Partly-printed DS as president, signed “Benj. Harrison,” one page, 8 x 10, May 17, 1889. President Harrison directs the Secretary of State to cause the Seal of the United States to be affixed to “an envelope containing my letter addressed to His Majesty, Kalakaua, King of the Sandwich Islands, acknowledging letter of condolence on the Samoan disaster.” Signed boldly at the conclusion by Benjamin Harrison. In fine condition.
A fascinating document that relates to a particularly disastrous moment of the First Samoan Civil War, which relates to the conclusion of a prolonged standoff between the United States (supporters of Mata'afa Iosefo) and the German Empire (backers of the Tupua Tamasese dynasty) over control of the Samoan Islands. The standoff ended when the 1889 Apia cyclone of March 15 and 16 destroyed all six warships in the harbor — three U.S. Navy warships (the sloop-of-war USS Vandalia, the screw steamer USS Trenton, and the gunboat USS Nipsic) and three German warships (the gunboats SMS Adler and SMS Eber and the corvette SMS Olga). The lone vessel to escape the harbor and survive the storm was the mediating British cruiser HMS Calliope.
This document reveals that Kalakaua, the last king and penultimate monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi (then known as the Sandwich Islands), harbored enough goodwill toward the United States to send a letter of sympathy, but it remains unknown if he sent a similar message to German Emperor Wilhelm II, who disapproved of the Hawaiian support of Samoan King Malietoa Laupepa. Kalakaua later explained: ‘Our Mission was simply a Mission of philanthropy more than anything, but the arrogance of the Germans prevented our good intentions and…we had to withdraw the Mission.’
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