Origin of The Office
When King Kamehameha II assumed the throne in 1819, his father's favorite wife, Queen Kaʻahumanu, told him Kamehameha I had wished for her to rule the kingdom alongside him. Whether this was really the will of Kamehameha I is a matter of debate. In either case, Kamehameha II did not object and the office of Kuhina Nui was created for Kaʻahumanu. According to other sources, Kamehameha I had wanted Kaʻahumanu to succeed her father Keeaumoku Papaiahiahi as chief counselor.
Kaʻahumanu became the driving force behind the kingdom’s policy during the reign of Kamehameha II. She and another one of Kamehameha I's wives, Keopuolani, pressured Kamehameha II into abolishing the old kapu system of laws and religion.
Read more about this topic: Kuhina Nui
Famous quotes containing the words origin of the, origin of, origin and/or office:
“In the woods in a winter afternoon one will see as readily the origin of the stained glass window, with which Gothic cathedrals are adorned, in the colors of the western sky seen through the bare and crossing branches of the forest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“For, though the origin of most of our words is forgotten, each word was at first a stroke of genius, and obtained currency, because for the moment it symbolized the world to the first speaker and to the hearer. The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We have got rid of the fetish of the divine right of kings, and that slavery is of divine origin and authority. But the divine right of property has taken its place. The tendency plainly is towards ... “a government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich.””
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“His [the President’s] office is anything he has the sagacity and force to make it.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)