[10] The Committee of Safety was being formed on January 14 and was in the process of drawing up a petition for 700–800 gathered opposition participants, when Colburn and Peterson arrived, joined at some point by Cornwell and Parker.

After an hours-long meeting to digest the information presented by Colburn, the Committee of Safety headed by Thurston joined with the ministers in defying the plans for a new constitution, believing there was no alternative but to remove her from power.

Liliuokalani was deposed by the Committee of Safety on January 17 and replaced by the Provisional Government, who also removed Colburn and the rest of the cabinet.

[13] Simultaneously, the USS Boston was in Honolulu Harbor, and United States Minister John L. Stevens brought the marines ashore, ostensibly to protect American assets, but what has historically been viewed as part of a wider conspiracy to seize the Hawaiian Islands.

[16] Grover Cleveland succeeded Harrison as president on March 4, and dispatched Congressman James Henderson Blount to investigate the events, and the resulting report concluded that Stevens had acted in coordination with the conspirators.

[FN 2] In spite of the role he played in the overthrow, in October 1893 Colburn penned a letter to Celso Caesar Moreno, Kalakaua's former Prime Minister of Hawaii, asking for restoration of the monarchy and indemnity for the royalists.

[22] Prior to his political career, Colburn served as the company auditor for the Kona Coffee and Fruit Co. Ltd., and imported and sold hay and grain.

The eldest of the Colburn siblings, sister Sarah (Mrs. Gilbert) Parmenter, died in 1903 from a gunshot wound to the head, inflicted by her former son-in-law E. M. Jones during a family dispute in which her daughter was murdered.