Background
He was born on January 3, 1860 in Bath, Maine, United States, the son of Arthur and Emma Duncan (Crooker) Sewall and a member of a wealthy shipbuilding family. He descended from Henry Sewall who first came to New England in 1634.
He was born on January 3, 1860 in Bath, Maine, United States, the son of Arthur and Emma Duncan (Crooker) Sewall and a member of a wealthy shipbuilding family. He descended from Henry Sewall who first came to New England in 1634.
He graduated A. B. (1882) and LL. B. (1885) at Harvard.
Through his father's influence as a Democrat, he was appointed vice-consul at Liverpool. In 1887, he was appointed consul general at Apia, Samoa. The position was a highly responsible one, for the rivalry of the German, British, and American consuls, frequently supported by cruisers, more than once threatened war. Important decisions had to be made on the spot, for the nearest cable station was at Auckland, New Zealand.
On August 24, 1887, shortly after Sewall's arrival, the aggressive German consul Becker, backed by four warships, which nearly gave Germany control of the islands. Becker declared war on the native "king, " Malietoa, and set up his rival, Tamatese, with a German as prime minister. Robert Louis Stevenson, who witnessed the events, declared that Sewall was for a while the only one to resist this measure. Sewall announced his support of Malieto, and even released a prisoner personally. His British colleagues, for example, Wilson was less active. President Cleveland and Secretary Bayard were less imperialistic than the young consul, however, and enjoined neutrality upon him.
To present his views at Washington, Sewall returned on leave late in August 1888, but at a hearing before a Senate sub-committee in January 1889 offended Bayard, who requested his resignation. Sewall was thus absent from Samoa during the naval crisis ended by the hurricane of March 15, 1889.
Under congenial Republican auspices, in 1890, Sewall returned as consul general to Apia, remaining until 1892 and securing the site of the naval station at Pago Pago. With the return of the Republicans to power in 1897 he was appointed minister to Hawaii, and in that capacity received the transfer of the sovereignty of the islands from President Samuel B. Dole on August 12, 1898. He remained in Hawaii as special agent of the United States until the establishment of regular territorial government in 1900.
During the remainder of his life he made his home at Bath, Me. He sat in the Maine House of Representatives in 1897-98 and 1903-07 and in the state Senate 1907-09, was a delegate to his party's national conventions in 1896 and 1916. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress in 1914. He headed the state Committee of Public Safety in 1917 and was on the advisory committee of the Washington Arms Conference.
He died in New York, to which place he had gone for a slight operation.
Harold Marsh Sewall was famous for announcement of his support to Malietoa, the protest against the aggressive German consul's actions, while his imperialistic British colleagues kept silence. He was the first member of the Republican national committee from Hawaii and later was appointed minister to Hawaii.
Declaration of war on the native "king" Malietoa marks his shift to the Republicans, who attached him, as special disbursing agent, to the commission which participated in the Berlin agreement, by which the independence of Samoa was recognized. Sewall's firm opposition to Becker had helped to make this solution possible.
One of the wealthiest men in the state, he was noted for his hospitality.
On September 14, 1893, he had married Camilla Loyall Ashe of San Francisco, and they had two sons and two daughters.
