and those of our family to succession. It was now the duty of the legislature to determine the question.
From the fact that Queen Emma was a resident of Honolulu, the capital, and the immediate scene of the election has arisen the impression that she was the real choice of the Hawaiian people. She naturally had about her a considerable personal following, scheming for office, and a large body of retainers, all within the city and environs; and hence could there make a formidable showing. She had also, of course, partisans here and there throughout the Islands. Her canvass was, however, limited almost exclusively to intrigue within the city, while Kalakaua and his friends sought the suffrages of the country people and their representatives. Each party was vigorous in its own way, and there was great excitement. It cannot be said that either party felt much assurance as to the result, until the vote was actually declared. But Queen Emma herself seems never to have doubted that she must be the chosen sovereign; and it was policy for her advisers to flatter her expectation, upon which their own fortunes hung. For this she should rather have our sympathy than our reprobation. Her active candidacy was legitimate, and compatible with public spirit. But for her subsequent course there is little justification. Her disappointment assumes too personal a manifestation to be excused in the representative of royal responsibilities. It is therefore because of its political consequence that I deem it proper to record here what will doubtless seem to the public, from any other point of view, a mere detail of feminine pettiness.
