Walter Murray Gibson
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Walter Murray Gibson (born March 6, 1822, in England) was jailed in the East Indies by the Dutch on charges of fomenting rebellion, but managed to escape from his prison in Java (island). In 1859 he went to Utah and became a Mormon, persuading Brigham Young to allow him to establish a Mormon colony in the Pacific.[1]
Gibson arrived in Hawaii in 1861, and founded his colony among Mormons already in the islands. He purchased land on Lanai with funds from the colony in his own name, and was excommunicated after a church investigation regarding accusations of preaching false doctrine and maladministration of the colony. Upon excommunication, he expelled those who didn't support him, and began angling for political office and power.[2]
In 1873 he started his own newspaper to extol his virtues in English and Hawaiian called the Nuhou. He successfully ran for the legislature in 1878, allying himself with King Kalakaua and portraying himself as the "voice of Hawaiians". In 1880 he bought the Honolulu Advertiser, and in 1882 he was appointed prime minister of the Hawaiian Kingdom by King Kalakaua.[3]
Gibson was widely credited for introducing race-based politics to the islands, and encouraging Kalakaua to make rash political moves, which eventually led to the imposition of the 1887 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii. One of his bolder plans included an attempt to build a Pacific Empire, which drew the ire of both the international and local Hawaiian communities.[4].
His fortunes fell dramatically after being deposed in 1887. He fled the islands for fear of losing his life and died penniless in San Francisco in 1888.
[edit] References
- ^ Andrade Jr., Ernest (1996). Unconquerable Rebel: Robert W. Wilcox and Hawaiian Politics, 1880-1903. University Press of Colorado, p11. ISBN 0-87081-417-6.
- ^ http://onlyaball.blogspot.com/2006/08/improbable-story-of-walter-murray.html
- ^ http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/commemorative/history
- ^ http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/150/sesq1gibson
