Robert W. Wilcox, Hawaii’s first delegate to Congress, presented his credentials to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1900. Wilcox, who had nearly been hanged for trying to restore Hawaii’s monarchy, was a leader of the Home Rule Party. Hawaii’s first territorial governor, Sanford Dole—who had helped overthrow the monarchy and headed the provisional government—signed the credential.
Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, National Archives and Records Administration
Excerpt:
I, Sanford B. Dole, Governor of the Territory of Hawaii, do hereby certify that Robert W. Wilcox, was on the sixth day of November, nineteen hundred, duly elected a Delegate for the unexpired term of the Fifty-sixth Congress.
Certificate of Election for Robert W. Wilcox, delegate for the Territory of Hawaii, November 30, 1900
Hawaii’s First Delegate to Congress
The Hawaiian Islands were an independent kingdom until American businessmen, supported by a diplomat and U.S. Marines, overthrew Queen Liliuokalani in 1893. Forming a provisional government, the victors requested annexation to the United States. After initial annexation efforts failed, Congress passed the Newlands Resolution to annex Hawaii in 1898. Congress approved an Organic Act in 1900 to give Hawaii territorial status and provide a territorial government. The Organic Act permitted Hawaii one nonvoting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. Hawaii’s first delegate, Robert W. Wilcox, served from 1900 to 1903.
My great idea is to get this land system so all people––native, white, and every American citizen of this country—can have land, and not as it is now, in the hands of a few men.
Robert W. Wilcox, Hawaiian Investigation, 1902
Robert W. Wilcox, Hawaii’s first delegate to Congress, presented his credentials to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1900. Wilcox, who had nearly been hanged for trying to restore Hawaii’s monarchy, was a leader of the Home Rule Party. Hawaii’s first territorial governor, Sanford Dole—who had helped overthrow the monarchy and headed the provisional government—signed the credential.
Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, National Archives and Records Administration
Excerpt:
I, Sanford B. Dole, Governor of the Territory of Hawaii, do hereby certify that Robert W. Wilcox, was on the sixth day of November, nineteen hundred, duly elected a Delegate for the unexpired term of the Fifty-sixth Congress.
