John Edward Bush

John Edward Bush (February 15, 1842 – June 28, 1906), also known as John Edwin Bush, was a politician and newspaper publisher in the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Early life John E. Bush was born in Honolulu on February 15, 1842. He worked for a while on a whaling ship, and then learned the printing trade at the offices of the Hawaiian Gazette.

Politics In 1875, he became a marriage license agent, and 1876 a land appraiser on Oahu island. On January 4, 1877, King Kalākaua appointed him Royal Governor of the island of Kauai. Kalākaua also appointed him to his Privy Council on September 1, 1878, and the House of Nobles in the legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom on April 24, 1880. Bush served until the office was made elective in 1887.

On August 14, 1880, he became Minister of the Interior in Kalākaua's cabinet, but he was replaced about six weeks later on September 27. He temporarily acted as Minister of Foreign Affairs replacing Celso Caesar Moreno for much of the same time as well, until William Lowthian Green took the office on a more permanent basis. He was back in the cabinet again on May 20, 1882, as Minister of Finance, but served only until August 8 of that year. At that time he took the interior ministry again, and served until July 26, 1883.

Bush then was told to negotiate similar deals with Tonga, the Gilbert Islands, and others in the Pacific. The empire was generally thought to be the idea of Walter M. Gibson, who among his other titles, had himself named secretary of the Navy. However, the "navy" did not have any ships. On January 22, 1887, Gibson convinced the government to purchase the Explorer, a former British merchant steamer which had been launched in 1872. After being refitted at great expense (over budget and behind schedule), the ship was renamed Kaimiloa (from ka imi loa which roughly means "the explorer" in the Hawaiian language ), and ceremonially launched on April 20, 1887. Isobel Strong, the stepdaughter of Robert Louis Stevenson and wife of Joseph Dwight Strong, designed a naval flag, and Henri Berger composed a march in her honor. Kaimiloa finally set sail on May 18, 1887, to serve as Bush's flagship.

Henry A. P. Carter, who was in Europe trying to negotiate treaties between Hawaiian and major powers at the time, informed the German Empire of the agreement. Germany had been asserting influence over the Samoan islands, which were in the midst of a Samoan Civil War. Germany, with its powerful modern navy, considered the ship an irritating insult. Kaimiloa was commanded by George E. Gresley Jackson, master of the Honolulu Reformatory School, and manned by members of the school's band. The mission was documented with J. D. Strong as ship's artist and photographer. She had been refitted with cannon and Gattling guns, although her arms were barely usable for anything but ceremonial salutes. The ship got lost but finally made it to Apia in mid-June 1887. The crew exchanged salutes with the German ship Adler, which shadowed Kaimiloa while Bush tried to gather support for Laupepa in other parts of Samoa. The boys band played concerts for the Samoans, who were entertained with food and liquor through the night. Gibson cited a letter complaining about Bush's conduct, which later turned out of be fake.

Kaimiloa was ordered back to Honolulu, but Bush refused to go aboard. The ship crew violated their orders, and landed in Pago Pago (on another Samoan island) where they sold the ship's silver service and some arms for food and drink. Kaimiloa finally left Samoa on August 23, and on the next day, Germany declared war on Laupepa. Laupepa, lucky to escape with his life, never received the promised aid except for the naval dress uniform and medal. Stevenson quotes him as saying: "If you have come here to teach my people to drink, I wish you had stayed away." The ship finally returned on September 23, 1887, and was decommissioned and sold for a fraction of the cost of its refitting, ending the brief existence of a pan-Polynesian navy. From 1889 to 1896 published the Hawaiian language newspapers Ka Leo o ka Lāhui ("the voice of the nation" in Hawaiian) and Ka Oiaio ("the truth"). Ka Leo o ka Lāhui, with a circulation of 5000, was the leading Hawaiian language newspaper of the 1890s. After the failed Wilcox Rebellion of 1889, Bush was the subject of a lawsuit for libel by Lorrin A. Thurston. In October 1889 he was fined for contempt for publishing articles that would "bring the Court into ridicule and bad odor." In the 1890 and 1892 elections, Bush was elected to the house of representatives for Oahu. He continued to publish editorials saying "the base of the throne is decayed, and no severe shock will be awaited to topple it over." In May 1900, he spoke and acted as interpreter at the organizational meeting of the Hawaii Democratic Party, was a member of its first territorial committee, and campaigned unsuccessfully in the next election. His former ally Robert William Wilcox had formed the Home Rule Party of Hawaii which split opposition voters.

Family life and legacy He first married Mary Ann Peters, In 1883, she fell off her horse while riding in the Pali. The accident left her unconscious and she died shortly of a fractured skull. After her death, he married Mary Julia Glennie (1868–1932) in 1884. He had a son also named John Edward Bush, born on January 31, 1890, and several other children. He died on June 28, 1906, from a stroke, and was buried in Makiki Cemetery.

A street was named Bush Lane for him in Honolulu near the Punchbowl Crater at .