Constitution of the Republic of Hawaii Promulgated July 4th, A.D., 1894. [Wrapper title.]

Honolulu, 1894. 8vo, 23.1 cm. 55 pp. Original printed green wrappers. First edition, first issue, as promulgated, of the first constitution of the Republic. Affixed to the inside front wrapper is a 18-line separate proclamation dated in manuscript and signed in type by Sanford B. Dole, President of the Provisional Government, proclaiming the Republic as the sovereign authority, and himself the presidential authority thereof.
When President Cleveland withdrew the treaty with the Provisional Government , upon the advice of his investigator Albert Sydney Willis, he formally requested in December 1893 that government reinstate the Queen. President Sanford Dole declined the surrender of the Provisional Government, and the United States, adopting the Turpie Resolution on May 31, 1894, declared against any further intervention. The Provisional Government then proclaimed the Republic of Hawaii and issued the above Constitution on July 4. The treaty of annexation was finally ratified four years later, the transfer of sovereignty taking place in August, 1898. The present constitution is among the more important pieces of literature pertinent to these times. Forbes 4569 (for the Constitution); the proclamation seems unrecorded.