Background
John was born on August 1, 1820 at Mount Vernon, Maine, United States, where his father, John Stevens, a native of New Hampshire, settled in 1805. His mother was Charlotte (Lyford) Stevens.
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John was born on August 1, 1820 at Mount Vernon, Maine, United States, where his father, John Stevens, a native of New Hampshire, settled in 1805. His mother was Charlotte (Lyford) Stevens.
He was educated at Maine Wesleyan Seminary and Waterville Classical Institute, entered the Universalist ministry in 1845.
Stevens was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by Tufts College in 1882.
Becoming interested in the antislavery cause and feeling that he could aid it best through newspaper writing, he joined with James Gillespie Blaine in acquiring the Kennebec Journal, of Augusta, Maine, which he edited continuously from 1855 until 1869, and thereafter occasionally during intervals in his diplomatic service.
The annexation of Hawaii by the United States, first seriously proposed in 1853 and again in 1854, when Kamehameha III negotiated for its admission as a state, became a live issue once more during the reign of Kalakaua. The extravagance and dishonesty of the government gradually led many men, genuinely attached to the monarchy, to the conviction that it must eventually be abolished; opinion was divided as to whether the establishment of a republic or annexation to the United States should follow.
The death of Kalakaua in 1891 and the accession of his sister, Liliuokalani, gave a momentary hope of good government, which the new queen soon disappointed. The end came in January 1893, when the queen announced her intention of abrogating the constitution and proclaiming a new one which would increase her power.
A committee of safety, composed of leading citizens, proclaimed a provisional government, of which Sanford Ballard Dole became head, and occupied the public buildings in Honolulu.
On February 1 Stevens recognized it, and upon his request the commander of the cruiser Boston, which was lying in the harbor at Honolulu, landed forces for the protection of life and property in case of riot. The queen, yielding, asserted that she had been dispossessed by force of American arms and appealed for redress to the president of the United States, to whom the provisional government also sent commissioners to negotiate for annexation. So much is history.
As to Stevens' part in the proceedings there is dispute. Certainly he was always an open advocate of annexation, and it is claimed that he "overstepped the limits proper to a diplomatic representative in a friendly and peaceable country".
But James Henderson Blount, sent to Hawaii by President Cleveland as special commissioner, further alleged that Stevens had entered into a conspiracy with the revolutionists, that the use of American forces to overthrow the royal government had been promised in advance, and that otherwise the revolution would not have taken place. In reliance upon Blount's report, Cleveland endeavored by every means short of actual force to restore the queen to the throne, though without success. In passing upon the validity of the charges, not only Blount's temperament but the peculiarly onesided character of his investigation must be considered. Most of those whose testimony he took were royalists, and of the small number of sympathizers with the revolution whom he examined few had taken prominent part in it.
He interviewed only two of the thirteen members of the committee of safety, one of the four members of the executive committee, three of the fourteen members of the advisory committee; some of them offered him their testimony and were turned away. Nor did he seek information from Stevens himself, there present.
An investigation conducted in 1894 by a Senate committee was more thorough. Stevens, who was questioned under oath at great length, denied all complicity. The sworn statements of nearly all persons concerned with the revolution were obtained, and an ironclad oath taken by members of the committee of safety declared that "neither prior to nor after our appointment as such committee, did we or either of us, individually or collectively, have any agreement or understanding, directly or indirectly, with . Mr. Stevens (to) assist in the overthrow of the monarchy or the establishment of the Provisional Government".
After his return to the United States Stevens lived in Augusta, where he died.
John Leavitt Stevens was minister to Paraguay and Uruguay from 1870 to 1874, to Norway and Sweden from 1877 to 1883, and to Hawaii from 1889 to 1893, at first as minister resident, later as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary. Aside from his journalistic writings he was the author of a History of Gustavus Adolphus (1884) and Picturesque Hawaii (1894).
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On May 10, 1845, he married Mary Lowell Smith, daughter of Daniel Smith of Hallowell, Maine.
