Independent

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The Independent appeared for only six weeks, from May 1 to June 15, 1895, during a time of political upheaval in the islands. The Hawaiian Queen Liliʻuokalani had been deposed in 1893 by a group of white businessmen, who set up a provisional government and who in the following year established the Republic of Hawaiʻi, with an eye toward eventually joining the United States.

In January 1895, Robert Wilcox, a legislator and newspaper editor and a descendant of an American sea captain and of Hawaiian royalty, attempted with other supporters of the Queen to launch a counterrevolution. The royalists were quickly defeated, and Logan was one of several newspaper editors prosecuted by the government for backing this failed effort to restore the monarchy.

In the May 1, 1895 issue of the Independent, Logan wrote: "This country is said to be a republic, which means that the government should be of, by and for the people. The Independent will have, for its chief mission in life, the function of making the government conform to the interests of the people as a whole. It represents no faction or party."

During its brief existence, the Independent provided coverage of local and international news. Its format included an opening page containing a column called "Court Record" with interesting tidbits about well-known individuals and their legal situations; shipping time tables; and numerous ads for commercial ventures, attorneys, room and board, and land for sale. The second page provided an editorial opinion or notice, news from the Hawaiian Islands and the world (which took up to six months to arrive in Honolulu), and reports of social events. Page three included an extensive court calendar, while page four featured sports, "local breveties"[sic] or one-liners about various and sundry happenings, and more ads in a column "Read this."

The final edition of the Independent, published on June 15, 1895, announced the merger of the paper with the Evening Bulletin [LCCN: sn82016413], which Logan continued to edit. On June 24, 1895, a second newspaper titled Independent [LCCN: sn85047097] appeared in Honolulu accompanied by the disclaimer that it was "In no way connected with the defunct paper of the same name which was recently started and a few weeks ago gobbled up by the Evening Bulletin."

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To download high quality JPEG2000 images of the newspaper pages, go to the Library of Congress Chronicling America website [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84020096/issues/]

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