John L. Stevens
| John L. Stevens | |
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| Minister to the Kingdom of Hawaii | |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
John Leavitt Stevens August 1, 1820 Mount Vernon, Kennebec County, Maine, United States |
| Died | February 8, 1895 (aged 74) Augusta, Maine, United States |
John Leavitt Stevens (August 1, 1820 – February 8, 1895) was the United States Minister to the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893 when he was accused of conspiring to overthrow Queen Liliuokalani in association with the Committee of Safety, led by Lorrin A. Thurston and Sanford B. Dole – 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 who was a founder of the Republican Party in Maine.
John Leavitt Stevens was born in 1820 in the town of Mount Vernon, Kennebec County, Maine, to Capt. John Stevens and Charlotte (Lyford) Stevens. He was a lifelong resident of Augusta in the same county, except for his time away at school and his later diplomatic service. Stevens attended Maine Wesleyan Seminary to prepare for a minister's career in the Universalist church, which he served as pastor for a decade, becoming a leader in the anti-slavery movement. (Stevens later became a firm opponent of capital punishment, and as a Maine State Senator urged the legislature to abolish the death penalty).
After a decade as an activist Universalist minister, Stevens was persuaded by his lifelong friend Maine Governor Anson P. Morrill to give up the pulpit and become a newspaper publisher and politician. Stevens took his friend Morrill's advice, left the ministry and became a newspaper editor and publisher before becoming a Maine delegate to the 1860 Republican National Convention.
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