John Edward Bush
Encyclopedia
John Edward Bush was a politician and newspaper publisher in the Kingdom of Hawaii
Kingdom of Hawaii
The Kingdom of Hawaii was established during the years 1795 to 1810 with the subjugation of the smaller independent chiefdoms of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lānai, Kauai and Niihau by the chiefdom of Hawaii into one unified government...

.

Early life

John Edward Bush was born in Honolulu on February 15, 1842 (or 1843).
He was of mixed native Hawaiian and Caucasian
Caucasian race
The term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia , Central Asia and South Asia...

 ancestors (known as hapa haole
Hapa
Hapa is a Hawaiian language term used to describe a person of mixed Asian or Pacific Islander racial or ethnic heritage.-Etymology:In the Hawaiian language, hapa is defined as: portion, fragment, part, fraction, installment; to be partial, less. It is a loan from the English word half...

). Growing up in a multicultural environment, he could read, write, and speak at least the English and Hawaiian language
Hawaiian language
The Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...

 fluently.
He sometimes used Aiuene Buki as the Hawaiian version of his name.
He worked for a while on a whaling ship
Whaler
A whaler is a specialized ship, designed for whaling, the catching and/or processing of whales. The former included the whale catcher, a steam or diesel-driven vessel with a harpoon gun mounted at its bows. The latter included such vessels as the sail or steam-driven whaleship of the 16th to early...

, and then learned the printing trade at the offices of the Hawaiian Gazette.

Politics

In 1875 he became a marriage license agent, and 1876 a land appraiser on Oahu
Oahu
Oahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...

 island.
On January 4, 1877 King Kalākaua
Kalakaua
Kalākaua, born David Laamea Kamanakapuu Mahinulani Nalaiaehuokalani Lumialani Kalākaua and sometimes called The Merrie Monarch , was the last reigning king of the Kingdom of Hawaii...

 appointed him Royal Governor
Governors of Kauai
The Governor of Kauai was the royal governor or viceroy of the island of Kauai and island of Niihau during the Kingdom of Hawaii. The Governor of Kauai was usually a Hawaiian chief or prince and could even be a woman. The Governor had authority over the islands of Kauai and Niihau, and it was up to...

 of the island of Kauai
Kauai
Kauai or Kauai, known as Tauai in the ancient Kaua'i dialect, is geologically the oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands. With an area of , it is the fourth largest of the main islands in the Hawaiian archipelago, and the 21st largest island in the United States. Known also as the "Garden Isle",...

.
Kalākaua also appointed him to his Privy Council
Privy council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...

 on September 1, 1878, and the House of Nobles in the legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom
Legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom
The Legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom was the bicameral legislature of the Kingdom of Hawaii. A royal legislature was first provided by the 1840 Constitution and the 1852 Constitution was the first to use the term "Legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom", and the first to subject the monarch to...

 on April 24, 1880. Bush served until the office was made elective in 1887.

On August 14, 1880 he became Minister of the Interior in Kalākaua's cabinet, but he was replaced about six weeks later on September 27.
He temporarily acted as Minister of Foreign Affairs replacing Celso Caesar Moreno for much of the same time as well, until William Lowthian Green
William Lowthian Green
William Lowthian Green was an English adventurer and merchant, who later became cabinet minister in the Kingdom of Hawaii. As an amateur geologist, he published a theory of the formation of the earth called the tetrahedral hypothesis.-Life:...

 took the office on a more permanent basis.
He was back in the cabinet again on May 20, 1882 as Minister of Finance, but served only until August 8 of that year. At that time he took the interior ministry again, and served until July 26, 1883.
After another temporary replacement, Charles T. Gulick
Charles T. Gulick
Charles Thomas Gulick was a politician in the Kingdom of Hawaii. He was one of the few members of missionary families to side with the monarchy in the 1893 overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii.-Life:...

 became interior minister. Bush was accused of "irregularities" in awarding public works contracts.

Polynesian Confederation

On December 23, 1886 Kalākaua named him a special envoy to Samoa
Samoa
Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...

 in an attempt to form a Polynesia
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...

n alliance with Samoan King Malietoa Laupepa
Malietoa Laupepa
Susuga Malietoa Laupepa was the ruler of Samoa in the late 19th century.-Personal life: Laupepa was born in 1841 in Sapapali'i, Savaii, Samoa. His father was King Malietoa Moli and mother was Fa’alaituio Fuatino Su’a. He was raised in Malie, received a religious education at Malua Seminary and...

. Bush arrived to Apia, Laupepa's capital, on January 7, 1887 on the steamer Zealandia. Laupepa was awarded the honorary decoration Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Star of Oceania. The order had just been created for the heads of state for the proposed Polynesian confederation, although the actual medal was delayed in the mail. Bush lavishly entertained the Samoans, and promised more gifts, such as a carriage and pair of horses. By February 17, Laupepa agreed to the alliance, and a treaty forming a Polynesian Confederation was signed on March 21, 1887.

Bush then was told to negotiate similar deals with Tonga
Tonga
Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...

, the Gilbert Islands
Gilbert Islands
The Gilbert Islands are a chain of sixteen atolls and coral islands in the Pacific Ocean. They are the main part of Republic of Kiribati and include Tarawa, the site of the country's capital and residence of almost half of the population.-Geography:The atolls and islands of the Gilbert Islands...

, and others in the Pacific.
The empire was generally thought to be the idea of Walter M. Gibson
Walter M. Gibson
Walter Murray Gibson was an American adventurer and a government minister in the Kingdom of Hawaii prior to the kingdom's 1887 constitution.-Life:...

, who among his other titles, had himself named secretary of the Navy.
However, the "navy" did not have any ships. On January 22, 1887 Gibson convinced the government to purchase the Explorer, a 128 feet (39 m) former British merchant steamer which had been launched in 1872. After being refitted at great expense (over budget and behind schedule), the ship was renamed Kaimiloa (from ka imi loa which roughly means "the explorer" in the Hawaiian language
Hawaiian language
The Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...

), and ceremonially launched on April 20, 1887. Isobel Strong, the stepdaughter of Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....

 and wife of Joseph Dwight Strong
Joseph Dwight Strong
Joseph Dwight Strong, Jr. was an artist from the United States.-Life:Joseph Dwight Strong was born September 15, 1853 in Connecticut....

, designed a naval flag, and Henri Berger
Henri Berger
Henry or Henri Berger was a Prussian Kapellmeister composer and royal bandmaster of the Kingdom of Hawaii from 1872 to his death....

 composed a march in her honor. Kaimiloa finally set sail on May 18, 1887 to serve as Bush's flagship.

Henry A. P. Carter
Henry A. P. Carter
Henry Alpheus Peirce Carter also known as Henry Augustus Peirce Carter was an American businessman, politician, and diplomat in the Kingdom of Hawaii.-Family life:...

, who was in Europe trying to negotiate treaties between Hawaiian and major powers at the time, informed the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...

 of the agreement.
Germany had been asserting influence over the Samoan islands, which were in the midst of a Samoan Civil War
Samoan Civil War
The First Samoan Civil War refers to the conflict between rival Samoan factions in the Samoan Islands of the South Pacific. The war was fought roughly between 1886 and 1894, primarily between Samoans though the German military intervened on several occasions. The United States and the United...

.
Germany, with its powerful modern navy, considered the ship an irritating insult. Kaimiloa was commanded by George E. Gresley Jackson, master of the Honolulu Reformatory School, and manned by members of the school's band. The mission was documented with J. D. Strong as ship's artist and photographer.
She had been refitted with cannon and Gattling guns, although her arms were barely usable for anything but ceremonial salutes. The ship got lost, but finally made it to Aipa in mid-June 1887. The crew exchanged salutes with the German ship Adler, which shadowed Kaimiloa while Bush tried to gather support for Laupepa in other parts of Samoa. The boy's band played concerts for the Samoans, who were entertained with food and liquor through the night.
The German ship could have easily blown Kaimiloa out of the water, but might have suspected it was somehow backed by the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.
When he returned to Apia on July 19, Bush found a letter from Gibson replacing him as envoy with his secretary Henry F. Poor.
Gibson cited a letter complaining about Bush's conduct, which later turned out of be fake.
In the meanwhile back in Hawaii, on June 30, 1877 a group of businessmen and lawyers supported by the Honolulu Rifles
Honolulu Rifles
The Honolulu Rifle Company was a paramilitary force loyal to the Missionary Party and the later Reform Party. It was created in 1854 as a militia to deal with internal conflict, 24 Rifles were deployed during the [[ʻIolani Barracks#1873 Barracks Revolt|1873 Barracks Revolt]]...

 had forced Kalākaua to dismiss Gibson and sign a new constitution
1887 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii
The 1887 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii was a legal document by anti-monarchists to strip the Hawaiian monarchy of much of its authority, initiating a transfer of power to American, European and native Hawaiian elites...

 that limited the monarch's powers. The expense of the Polynesian expedition was given as a motivation for the takeover. The English-language press in Hawaii satirically called the effort "the Empire of the Calabash
Calabash
Lagenaria siceraria , bottle gourd, opo squash or long melon is a vine grown for its fruit, which can either be harvested young and used as a vegetable, or harvested mature, dried, and used as a bottle, utensil, or pipe. For this reason, the calabash is widely known as the bottle gourd...

" and suggesting creating additional decorations for "the Order of the Tattooed Drinking Gourd and the Order of the Royal Cuspidor", or awarding gold-plated loincloths.

Kaimiloa was ordered back to Honolulu, but Bush refused to go aboard. The ship crew violated their orders, and landed in Pago Pago (on another Samoan island) where they sold the ship's silver service and some arms for food and drink. Kaimiloa finally left Samoa on August 23, and on the next day Germany declared war on Laupepa.
Laupepa, lucky to escape with his life, never received the promised aid except for the naval dress uniform and medal. Stevenson quotes him as saying: "If you have come here to teach my people to drink, I wish you had stayed away."
The eventual Samoan crisis
Samoan crisis
The Samoan Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, Germany and Great Britain from 1887–1889 over control of the Samoan Islands during the Samoan Civil War. At the height of the confrontation three American warships, Vandalia, USS Trenton and USS Nipsic were wrecked along with the...

 resulted in partitioning of Samoa into German Samoa
German Samoa
German Samoa was a German protectorate from 1900 to 1914, consisting of the islands of Upolu, Savai'i, Apolima and Manono, now wholly within the independent state Samoa, formerly Western Samoa...

 in the west and American Samoa
American Samoa
American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa...

 in the east.
The ship finally returned on September 23, 1887, and was de-commissioned and sold for a fraction of the cost of its refitting, ending the brief existence of a pan-Polynesian navy.

Political organizer

Bush quietly returned to Hawaii and began organizing political opposition groups. On November 22, 1888 he became the first president of Hui Kālaiāina, a group of mostly native Hawaiians known as the Hawaiian Political Association in English.
From 1889 to 1896 published the Hawaiian language newspapers Ka Leo o ka Lāhui ("the voice of the nation" in Hawaiian) and Ka Oiaio ("the truth").
Ka Leo o ka Lāhui, with a circulation of 5000, was the leading Hawaiian language newspaper of the 1890s.
After the failed Wilcox Rebellion of 1889
Wilcox Rebellion of 1889
The Wilcox Rebellion of 1889 was a revolt led by Robert Wilcox to force King Kalākaua of Hawaii to reenact the Hawaiian Constitution of 1864 from the Constitution of 1887.-Liberal Patriotic Association:...

, Bush was the subject of a lawsuit for libel by Lorrin A. Thurston
Lorrin A. Thurston
Lorrin Andrews Thurston was a lawyer, politician, and businessman born and raised in the Kingdom of Hawaii. The grandson of two of the first Christian missionaries to Hawaii, Thurston played a prominent role in the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom that replaced Queen Liliuokalani with the...

.
In October 1889 he was fined for contempt for publishing articles that would "bring the Court into ridicule and bad odor."
In the 1890 and 1892 elections, Bush was elected to the house of representatives for Oahu.

Over time Bush lost confidence in the monarchy and advocated a liberal democratic republic.
Although he loyally served earlier rulers, he no longer supported Queen Liliuokalani or her administration.
Bush was an organizer and first president of the Hawaiian National Liberal Party in early 1892, using his papers to promote the cause.
He continued to publish editorials saying "the base of the throne is decayed, and no severe shock will be awaited to topple it over."
In a May 12 editorial he called Marshall Charles Burnett Wilson
Charles Burnett Wilson (marshal)
Charles Burnett “C.B.” Wilson was a British and Tahitian superintendent of the water works and fire chief under King Kalākaua, and was Marshal of the Kingdom under Queen Liliuokalani. and father of John H. Wilson-Early years:...

 and cabinet minister Samuel Parker
Samuel Parker (Hawaii)
Samuel Parker, known as Kamuela Parker was a major landowner and businessman on the island of Hawaii, heir to the Parker Ranch estate...

 "a half-Tahitian blacksmith and a half-caste cowboy... pitiful specimens of ignorance."
The 1892 elections resulting in a three-way split of power with no party having majority control.
After the elections Joseph Nawahi
Joseph Nawahi
Joseph Nāwahī also known as Joseph Kahooluhi Nāwahī and as Joseph Kahooluhi Nāwahīokalaniōpuu was a native Hawaiian legislator, lawyer, newspaper publisher, and painter.-Life:...

 then became president of the Liberal Party, objecting to Bush's aggressive anti-monarchy stance.
When Liliuokalani proposed a new constitution to break the political crisis in January 1893, the Honolulu Rifles were again behind the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii by the conservative Reform Party.

Out of political favor, Bush's only government position was a court interpreter, as he struggled to keep his newspaper business profitable.
At one time he endorsed Doan's Pills to cure Kidney pain.
In May 1900, he spoke and acted as interpreter at the organizational meeting of the Hawaii Democratic Party, was a member of its first territorial committee, and campaigned unsuccessfully in the next election.
His former ally Robert William Wilcox
Robert William Wilcox
Robert William Kalanihiapo Wilcox , nicknamed the Iron Duke of Hawaii, was a native Hawaiian revolutionary soldier and politician. He led uprisings against both the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii under King Kalākaua and the Republic of Hawaii under Sanford Dole, what are now known as the...

 had formed the Home Rule Party of Hawaii
Home Rule Party of Hawaii
As soon as the United States annexed the Hawaiian Islands and established the Territory of Hawaii, native Hawaiians became worried that both the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i and Hawai‘i Republican Party were incapable of representing them...

 which split opposition voters.

Family life and legacy

He first married Mary Anne Peters, who was considered one of the most beautiful women in the Hawaiian Islands and presented a lei around the neck of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh on his visit to Hawaii in 1869.
After her death, he married Mary Julia Glennie (1868–1932) in 1884.
He had a son also named John Edward Bush, born on January 31, 1890, and several other children. He died on June 28, 1906 from a stroke, and was buried in Makiki
Makiki
Makiki is an area of Honolulu, Hawaii located northeast of downtown Honolulu generally stretching east to west from Punahou Street to Pensacola Street and north to south from Round Top Drive/Makiki Heights Drive to Lunalilo Freeway. Punchbowl, an extinct tuff cone, and Tantalus, tower over the...

 Cemetery.

A street was named Bush Lane for him in Honolulu near the Punchbowl Crater
Punchbowl Crater
Punchbowl Crater is an extinct volcanic tuff cone located in Honolulu, Hawaii. It is the location of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific....

at 21°19′1"N 157°51′2"W.
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