6 minute read
Introducing Loio Kuhina of Salem
Above: Phillips House exterior, Chestnut Street, Salem, Massachusetts. Photograph by Julie Arrison.
by ABIGAIL STEWART with AMI MULLIGAN
Abigail Stewart is the North Shore Regional Site Administrator at Historic New England. Ami Mulligan is a PhD student in the History Department at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa.
When Phillips House in Salem, Massachusetts, is open to visitors, above the front door flies a flag that at first glance is often mistaken for an American flag or the Union Jack. It is, instead, the state flag of Hawaii. Upon entering the house visitors encounter objects from Hawaii and other Pacific islands. These items don’t seem to fit within the Colonial Revival backdrop of the rooms and the belongings of five generations of the Phillips family. However, looking into the Phillips family history reveals a connection to the Pacific Islands that began in the middle of the nineteenth century.
Stephen Henry Phillips, father of the last owner of the house, held the role of loio kuhina, or attorney general, to King Kamehameha V. This connection is always mentioned on tours as an interesting side note, but has never been fully explored. Historic New England turned to Ami Mulligan, a historian of Hawaii, who researched Stephen Phillips’s role in the Hawaiian government and the Phillips family’s connection to Hawaii. Mulligan’s research provided a clearer picture of Phillips’s responsibilities and a deeper understanding of the family’s connection to the fiftieth state.
Stephen Henry Phillips was born in Salem in 1823, the eldest son of a privileged New England family. After studying law at Harvard, he served as a district attorney in Essex County, Massachusetts, and as Attorney General of Massachusetts from 1858 to 1861. He arrived in Honolulu on September 12, 1866, at the invitation of King Kamehameha V, to take up his post as loio kuhina.
But why Phillips? He had not previously been to Hawaii, nor did he have a family connection. However, his close friend and Harvard Law School classmate, William Little Lee, had been tapped by the Hawaiian government to work on the newly instituted judicial system for the Governor of Oahu. This system adopted a number of positions and processes from the Massachusetts court system, which tied the commonwealth’s law practices to the Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) judicial system. Lee held many important positions within the Hawaiian government and helped to establish laws under kings Kamehameha III and Kamehameha IV. Phillips’s friendship with Lee led to his eventual invitation to join the Hawaiian government under their new king. In an article about his appointment in The New York Times, Phillips was characterized as being “firm in his convictions, but conciliatory in his deportment [while] striv[ing] to harmonize differences while maintaining the honor and dignity of the State.”
Phillips joined the government at a turbulent time for Hawaii’s monarchy. Between 1820 and 1848, the Boston-headquartered American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions (ABCFM) sent twelve companies of Protestant missionaries to Hawaii to preach the gospel. Over nearly three decades, the ali’i (Hawaiian chiefs) and the missionaries became increasingly intertwined in their public and private lives as advisors, business associates, neighbors, and even friends. A number of Kanaka Maoli, including ali’i like Kamehameha V and his predecessor, felt that some of the missionaries and a number of their American associates had gained too much power in the Hawaiian government.
Upon his ascension to the throne, Kamehameha V did not hold a public coronation and refused to uphold the Constitution of 1852, which he felt deprived the monarchy of its power. He instead sought to restore the monarchy’s position by holding a Constitutional Convention in 1864 to institute the monarchy as the central authority. The new constitution strengthened the monarchy, promoted Hawaiian commercial interests, and encouraged Kanaka Maoli culture and practices.
It was in this environment that Phillips began his tenure as loio kuhina. Kamehameha V’s primary concern was to strengthen Kanaka Maoli governance and cultural structures, so it was imperative to select someone who would commit themselves to the same. Phillips acted as an agent of the king’s new government. He appeared on behalf of the Crown in criminal and civil cases, was “vigilant and active in detecting offenders against the laws,” and enforced all “bonds or other obligations in favor of the government.” These terms were set out by “An Act Defining the Duties of the Attorney General,” which were written under Kamehameha V’s new constitution from 1866 to 1867. Phillips was called upon to give his legal opinions to the government and became a member of the king’s cabinet. Phillips also filled a number of interim positions, including Kuhina Waiwai (Minister of Finance), Kuhina o Na Aina E (Minster of Foreign Affairs), and was a member of the Papa Ee Moku (Board of Immigration). It was also during this time that he returned to Massachusetts to marry Margaret Duncan. The couple returned to Hawaii and had their first son, Stephen Willard Phillips, in 1873.
The month before the Phillipses’ baby arrived, Kamehameha V died without appointing an heir, and a new monarch, William Charles Lunalilo, ascended to the Hawaiian throne via election. Phillips resigned his post the next day, after which he relocated to San Francisco where he practiced law for the Equitable Life Insurance Company and the California state board of railroad commissioners. In 1881, he moved back to his home state of Massachusetts. While Stephen Henry Phillips spent less than a decade in Hawaii, his work helped to strengthen the Hawaiian government in the face of rapidly expanding pressure from American influences. He served his post dutifully and was held in high regard by the king. Hawaii’s monarchy would eventually fall to external forces, with the Bayonet Constitution in 1887, annexation by the United States the following year, and eventual statehood in 1959.
Stephen Willard Phillips spent an even briefer time in Hawaii as an infant, but filled his Chestnut Street home with objects that reflected his affinity for his birthplace and the Pacific Islands. He amassed his own “Hawaiian library” and worked closely with what would become the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem and the Bishop Museum in Honolulu to refine their Pacific Islands collections. Ami Mulligan’s work has brought a deeper understanding of the family’s connection to Hawaii and we are excited to bring these stories to our visitors.
