Although the District of Alaska was allowed only one delegate to the House of Representatives, Alaska’s governor and other officials signed a single credential for delegates Frank H. Waskey and Thomas Cale. The document certified that Waskey was duly elected to serve the remainder of the current term and Cale to serve in the new Congress beginning in January 1907.
Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, National Archives and Records Administration
Credentials of Delegates Frank H. Waskey and Thomas Cale of Alaska, October 23, 1906
Alaskan Delegates to Congress
Congress narrowly approved the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. It largely ignored the region until 1884, when it passed an Organic Act defining Alaska as a federal district with fewer privileges than a territory. When gold was discovered there in 1898, Alaska’s population swelled, and its residents pressed for territorial status and congressional representation. Congress responded in 1906 by authorizing the election of a nonvoting Alaskan delegate to the House of Representatives. Congress granted Alaska territorial status in 1912 and statehood in 1959.
My efforts and my wishes, and I might say the wishes of the people of Alaska, are for a Territorial legislature.
Delegate Thomas Cale of Alaska, Territorial Government for Alaska, U.S. Congress, 1908
Although the District of Alaska was allowed only one delegate to the House of Representatives, Alaska’s governor and other officials signed a single credential for delegates Frank H. Waskey and Thomas Cale. The document certified that Waskey was duly elected to serve the remainder of the current term and Cale to serve in the new Congress beginning in January 1907.
Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, National Archives and Records Administration
