John Mākini Kapena

John Mākini Kapena (far right) with John Lot Kaulukoʻu (far left) and three Hawaiian students in San Francisco en route to Japan and China, 1882

During the reign of Kamehameha V (r. 1864–1872), he was commissioned on January 16, 1864, as first lieutenant of the 1st Company of the Yeomanry, a volunteer army regiment in the military of Hawaii.[13] When King Lunalilo ascended to the throne in 1873, Kapena was appointed to a number of political positions. He was appointed to the Board of Education on January 23.[14] He was made a colonel on the king's personal military staff on January 27, and judge of the first circuit court on the island of Oahu, serving in the latter position from April 1, 1873, to July 13, 1874.[13][15] In July 1873, King Lunalilo and his foreign minister Charles Reed Bishop considered a proposal to cede Pearl Harbor to the United States in exchange for a reciprocity treaty. Although he was in favor of the reciprocity treaty, Kapena gave a speech in front of 1500 Hawaiians at Kaumakapili Church opposing the cessation of Hawaiian territory.[16][17]

Lunalilo died without an heir in 1874. In the election that followed, Kapena supported his relative David Kalākaua's candidacy for the vacant throne against Queen Emma, the dowager queen of Kamehameha IV (r. 1855–1864).[18][19] The choice of Kalākaua by the legislature, and the subsequent announcement, caused a riot at the courthouse. US and British troops were landed, and some of Emma's supporters were arrested.[20]

As part of his first round of political appointments, Kalākaua appointed Kapena as a member of the Privy Council of State and the Governor of Maui, succeeding Paul Nahaolelua, who had resigned the governorship to become Minister of Finance. Kapena served as Governor of Maui from February 23, 1874 until December 15, 1876, when he too resigned the governorship to become Minister of Finance. He was succeeded by William Luther Moehonua as governor.[15][21][22][23] On January 10, 1876, Kapena was appointed by the king to be an official member of the House of Nobles, the upper chamber of the legislature.[24] As a member of the House of Nobles, Kapena served in every legislative session between 1876 and 1886.[25][15]

From November 17, 1874, to February 15, 1875, Kapena was a member of the Reciprocity Commission and traveled with Kalākaua on his state visit the United States to negotiate the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875.[26]

Kapena held various important cabinet positions during Kalākaua's reign. In 1876, Kapena was appointed to the king's cabinet as Minister of Finance serving alongside three Americans: Henry A. P. Carter, Minister of Foreign Affairs; John Mott-Smith, Minister of the Interior; and Alfred S. Hartwell, Attorney General. He served as the finance minister from December 5, 1876, until Kalākaua demanded the resignation of his entire cabinet in the middle of the night on July 1, 1878. It was widely suspected that Kalākaua's sudden replacement of his cabinet was influenced by American businessman Claus Spreckels, who had refinanced the King's debts the night before in order to secure water rights for his sugarcane plantation on Maui.[27][28] On July 3, Kapena was appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in a new cabinet with Samuel Gardner Wilder, Minister of the Interior; Simon Kaloa Kaʻai, Minister of Finance; and Edward Preston, Attorney General. Kapena became the first Native Hawaiian to hold the post of foreign minister and the only minister to survive the political shakeup.[27] He held this post from July 3, 1878, to August 14, 1880. During his tenure, the elders (na elemakule) of Tabiteuea in the Gilbert Islands requested annexation to Hawaii. However, Kapena and the king wrote back declining the request due to its political impractically.[15][29] When the king chose a new cabinet in 1880, Kapena was replaced in the position by the Italian adventurer Celso Caesar Moreno to the vehement opposition of the diplomatic corps and political leaders in Honolulu.[30] Kapena later returned to another cabinet headed by Walter Murray Gibson when he was appointed Minister of Finance for a second term in February 1883 after Kaʻai was removed for "dereliction of ministerial duty."[31] He served as finance minister until June 30, 1886, although Minister of the Interior Charles T. Gulick served as acting finance minister while he was attending the Louisville Exposition in 1885 as Special Commissioner.[15][32][33] He was succeeded by Paul P. Kanoa.[34]

He also served as the Postmaster General from 1881 to 1883 and the Collector General of Customs from 1886 to 1887.[35][36] Other political posts and appointments he held during his political career included Marshal of the Household,[37] member of the Board of Education, Commissioner of Boundaries for Maui, Commissioner of Crown Lands, Commissioner to Codify and Revise Laws and Registrar of Conveyances for Oahu.[15] In 1872, he was appointed as the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Japan. Along with his secretary John Lot Kaulukoʻu, he traveled to Japan to negotiate the prospect of Japanese immigration to the Hawaiian Islands.[38] As part of the Education of Hawaiian Youths Abroad governmental program, Kapena also escorted three Hawaiian students to study in Asia. James Kapaa was placed in a school in Canton, China, and James Hakuole and Isaac Harbottle were placed in schools in Japan.[38][39]

Kapena was decorated with a number of Hawaiian and foreign orders and honors. He was made a Knight Companion of the Royal Order of Kamehameha I, a Grand Officer of the Royal Order of the Crown of Hawaii and a Grand Officer of the Royal Order of Kalākaua. He was also accorded the foreign honors of the Grand Cross of the Order of the Rising Sun of Japan, Grand Officer of the Order of the Cross of Takovo of Serbia, Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown of Prussia, Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Japan and the Belgian Red Cross.[40]