John Leavitt Stevens was the United States Department of State

United States Department of State

The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...

 Minister

United States Minister to Hawaii

The Minister to Hawaii was an office of the United States Department of State to the Kingdom of Hawaii during the period of 1810 to 1898. Appointed by the President of the United States with the consent of Congress, the Minister to Hawaii was equivalent in rank to the present-day ambassador of the...

 to the Kingdom of Hawaii

Kingdom of Hawaii

The Kingdom of Hawaii was established during the years 1795 to 1810 with the subjugation of the smaller independent chiefdoms of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lānai, Kauai and Niihau by the chiefdom of Hawaii into one unified government...

 in 1893 when he was accused of conspiring to overthrow Queen Liliuokalani in association with the Committee of Safety

Committee of Safety (Hawaii)

The Committee of Safety, formally the Citizen's Committee of Public Safety, was a 13-member group of the Hawaiian League also known as the Annexation Club...

, led by Lorrin A. Thurston

Lorrin A. Thurston

Lorrin Andrews Thurston was a lawyer, politician, and businessman born and raised in the Kingdom of Hawaii. The grandson of two of the first Christian missionaries to Hawaii, Thurston played a prominent role in the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom that replaced Queen Liliuokalani with the...

 and Sanford B. Dole

Sanford B. Dole

Sanford Ballard Dole was a lawyer and jurist in the Hawaiian Islands as a kingdom, protectorate, republic and territory...

 – the first Americans attempting to overthrow a foreign government under the auspices of a United States government officer. John L. Stevens, journalist, author, minister, newspaper publisher and diplomat, was also a Maine State Senator

Maine Senate

The Maine Senate is the upper house of the Maine Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maine. The Senate currently consists of 35 members representing an equal number of districts across the state, though the Maine Constitution allows for "an odd number of Senators, not less than...

 who was a founder of the Republican Party

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 in Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

.
John Leavitt Stevens was born in 1820 in the town of Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon, Maine

Mount Vernon is a town in Kennebec County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,524 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 43.4 square miles , of which, 37.9 square miles of it is land and 5.6 square miles of...

, Kennebec County, Maine

Kennebec County, Maine

Kennebec County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maine. In 2010, its population was 122,151. Its county seat is Augusta. The center of population of Maine is located in Kennebec County, in the city of Augusta....

, to Capt.