“You can speak well if you deliver the message of your heart“- John Ford
What kind of man was Robert Field Stockton?
Some clues are revealed during his visit to Hawaii in the spring of 1846. The Congress arrived in Honolulu to deliver Anthony Van Eyck as US Commissioner and to relieve Commissioner George Brown. Tensions between the USA and Mexico were reaching fever pitch. Some of that tension was due to the actions of Stockton. President Polk was instigating calls to solve the US jurisdiction of the Northwest Territory with Britain. The Commodore was prepared for war. He was in the Pacific, about two weeks sail from the California coast, anxious not to miss out on the action.
Hawaii was a new nation. The great Kamehameha had united the Islands through conquest just 40 years earlier. His son, Kamehameha III had been the king for 22 years. He had instituted a constitution, transforming the nation into a modern constitutional monarchy. The American missionaries who had arrived just after the queen regent Ka’aihumanu and Kamehameha II struck down the ancient kapu system, introduced Christianity and literacy. The people embraced both with a passion.
The Islands had become a watering place for sailing vessels. Whalers, traders, and ships of war regularly provided goods and foreign currency, but the young nation was vulnerable to being taken by foreign powers. Captains of warships often entered the harbor and made demands on the King.
There was trepidation upon the arrival of the American war-ship. The current Commissioner George Brown, had broken down relations with the King and insisted Stockton would punish the government for their insolence.
When Stockton arrived, the Hawaiian foreign minister would not receive Anthony Ten Eyck.
From Bayard’s work, we can deduce that Stockton saw that Brown’s attitude was the problem. Brown used, “contemptuous terms-as a ‘tawny red-skin’ in reference to the King’.
“The Commodore felt constrained to tell him that such disrespectful language, applied to the chief magistrate of the country to which he had been appointed to represent the United States, was altogether inconsistent with his position; that, if the King were actually as ignorant and degraded as a barbarian African chief, it would still be the duty of the representative of the United States at his court to exhibit towards him the most respectful deportment; that, for his part, he would treat the King with the same respect that he would Queen Victoria or the Emperor Nicholas.”
Diplomatic relations were restored and Ten Eyck was received by the King. The Sunday before departure, Stockton, who had sat with the King during services was called to make remarks in the Stone Church, Kawaiahaʻo in front of over 3,000. He was unprepared. His spontaneous remarks which were transcribed by Reverend Armstrong as he spoke were surprising, and revealed a little about Stockton’s nature:
An 1850 photo of the Stone Church Kawaiaha’o where Stockton spoke. (Public Domain)
“I came up here this afternoon by no means prepared for such an exercise as that requested of me, and, if I consulted my own feelings on being thus suddenly called upon, I should certainly remain in silence. But standing here in the temple of God, and remembering that the opportunity to do good but rarely occurs, while that to do mischief and evil is the event of every day, I cannot refuse. What I do say I will say in the sincerity of my heart; it is the feeling I entertain towards you all, from your king down to his humblest subject, which will not allow me to keep silence.”
His audience included many of the Ali’i (the chiefs), but also the American Board of Commissions missionary community. In a nod to the Mission, he expressed that he felt that godly men and those exposed to the Gospels were enlightened:
“...But it is in the spread of God's word and the principles of the gospel that your advantage lies. You cannot doubt the advantages of true religious light, one that religion is interwoven with man's nature. The history of the world shows that the earliest nations of the earth, no matter how far separated, no matter that they had never seen each other or heard of each other, all agreed in bowing the knee to the Father of Light….”
His message “might does not make right” seems contradictory to his impending battle with Mexico, but would have been welcomed by the often bullied Hawaiian rulers.
“...Since that era God has constantly been bestowing upon man his kindest blessings, and man has ever since been and still seems to be in rebellion against God. Look at the nations of the earth which have been but are not. We have just heard mention made of Rome and Greece; but go back to the farthest page of history, and see how nation after nation fell. Their laws were not founded in the fear of God, and with them might was right. But the Bible teaches peace on earth and good-will towards man…”
Then, he discusses the illogic of putting other men in misery:
“How can it be that in seeking happiness-the great object of all our lives —man involves so many fellow-men in misery? It is because man disregards the whispering of God in his ear, which tells him to consider what happiness consists in.”
Dishing out misery was often his business as commander of ships of war. His in-laws were slave owners, as were his grandparents. Yet Stockton believes he should be good, noting, being far better to do good than harm. He also suggests his wealth and his power has not brought him the happiness of a truly charitable person:
“The best man, and the most charitable, and the most generous, is, I will venture to say, the happiest man. What is it that constitutes human happiness, except it be the exercise of benevolence and charity? The reciprocation of good-will between man and man during their short journey to the grave makes up the sum of happiness. I speak as an individual having had some experience.”
“We see men living in magnificence, surrounded with wealth, and commanding all that can administer to their happiness, and yet they are not so happy as the humblest peasant, who, as he sees a stranger in want passing by his door, gives him assistance out of his too scanty means. Such a one feels happiness indeed.”
“Let me request of you to examine yourselves upon a question,and I do not believe there is one individual here but will answer in the affirmative:-that is, whether in your intercourse with others it does not afford you ten thousand times more pleasure to do a good action than it does to do an evil one? Man's kindness to his fellow-man will become the rule when this Bible succeeds in regulating the will and passions of mankind.”
As he planned to go to a “land far away”, Stockton attributed the good nature of the Hawaiians to their faith via the efforts of the mission. He probably had no knowledge of the respect traditional Hawaiian culture gave to authority figures, their spirit of hospitality and their sense of responsibility for one another. But he showed great respect towards them.
“In bidding you farewell, I beg of you to search for that which is good, that you may be prosperous, and never to forget the responsibility imposed upon you. In your islands I have beheld the most interesting scene that my eyes have witnessed: it is not merely that you are Christianized, but that in that fact I see the spread of that gospel which shall one day be known wherever the sun rises on this globe.”
“Once more I tell you that the prosperity of your country and the happiness of every individual in it depends upon your endeavouring to live at peace with God and in good-will towards man.”
Stockton, often portrayed as brash, ready to fight, or cocky, is revealed here to be a humbler, wiser statesman wrestling with the contradictions in his own life.
The speech and a review of the remarks was printed in the Newspaper Polynesian. Clearly the speech hit the mark with the locals.
“An address of this character, coming from an individual who may be supposed from his wealth, public relations and position in society to have drunk deep of all the enjoyments the world affords, cannot fail of making an impression upon readers generally, and particularly upon those who are striving for happiness in the accumulation of riches, honors or power. It is a worthy tribute from the soldier to the Prince of peace, and as such made no inconsiderable impression upon his hearers.”
“From missionaries and professional religionists such sentiments are expected, and their effect is but seldom proportionate to their truth. But in this instance it was unexpected both from the man and occasion. Consequently, it was the more impressive.”
“Commodore Stockton had been represented as the officer who was to revolutionize this nation overthrow its government, and gratify reckless private passion at the expense of justice.
None who know how to appreciate the honor which characterizes American naval officers, and the kindly spirit which prevades the general government, particularly towards the King of these Islands could for a moment have indulged even in the most distant belief of such a consummation.”
“And we venture to say that however favorable on opinion the friends of government had of Commodore Stockton as an officer and gentleman, not one expected a display of so much that characterizes the philanthropist and Christian.”
Stockton left Honolulu and headed toward Monterey. War with Mexico had already been declared by Congress but word had not reached Commodore Stockton or Alta California.