed largely of persons claiming American citizenship, and not one single Hawaiian was a member thereof, or in any way participated in the demonstration leading to its existence.BECAUSE my people, about forty thousand in number, have in no way been consulted by those, three thousand in number, who claim the right to destroy the independence of Hawaii. My people constitute four-fifths of the legally qualified voters of Hawaii, and excluding those imported for the demands of labor, about the same proportion of the inhabitants.BECAUSE said treaty ignores, not only the civic rights of my people, but, further, the hereditary property of their chiefs. Of the 4,000,000 acres composing the territory said treaty offers to annex, 1,000,000 or 915,000 acres has in no way been heretofore recognized as other than the private property of the constitutional monarch, subject to a control in now way differing from other items of a private estate.BECAUSE it is proposed by said treaty to confiscate said property, technically called the crown lands, those legally entitled thereto, either now or in succession, receiving no consideration whatever for estates, their title to which has been always undisputed, and which is legitimately in my name at this date.BECAUSE said treaty ignores, not only all professions of perpetual amity and good faith made by the United States in former treaties with the sovereigns representing the Hawaiian people, but all treaties made by those sovereigns with other and friendly powers, and it is thereby in violation of international law.BECAUSE, by treating with the parties claiming at this time the right to cede said territory of Hawaii, the Government of the United States receives such territory from the hands of those whom its own magistrates (legally elected by the people of the United States, and in office in 1893) pronounced fraudulently in power and unconstitutionally ruling Hawaii.Therefore I, Liliuokalani of Hawaii, do hereby call upon the President of that nation, to whom alone I yielded my property and my authority, to withdraw said treaty (ceding said Islands) from further consideration. I ask the honorable Senate of the United States to decline to ratify said treaty, and I implore the people of this great and good nation, from whom my ancestors learned the Christian religion, to sustain their representatives in such acts of justice and equity as may be in accord with the principles of their fathers, and to the Almighty Ruler of the universe, to him who judgeth righteously, I commit my cause.Done at Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America, this seventeenth day of June, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-seven.FPRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=image of Liliuokalani and witness signatures"
Subject: From mystery to hawaii history/the judd files
on: Sunday, June 11, 2006
From mystery to Hawai'i history
By Joel Tannenbaum
Special to The Advertiser
DeSoto Brown, collection manager of Bishop Museum's
archives, reaches for one of the 92 boxes that store
the Judd family papers.
RICHARD AMBO | The Honolulu Advertiser
WHAT LIES WITHIN
Some examples from the thousands of documents in the
Judd files:
Letter from Laura to Gerrit Judd, reporting rowdy
behavior by sailors and an assurance that her Hawaiian
is progressing, dated Dec. 2, 1829.
An 1841 letter referencing the Protestant-Catholic
missionary conflict.
A deposition of John Richard concerning the events of
the "Maui Rebellion," dated July 16, 1848.
Gerrit P. Judd's resignation letter to Kamehameha III,
dated Aug. 25, 1853, in Hawaiian and English.
An agreement for rallying Hawaiian, French and British
soldiers in case of a war, in Hawaiian and English,
dated Nov. 19, 1854.
HE'S GOT THE POWER
In the Bishop Museum's Judd files is this document
granting Gerrit P. Judd carte blanche to negotiate
with foreign powers on behalf of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Its text, in English and Hawaiian:
Kamehameha III. By the Grace of God, of the Hawaiian
Islands, King.
To our trusty and well beloved subject Gerrit Parmile
Judd.
SECRET INSTRUCTIONS: In case our independence be not
fully recognized, be endangered by the acts of any
other Government, or our Sovereignty in peril or
rendered of no value, our Royal Domain being exposed
to further hostile attacks without just and good
reasons, or from any other cause you may find these
instructions necessary. These are to command and
empower you, on your behalf to treat and negotiate
with any King, President or Government or Agent
thereof for the purpose of placing our Islands under
foreign Protection and Rule.
And you are hereby further commanded and empowered to
treat and negotiate for the sale of and to sell our
Sovereignty of the Hawaiian Islands, if, for reasons
above mentioned, or for other good causes you may deem
it wise and prudent so to do, reserving in all cases
unto US the Ratification of any Treaty or Convention
you may sign on our behalf.
And you are hereby further empowered to bargain for
and sell all our Private Lands, and those of our
chiefs, subject to our Ratification and the free
concurrence of our Chiefs.
Done at the Palace, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaiian Islands,
this seventh day of September, A.D. 1849.
KAMEHAMEHA
(SEAL) KEONI ANA
By the King and Premier.
R.C. WYLLIE
Minister of Foreign Relations
Kamehameha III, no ka Lokomaikai o ke Akua, ke 'Lii o
ko Hawaii nei Pae Aina.
Ia Gerrit Parmile Judd, ka'u kauwa aloha i hilinai nui
ia.
KAUOHA MALU: Ina paha e hooiaio ole ia ko'u Kuokoa
ana, ina e popilikia paha no ka hana ana a kekahi
Aupuni, a e lilo ana paha ko'u Alii ana i mea ole a i
mea kulanalana loa paha, a e pilikia hou (ko'u) Aina
Hooilina Alii i ke Kaua kumuole, a ina paha no kekahi
kumu e ae e ike ai oe he pono keia kauoha ke hanaia;
Ke Kauoha, a ke Haawi aku nei au ia oe, ma ko'u aoao,
e hoohalahala a e hooholo i Kuikahi me kekahi Alii,
Peresidena, Aupuni, a Luna Aupuni paha, no ka hoolilo
ana i ko'u Pae Aina malalo o kahoomalu ana, a o ke
Alii ana o kekahi Aina e.
A ke kauoha aku nei hoi au ia oe me ka haawi aku ia oe
ka hoohalahala a me ka hooholo i olelo ae-like no ke
kuai ana, a e kuai aku i ko'u Alii ana ke manao oe he
pono, he naauao ia, no na kumu i kakauia maluna, a no
na kumu e ae paha. Eia no nae ia'u ka hooholo ole i ke
Kuikahi a i ka olelo ae-like paha au i hana ai ma kou
aoao. A ma keia Palapala ua haawiia ia oe ka hiki pono
ke hoohalala kuai, a me ke kuai aku i ko'u mau Aina
ponoi, a me na Aina o ko'u poe Alii ka ae a me ka
hoole i ka olelo au e hooholo ai.
Hanaia ma ko'u Hale Alii, Honolulu, Oahu, ko Hawaii
nei Pae Aina i keia la ehiku o Sepatemaba, M.H. 1849.
KAMEHAMEHA
(SEAL) KEONI ANA
By the King and the Premier.
R.C. WYLLIE.
Minister of Foreign Relations.
Bishop Museum's DeSoto Brown uses gloves to examine an
1841 contract by Gerrit P. Judd for the construction
of a roof for Kawaiaha'o Church.
RICHARD AMBO | The Honolulu Advertiser
When Albert Francis "Juddie" Judd III died in March at
the age of 96, a long-held deal came due.
Judd, a direct descendant of the original
settler-missionary Judds, held ownership of the
private papers of Gerrit P. Judd and his sons,
spanning from the 1820s until the end of the 19th
century.
Upon his death they officially became the property of
the Bishop Museum, where they had been stored and kept
under extremely restricted access since 1922.
The Judd papers were, and to some extent still are,
shrouded in mystery.
Many know the story of Juddie's great-grandfather,
Gerrit P. Judd, the Massachusetts doctor and
missionary who came to Hawai'i to spread Christianity
but stayed on as an adviser to the Hawaiian Kingdom
and trusted confidant of the royal family,
particularly Kamehameha III.
Like many of Hawai'i's old-money set, the Judds went
from missionaries to landed gentry within one
generation. Unlike many of their counterparts, the
Judds' historical legacy still has a shine to it,
mainly because of Gerrit Judd's role in reinstating
the monarchy in 1843, after a British naval captain
took over Honolulu Harbor and attempted to depose the
government.
According to many, Judd was not just an adviser but
the de facto prime minister of the Kingdom of Hawai'i
during this era, which included the 1848 Mahele, the
radical land redistribution scheme that dispossessed
many Native Hawaiians from their homes and opened the
door to plantation agriculture.
But there are a whole lot of things about Gerrit P.
Judd and his sons that we don't know, and that we're
about to find out.
TIGHTLY GUARDED COLLECTION
In 1908, Gerrit Judd's grandson, Albert Francis Judd
II, joined the board of trustees of Kamehameha
Schools, which at the time also governed Bishop
Museum. In the 1920s, he began placing items from the
personal papers of his father and grandfather in the
museum.
By 1936, the complete "Judd papers" were left there in
four steel cabinets. Albert Judd II's wife, Madeline
Hartwell Judd, passed away in 1941, leaving the
collection to their son Albert Francis Judd III.
Juddie never inspected the contents personally, but
maintained tight control over it, vetting anyone —
researcher or museum employee — who wanted access.
In 1966, according to Bishop Museum records, then
director Dr. Roland Force wrote to curator of
collections E.H. Bryan Jr. asking how the museum had
come into possession of the cabinets.
Bryan replied that he thought this was the result of a
private agreement between Albert Judd II under the
museum's 1930s leadership:
"It was my understanding that these files contained
material concerning the Judd family and were to be
left alone until after the deaths of the persons
concerned," wrote Bryan in 1966. "Who these persons
were and how long that should be was never mentioned
to me. In fact, I was as much as told that these files
were none of the business of the Curator of
Collections and that I was to leave them strictly
alone."
In 1975, Albert Judd III signed a deed of gift,
establishing that the papers would remain in the
museum, but would be under his control until his
death.
In the 1980s, Judd's sister, Dorothy Judd, donated
funds to stem the deterioration of the documents,
allowing vetted museum employees and volunteers to
slowly begin sorting the documents and storing them in
acid-free folders and boxes.
For DeSoto Brown, 52, the collection manager for
Bishop Museum's archives, this arrangement posed some
unique problems.
"The staff of Bishop Museum has learned that
agreements like that are too cumbersome and too
difficult and not to the museum's benefit and not to
the patron's benefit to do things that way," says
Brown, who has worked at the museum since 1969, first
as a volunteer, and, since 1987, as a full-time
archivist.
In March, when the museum came into full possession of
the documents, museum staff, led by Brown, stepped up
work cataloging and preserving the thousands of
documents — official government papers, personal
correspondence, newspaper clippings, contracts, among
many other things.
On a recent weekday, library technician Anoi Aga, 26,
and archives technician Leah Caldiera, 26, were in the
Carter Room, assisting Brown in locating documents.
The narrow room, lined with high shelves filled with
the 92 grey boxes holding the Judd papers, is kept at
a chilly 63 degrees.
OPEN TO INTERPRETATION
It's one thing to catalog a collection, and another to
open it to the public. To incorporate the knowledge
within that collection into the tapestry of Hawaiian
history is a vastly larger task, and that's where the
public comes in.
Bishop Museum's archives are unusual in that only a
minority of their users are academics in the strictest
sense. Most people who show up in the archives are
kama'aina with genealogical questions, or simply a
curiosity about the islands on which they live. In
fact, according to an annual survey the library and
archives conduct, the majority of archive users
identify themselves as Native Hawaiian.
Little by little, it is the archives' patrons who will
assess the Judd papers and rewrite Hawaiian history
accordingly.
"It's wonderful to have this," says Brown. "I don't
want that to sound ghoulish or like I took pleasure in
Juddie's death, but on the other hand, that transition
does bring that material out for people to see. ...
And that's what we're here to do. Those of us that
work here, our lives are dedicated to that."
If the Judd material does indeed yield controversial
information, does that pose a problem for Bishop
Museum, tied as closely as it is to the nexus of old
missionary families that comprise Hawai'i's social and
economic elite?
Not according to Brown. "The fact is, the material
exists. The fact is, it is available to the public.
Therefore, people may write their own
interpretations," he says. "If someone finds material
in the Judd collection that changes things
dramatically, that's reality."
While some missionary families have gradually been
unmasked as frauds, incompetents or racists, Gerrit
Judd and his sons have, thus far, retained
respectability in historical memory, as selfless
intermediaries between Kamehameha III and the imperial
powers of the day. The opening up to the public of the
Judd papers may either strengthen that impression or
fatally damage it.
If the zealousness with which Albert Francis Judd III
guarded the collection is any indication, surprises
await.
The archives are open to the public from noon until 4
p.m. from Tuesday through Friday, and 9 a.m. until
noon on Saturday. The archives' staff is waiting.
"There are going to be many, many important pieces in
the Judd collection that researchers will have to look
for," says Brown. "And we welcome people coming in to
do that, because that's how the word gets out. That's
how new information comes."
Kealani Cook, 29, a native of Waimea on the Big Island
who is studying for a Ph.D. in history at the
University of Michigan, agrees. "Between the recent
efforts to translate, catalog and analyze the
Hawaiian-language newspaper archives, and the Judd
papers," Cook says, "we may witness a significant
rewriting of mid-19th century Hawaiian political,
social and cultural history in the next 10 years."
The documents, besides the information they contain,
are historical artifacts in and of themselves. Brown
points to secret instructions signed by Kamehameha III
in 1849, empowering Gerrit P. Judd to negotiate for
foreign protection in the event of an emergency.
"If you want to say it (this secret document) has the
mana of the people, it could be said to have that," he
says.
Key missionary family's private documents could recast
story of the Hawaiian Kingdom as Bishop Museum opens
files to public
Comments
on: Sunday, June 11, 2006
From mystery to Hawai'i history
By Joel Tannenbaum
Special to The Advertiser
DeSoto Brown, collection manager of Bishop Museum's
archives, reaches for one of the 92 boxes that store
the Judd family papers.
RICHARD AMBO | The Honolulu Advertiser
WHAT LIES WITHIN
Some examples from the thousands of documents in the
Judd files:
Letter from Laura to Gerrit Judd, reporting rowdy
behavior by sailors and an assurance that her Hawaiian
is progressing, dated Dec. 2, 1829.
An 1841 letter referencing the Protestant-Catholic
missionary conflict.
A deposition of John Richard concerning the events of
the "Maui Rebellion," dated July 16, 1848.
Gerrit P. Judd's resignation letter to Kamehameha III,
dated Aug. 25, 1853, in Hawaiian and English.
An agreement for rallying Hawaiian, French and British
soldiers in case of a war, in Hawaiian and English,
dated Nov. 19, 1854.
HE'S GOT THE POWER
In the Bishop Museum's Judd files is this document
granting Gerrit P. Judd carte blanche to negotiate
with foreign powers on behalf of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Its text, in English and Hawaiian:
Kamehameha III. By the Grace of God, of the Hawaiian
Islands, King.
To our trusty and well beloved subject Gerrit Parmile
Judd.
SECRET INSTRUCTIONS: In case our independence be not
fully recognized, be endangered by the acts of any
other Government, or our Sovereignty in peril or
rendered of no value, our Royal Domain being exposed
to further hostile attacks without just and good
reasons, or from any other cause you may find these
instructions necessary. These are to command and
empower you, on your behalf to treat and negotiate
with any King, President or Government or Agent
thereof for the purpose of placing our Islands under
foreign Protection and Rule.
And you are hereby further commanded and empowered to
treat and negotiate for the sale of and to sell our
Sovereignty of the Hawaiian Islands, if, for reasons
above mentioned, or for other good causes you may deem
it wise and prudent so to do, reserving in all cases
unto US the Ratification of any Treaty or Convention
you may sign on our behalf.
And you are hereby further empowered to bargain for
and sell all our Private Lands, and those of our
chiefs, subject to our Ratification and the free
concurrence of our Chiefs.
Done at the Palace, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaiian Islands,
this seventh day of September, A.D. 1849.
KAMEHAMEHA
(SEAL) KEONI ANA
By the King and Premier.
R.C. WYLLIE
Minister of Foreign Relations
Kamehameha III, no ka Lokomaikai o ke Akua, ke 'Lii o
ko Hawaii nei Pae Aina.
Ia Gerrit Parmile Judd, ka'u kauwa aloha i hilinai nui
ia.
KAUOHA MALU: Ina paha e hooiaio ole ia ko'u Kuokoa
ana, ina e popilikia paha no ka hana ana a kekahi
Aupuni, a e lilo ana paha ko'u Alii ana i mea ole a i
mea kulanalana loa paha, a e pilikia hou (ko'u) Aina
Hooilina Alii i ke Kaua kumuole, a ina paha no kekahi
kumu e ae e ike ai oe he pono keia kauoha ke hanaia;
Ke Kauoha, a ke Haawi aku nei au ia oe, ma ko'u aoao,
e hoohalahala a e hooholo i Kuikahi me kekahi Alii,
Peresidena, Aupuni, a Luna Aupuni paha, no ka hoolilo
ana i ko'u Pae Aina malalo o kahoomalu ana, a o ke
Alii ana o kekahi Aina e.
A ke kauoha aku nei hoi au ia oe me ka haawi aku ia oe
ka hoohalahala a me ka hooholo i olelo ae-like no ke
kuai ana, a e kuai aku i ko'u Alii ana ke manao oe he
pono, he naauao ia, no na kumu i kakauia maluna, a no
na kumu e ae paha. Eia no nae ia'u ka hooholo ole i ke
Kuikahi a i ka olelo ae-like paha au i hana ai ma kou
aoao. A ma keia Palapala ua haawiia ia oe ka hiki pono
ke hoohalala kuai, a me ke kuai aku i ko'u mau Aina
ponoi, a me na Aina o ko'u poe Alii ka ae a me ka
hoole i ka olelo au e hooholo ai.
Hanaia ma ko'u Hale Alii, Honolulu, Oahu, ko Hawaii
nei Pae Aina i keia la ehiku o Sepatemaba, M.H. 1849.
KAMEHAMEHA
(SEAL) KEONI ANA
By the King and the Premier.
R.C. WYLLIE.
Minister of Foreign Relations.
Bishop Museum's DeSoto Brown uses gloves to examine an
1841 contract by Gerrit P. Judd for the construction
of a roof for Kawaiaha'o Church.
RICHARD AMBO | The Honolulu Advertiser
When Albert Francis "Juddie" Judd III died in March at
the age of 96, a long-held deal came due.
Judd, a direct descendant of the original
settler-missionary Judds, held ownership of the
private papers of Gerrit P. Judd and his sons,
spanning from the 1820s until the end of the 19th
century.
Upon his death they officially became the property of
the Bishop Museum, where they had been stored and kept
under extremely restricted access since 1922.
The Judd papers were, and to some extent still are,
shrouded in mystery.
Many know the story of Juddie's great-grandfather,
Gerrit P. Judd, the Massachusetts doctor and
missionary who came to Hawai'i to spread Christianity
but stayed on as an adviser to the Hawaiian Kingdom
and trusted confidant of the royal family,
particularly Kamehameha III.
Like many of Hawai'i's old-money set, the Judds went
from missionaries to landed gentry within one
generation. Unlike many of their counterparts, the
Judds' historical legacy still has a shine to it,
mainly because of Gerrit Judd's role in reinstating
the monarchy in 1843, after a British naval captain
took over Honolulu Harbor and attempted to depose the
government.
According to many, Judd was not just an adviser but
the de facto prime minister of the Kingdom of Hawai'i
during this era, which included the 1848 Mahele, the
radical land redistribution scheme that dispossessed
many Native Hawaiians from their homes and opened the
door to plantation agriculture.
But there are a whole lot of things about Gerrit P.
Judd and his sons that we don't know, and that we're
about to find out.
TIGHTLY GUARDED COLLECTION
In 1908, Gerrit Judd's grandson, Albert Francis Judd
II, joined the board of trustees of Kamehameha
Schools, which at the time also governed Bishop
Museum. In the 1920s, he began placing items from the
personal papers of his father and grandfather in the
museum.
By 1936, the complete "Judd papers" were left there in
four steel cabinets. Albert Judd II's wife, Madeline
Hartwell Judd, passed away in 1941, leaving the
collection to their son Albert Francis Judd III.
Juddie never inspected the contents personally, but
maintained tight control over it, vetting anyone —
researcher or museum employee — who wanted access.
In 1966, according to Bishop Museum records, then
director Dr. Roland Force wrote to curator of
collections E.H. Bryan Jr. asking how the museum had
come into possession of the cabinets.
Bryan replied that he thought this was the result of a
private agreement between Albert Judd II under the
museum's 1930s leadership:
"It was my understanding that these files contained
material concerning the Judd family and were to be
left alone until after the deaths of the persons
concerned," wrote Bryan in 1966. "Who these persons
were and how long that should be was never mentioned
to me. In fact, I was as much as told that these files
were none of the business of the Curator of
Collections and that I was to leave them strictly
alone."
In 1975, Albert Judd III signed a deed of gift,
establishing that the papers would remain in the
museum, but would be under his control until his
death.
In the 1980s, Judd's sister, Dorothy Judd, donated
funds to stem the deterioration of the documents,
allowing vetted museum employees and volunteers to
slowly begin sorting the documents and storing them in
acid-free folders and boxes.
For DeSoto Brown, 52, the collection manager for
Bishop Museum's archives, this arrangement posed some
unique problems.
"The staff of Bishop Museum has learned that
agreements like that are too cumbersome and too
difficult and not to the museum's benefit and not to
the patron's benefit to do things that way," says
Brown, who has worked at the museum since 1969, first
as a volunteer, and, since 1987, as a full-time
archivist.
In March, when the museum came into full possession of
the documents, museum staff, led by Brown, stepped up
work cataloging and preserving the thousands of
documents — official government papers, personal
correspondence, newspaper clippings, contracts, among
many other things.
On a recent weekday, library technician Anoi Aga, 26,
and archives technician Leah Caldiera, 26, were in the
Carter Room, assisting Brown in locating documents.
The narrow room, lined with high shelves filled with
the 92 grey boxes holding the Judd papers, is kept at
a chilly 63 degrees.
OPEN TO INTERPRETATION
It's one thing to catalog a collection, and another to
open it to the public. To incorporate the knowledge
within that collection into the tapestry of Hawaiian
history is a vastly larger task, and that's where the
public comes in.
Bishop Museum's archives are unusual in that only a
minority of their users are academics in the strictest
sense. Most people who show up in the archives are
kama'aina with genealogical questions, or simply a
curiosity about the islands on which they live. In
fact, according to an annual survey the library and
archives conduct, the majority of archive users
identify themselves as Native Hawaiian.
Little by little, it is the archives' patrons who will
assess the Judd papers and rewrite Hawaiian history
accordingly.
"It's wonderful to have this," says Brown. "I don't
want that to sound ghoulish or like I took pleasure in
Juddie's death, but on the other hand, that transition
does bring that material out for people to see. ...
And that's what we're here to do. Those of us that
work here, our lives are dedicated to that."
If the Judd material does indeed yield controversial
information, does that pose a problem for Bishop
Museum, tied as closely as it is to the nexus of old
missionary families that comprise Hawai'i's social and
economic elite?
Not according to Brown. "The fact is, the material
exists. The fact is, it is available to the public.
Therefore, people may write their own
interpretations," he says. "If someone finds material
in the Judd collection that changes things
dramatically, that's reality."
While some missionary families have gradually been
unmasked as frauds, incompetents or racists, Gerrit
Judd and his sons have, thus far, retained
respectability in historical memory, as selfless
intermediaries between Kamehameha III and the imperial
powers of the day. The opening up to the public of the
Judd papers may either strengthen that impression or
fatally damage it.
If the zealousness with which Albert Francis Judd III
guarded the collection is any indication, surprises
await.
The archives are open to the public from noon until 4
p.m. from Tuesday through Friday, and 9 a.m. until
noon on Saturday. The archives' staff is waiting.
"There are going to be many, many important pieces in
the Judd collection that researchers will have to look
for," says Brown. "And we welcome people coming in to
do that, because that's how the word gets out. That's
how new information comes."
Kealani Cook, 29, a native of Waimea on the Big Island
who is studying for a Ph.D. in history at the
University of Michigan, agrees. "Between the recent
efforts to translate, catalog and analyze the
Hawaiian-language newspaper archives, and the Judd
papers," Cook says, "we may witness a significant
rewriting of mid-19th century Hawaiian political,
social and cultural history in the next 10 years."
The documents, besides the information they contain,
are historical artifacts in and of themselves. Brown
points to secret instructions signed by Kamehameha III
in 1849, empowering Gerrit P. Judd to negotiate for
foreign protection in the event of an emergency.
"If you want to say it (this secret document) has the
mana of the people, it could be said to have that," he
says.
Key missionary family's private documents could recast
story of the Hawaiian Kingdom as Bishop Museum opens
files to public