William Ansel Kinney | |
|---|---|
 William Ansel Kinney in 1895 | |
| Born | (1860-10-16)October 16, 1860 |
| Died | c. 1930 |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
| Spouse | Alice Vaughan McBryde |
William Ansel Kinney (October 16, 1860 – c. 1930) was a lawyer and politician in theKingdom of Hawaii, through theRepublic of Hawaii and into theTerritory of Hawaii.
William Ansel Kinney was born October 16, 1860, inHonolulu,Hawaii.His father was William Kinney, who was born April 15, 1832, inChebogue, Nova Scotia.[1]His uncleJoseph Robbins Kinney (1839–1919) was a member of theHouse of Commons of Canada.His father came to theHawaiian Islands in the 1850s and married his mother Caroline Dailey (died March 25, 1897) on July 6, 1857.[2]His father then married up to three differentnative Hawaiian women, having many other children by them. For example, half-brother William Kihapiʻilani Kinney (1868–1953) married Mary Francesca Vierra, and their son Ernest Kaipoleimanu Kinney (1906–1987) married Esther Kauikeaulani Kaʻulili and had daughterRubellite Kawena Kinney Johnson, who became a Hawaiian historian.[3]The youngest half-sibling wasRay Kinney, born inHilo September 26, 1900, who became a popular musician and composer. His father managed thesugarcaneplantation atHonomu, Hawaii and died June 3, 1915.[4]
Kinney attendedRoyal School and laterPunahou School 1874–1877 and worked as a clerk in a law office. He graduated from law school at theUniversity of Michigan in 1883.[5]He married Alice Vaughan McBryde on August 16, 1893 in Honolulu.[2]His first law partner wasArthur P. Peterson. In 1887 he became partners withWilliam Owen Smith andLorrin A. Thurston.[6]In 1887 he was elected to thelegislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom as a representative fromHawaiʻi island.[7]During the summer of 1887, he helped draft the1887 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii, called the "Bayonet Constitution" because KingKalākaua was forced to sign it. The government headed byWalter M. Gibson was forced to resign and was replaced by one including Thurston in the cabinet.[8]
He moved toSalt Lake City, Utah, about 1891 and practiced law there.[9] After the 1893overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, he was met by some of his former partners, including Thurston, as they visited theUnited States to lobby for annexation in February.[10]AfterQueen Liliʻuokalani was arrested in January 1895 following the failed1895 rebellion against theRepublic of Hawaii, Kinney was selected asJudge Advocate (with honorary rank of Captain) to prosecute her in a military trial in her former throne room atʻIolani Palace. She was convicted ofmisprision of treason.[11]On March 7 he traveled toSan Francisco to press charges against the people accused of shipping arms to the rebels.[12]
On May 5, 1897, he was selected for another commission to lobby for annexation to the United States. He traveled toWashington, DC, and in reply to the Queen's protest was quoted with a comment that might sound racist by modern standards regarding native Hawaiians and Chinese and Japanese interests:
Their future is one of two things, to pass under Asiatic or Anglo-Saxon control. If Asiatics dominate, the native must become a coolie, for certainly he cannot expect to be better off than the rank and file of the dominant race....It is a choice between the status of a white American laborer and that of an Asiatic coolie laborer. The white race, if Asiatics absorb Hawaii, can get out to their own country.[13]
This time US Secretary of StateJohn Sherman signed a treaty with Kinney, Thurston, andNew Hampshire lawyer Francis March Hatch on June 16, 1897.[14][15] The Treaty of Annexation was unanimously adopted by the Senate of the Republic of Hawaii on September 9, 1897. The U.S. Senate passed it by vote of 42–21, the U.S. House of Representatives passed it by vote of 209–91, and President William McKinley signed it on July 7, 1898.
On his return, he heard that physician Jared Knapp Smith, brother of his former law partner who was then attorney general, had been killed on September 24, 1897. It was suspected to be in retaliation for ordering patients suspected ofleprosy to exile inKalaupapa, which had ignited theLeper War on Kaua'i four years earlier. Kinney sailed toKauaʻi island and was appointed special prosecutor. A native Hawaiian suspect Kapea was arrested, tried on November 13, 1897, found guilty of first degree murder, and hanged on April 11, 1898.[16]
In August 1900 he sued a newspaper editor forlibel.[17]In May 1901 he was sentenced to prison for contempt of court, but pardoned bySanford B. Dole.[18]His partnership was then called "Kinney, McClanahan & Cooper", includingHenry Ernest Cooper who had chaired theCommittee of Safety in 1893 and E. B. McClanahan. At least one of their cases, "Territory of Hawaii vs. Cotton Brothers & Company" of 1904 went to theUnited States Supreme Court.[19] By 1906 the firm replaced Cooper with S. H. Derby. In June 1909 he represented theHawaiian Sugar Planters' Association in a conflict during a strike by Japanese workers.[20]
Despite his role in her trial, in November 1909 Kinney served as an attorney for deposed Queen Liliʻuokalani in aUnited States Court of Claims case "Liliuokalani v. The United States".[21] His partners are listed as Sidney Miller Ballou and Anderson. The case claimed that the Queen was due compensation for the taking of thecrown lands of the kingdom. In the decision known as 45 Ct. Cl. 418 (1910), the case was dismissed on May 16, 1910. The issue continues to be controversial, known as theceded lands issue. Kinney's grand-niece Rubellite Kawena Kinney Johnson filed a similar case 80 years later which was also dismissed on appeal.[22]
Kinney grew disenchanted with the territorial government. Instead of the labor reform he had hoped for, he considered the sugarcane plantation owners, known as the "Big Five", anoligopoly which continued to exploit cheap workers. By 1912 he joined with congressional delegateJonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole in public opposition to appointedTerritorial GovernorWalter F. Frear.[23]Kūhiō was the only territorial-wide elected official, although with no direct power. Earlier a firmly conservative Republican,[5] Kinney switched to theDemocratic Party of Hawaii. When Democratic PresidentWoodrow Wilson was elected in 1912, Kinney lobbied for a strong reformer to be swiftly appointed as governor. Kinney was attacked in the Hawaii press (controlled by Republicans), and characterized as proposing acarpetbagger for governor. Frear said "Mr. Kinney would do better if he stayed here and worked for the best interests of the Territory, instead of going to Washington and complaining."[24] Although the local party supportedLincoln Loy McCandless, it was not until November 1913 that Wilson appointedLucius E. Pinkham. Pinkham had not lived in Hawaii and but had represented plantation owners and other industrialists earlier.[25]
By the end of 1913 he was living inCalifornia, where he filed suit againstAlexander & Baldwin, one of the Big Five who were agents for his in-laws' McBryde sugarcane plantation.[26] In 1928 Kinney sued Utah SenatorReed Smoot andMormon leaderHeber J. Grant, accusing them of trying to prevent his book from being published.[27][28]He died sometime after 1930 in California.
