Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 11, Number 3, 1 March 1994 — Grover Cleveland honored at downtown ceremony [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Grover Cleveland honored at downtown ceremony

Grover Cleveland, 24th U.S. President, will be honored for standing up for the Hawaiian people on

March 18 at a noon ceremony in downtown Honolulu. A landscaped area on Queen Street next to the Ke'elikōlani Building at Mililani Mall will be renamed President Grover Cleveland Court. Grover Cleveland was president in 1893 at the time of the U.S.-backed overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai'i. He sent the Hon. James H. Blount, chair of the House committee on foreign affairs, to investigate the circumstances of the overthrow. Based on Blount's report, Cleveland addressed Congress on Dec. 18, 1893 in a message whieh acknowledged the participation of the U.S. minister and armed U.S. troops in the overthrow. Calling upon the highest standards of right, justice, and national conscience, Cleveland announced he would not submit to the Senate a treaty for annexation of Hawai'i.

In this message Cleveland said, "By an act of war committed with the participation of a diplomatic representative of the United States and without authority of Congress, the Govemment of a feeble but friendly and confiding people has been overthrown. A substantial wrong has thus been done whieh a due regard to our national character as well as the rights of the injured people requires we should endeavor to repair." The commemoration is taking plaee with the approval of Gov. John Waihe'e, on the recommendation of the Grover Cleveland Commemoration Task Force, whieh last year began studying major state facilities whieh could be named in honor of Cleveland. While the task force has not ruled out another memorial for Cleveland, this is the First public plaee named in his honor. A commemorative stone with bronze plaque and bust of Cleveland, and a plaque with descriptive information, will be dedicated at the 1.5-acre landscaped mall. Though not a part of the Cleveland eommemoration, a bronze scupture and fountain by artist Donald Harvey, whieh was commissioned by the State Foundation on Culture and Arts, will also be dedicated.