Bayonet Constitution
In June 1887 local businessmen, sugar planters and politicians backed by the Honolulu Rifles forced the dismissal of the cabinet of controversial Walter M. Gibson and adoption of the 1887 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii. It stripped voting rights from all Asians outright, and disenfranchised poor Native Hawaiians and other citizens by raising income and wealth requirements for voting, thus effectively consolidating power with the elite residents. In addition, it minimized the power of the monarch in favor of more influential governance by the cabinet. Dole and other lawyers of American descent drafted this document, which became known as the "Bayonet Constitution".
King Kalākaua appointed Dole a justice of the Supreme Court of the Kingdom of Hawaii on December 28, 1887, and to a commission to revise judiciary laws on January 24, 1888. After Kalākaua's death, his sister Queen Liliʻuokalani appointed him to her Privy Council on August 31, 1891.
Read more about this topic: Sanford B. Dole
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