Bill Text: HI SCR163 | 2016 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Robert William Kalanihiapo Wilcox; Hawaiian Government

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2016-04-18 - Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on FIN with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Representative(s) Fukumoto Chang, Har, Oshiro, Souki, Ward excused (5). [SCR163 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2016-SCR163-Amended.html

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THE SENATE	S.C.R. NO.	163
TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2016		S.D. 1
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

COMMEMORATING AND HONORING THE LIFE OF ROBERT WILLIAM KALANIHIAPO WILCOX, AN ENDURING PATRIOT AND ADVOCATE FOR THE RIGHTS OF NATIVE HAWAIIANS, WHO SERVED AS HAWAII'S FIRST ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS.

 

 

     WHEREAS, Robert William Kalanihiapo Wilcox was born on February 15, 1855, on the island of Maui to Captain William Slocum Wilcox, a native of Newport, Rhode Island, and Kalua of Maui, whose parents were both born of chiefly ancestors on Hawaii and Maui; and

 

     WHEREAS, Mr. Wilcox attended Haleakala Boarding School in Makawao, Maui, taught school on Maui, and was elected to the Royal Legislature in 1880 to serve the citizens of Wailuku and its neighboring Maui towns; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 1881, King Kalakaua selected Mr. Wilcox to study at the Royal Military Academy in Italy where he excelled and was selected by Italian officers to attend the Royal Application School for Engineer and Artillery Officers where he remained until the end of 1887; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 1887, just prior to Mr. Wilcox's return to Hawaii, the Reform Party of Hawaii, in concert with the Honolulu Rifles militia unit, imposed the Bayonet Constitution on King Kalakaua; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Bayonet Constitution limited the powers of the monarchy and imposed income and property ownership requirements for voting, which allowed wealthy Europeans and Americans to vote even though they were not citizens of the Kingdom of Hawaii, but disenfranchised many Native Hawaiians; and

 

     WHEREAS, upon Mr. Wilcox's return to Hawaii in late 1887, he organized against the Reform Party of Hawaii; and

 

     WHEREAS, Mr. Wilcox continued to advocate revocation of the Bayonet Constitution of 1887, and in 1889 was confronted by the Honolulu Rifles, who engaged Mr. Wilcox and those in his party in an armed battle; and

 

     WHEREAS, Mr. Wilcox eventually surrendered to the Honolulu Rifles and was charged with treason, but he was acquitted by a jury to the acclaim and approval of many Native Hawaiians; and

 

     WHEREAS, Mr. Wilcox helped establish the National Reform Party, which advocated restoring power to the monarchy and to Native Hawaiian citizens; and

 

     WHEREAS, Mr. Wilcox ran for and was elected to the Royal Legislature, where he served from 1890 through 1894 from the island of Oahu; and

 

     WHEREAS, Mr. Wilcox founded a newspaper in 1892 called "The Liberal", which advocated positions on behalf of Native Hawaiian citizens in favor of adopting good government policies and protecting the Hawaiian Kingdom from commercial and political exploitation by foreign powers; and

 

     WHEREAS, Queen Liliuokalani, having succeeded to the leadership of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1891 after the untimely death of her brother King Kalakaua, and realizing that the Bayonet Constitution placed too much power in the hands of westerners, limited the powers of the monarchy, and disenfranchised Native Hawaiians, attempted on January 14, 1893, to address the concern of foreign political power by revoking the Bayonet Constitution and issuing a new constitution that would restore power to the monarchy and limit the influence of foreigners; and

 

     WHEREAS, Queen Liliuokalani, realizing that her authority and power as the reigning monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii were in jeopardy from American and European business interests who were plotting against her plan to adopt a new constitution, recruited Mr. Wilcox to command the field artillery unit of the Royal Guard to defend the Queen and the Kingdom of Hawaii from the influence and control of foreign interests; and

 

     WHEREAS, on January 16, 1893, John L. Stevens, United States Minister to Hawaii and an advocate of the United States' annexation of the Kingdom of Hawaii, ordered United States marines to land in Honolulu; and

 

     WHEREAS, on January 17, 1893, the Committee of Safety, a group of European and American businessmen who favored the United States' annexation of the Kingdom of Hawaii, with the support of United States Marines ordered ashore by Minister Stevens and the Honolulu Rifles militia, seized control of Iolani Palace, declared the Hawaiian monarchy abolished, and proclaimed the existence of a provisional government until annexation by the United States could be negotiated; and

 

     WHEREAS, on January 17, 1893, Queen Liliuokalani, realizing the futility of resisting American forces and in order to prevent bloodshed, surrendered and relinquished her authority over the Hawaiian Kingdom to the United States; and

 

     WHEREAS, on February 1, 1893, Minister Stevens placed the provisional government under the protection of the United States pending annexation negotiations, landed American troops, and hoisted the American flag over Hawaii; and

 

     WHEREAS, on July 4, 1894, the Republic of Hawaii declared its existence, adopted a new constitution, and declared Sanford Dole its president; and

 

     WHEREAS, in the latter part of 1894, Mr. Wilcox and other Royalists loyal to Queen Liliuokalani planned a counter-revolution to regain control of the Hawaiian government from foreign (United States) interests, and restore Queen Liliuokalani to the throne; and

 

     WHEREAS, for two weeks in January of 1895, the armed forces of the Republic of Hawaii clashed with the Royalists in an armed conflict in Honolulu, concluding with the Republic of Hawaii defeating the Royalists; and

 

     WHEREAS, as a result of the January 1895 conflict, two hundred Royalists, including Mr. Wilcox and Queen Liliuokalani, were arrested and charged with treason against the Republic of Hawaii; and

 

     WHEREAS, on February 23, 1895, Mr. Wilcox was convicted of treason by the Republic of Hawaii and was sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted to a prison term of thirty-five years; and

 

     WHEREAS, Queen Liliuokalani was placed under house arrest at Iolani Palace after the conflict and signed a document formally abdicating and relinquishing all claims to the throne--an action she later explained that she took to prevent her Royalist supporters from being executed and punished for treason by the Republic of Hawaii; and

 

     WHEREAS, on January 1, 1898, Republic of Hawaii President Sanford Dole pardoned Mr. Wilcox after Queen Liliuokalani formally renounced her right to the throne; and

 

     WHEREAS, Mr. Wilcox zealously and successfully lobbied Congress to grant universal voting rights for men in the legislation that would become the 1900 Hawaiian Organic Act, to ensure that Native Hawaiian interests were adequately represented in the Territory of Hawaii government; and

 

     WHEREAS, after the United States' annexation of Hawaii through the Newland's Resolution in 1898 and the passage of the Hawaiian Organic Act by Congress in 1900, Mr. Wilcox began organizing anti-annexation Native Hawaiians into the Hawaiian Independent Party, which was later called the Home Rule Party of Hawaii, and Mr. Wilcox launched his candidacy for a seat in the Fifty-seventh United States Congress, which he later won; and

 

     WHEREAS, from November 6, 1900, to March 3, 1903, Mr. Wilcox served in the Fifty-seventh Congress as Hawaii's first Congressman and distinguished himself as a representative who fought for the rights of Native Hawaiian citizens; and

 

     WHEREAS, realizing that as a United States territory, Hawaii would send only non-voting representatives to Congress and that Hawaii's territorial governors would be appointed by the United States President and not elected by territorial residents, Mr. Wilcox and other prominent Native Hawaiians supported Hawaii becoming a state of the Union to ensure greater local control of Hawaii's government; and

 

     WHEREAS, upon returning to Hawaii after his term in Congress ended in 1903, Mr. Wilcox ran for High Sherriff of Honolulu but passed away during his campaign for that office; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 1993, the United States Congress adopted Public Law 103-50, often referred to as the "Apology Resolution", in which the United States Congress and President of the United States acknowledged the participation of the United States in the wrongful overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii on January 17, 1893, apologized for these actions and the suppression of the inherent sovereignty and self-determination of the Native Hawaiian people, and called for reconciliation between Native Hawaiians and the United States; and

 

     WHEREAS, this body has similarly acknowledged these wrongful actions of the United States and has supported, through state legislation, the right to sovereignty and self- determination by and for Native Hawaiians; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 1993, a bronze statue commemorating the life and accomplishments of Mr. Wilcox was erected in Wilcox Park located on the Fort Street Mall located in downtown Honolulu; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-eighth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2016, the House of Representatives concurring, that Robert William Kalanihiapo Wilcox be remembered and celebrated as a patriot and advocate for a Hawaiian government that was being overrun by powerful Western interests; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this body honors the life of Robert William Kalanihiapo Wilcox and his willingness to risk his life and personal safety to resist the influence and subsequent overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii by the United States; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this body acknowledges, remembers, and celebrates Robert William Kalanihiapo Wilcox's abiding support and advocacy for the rights of Native Hawaiian citizens to vote and fully participate in their Hawaiian government regardless of whether it was organized as a monarchy, a provisional government, a republic, or a territory of the United States; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this body expresses its continuing support for the self-determination efforts of Native Hawaiians as they continue to seek justice and reconciliation for the actions which occurred in 1893; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this body acknowledges Robert William Kalanihiapo Wilcox may serve as an inspiration in contemporary times in advocacy efforts for Native Hawaiian self-governance in various and multiple forums; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Chief Executive Officer of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, and members of Hawaii's congressional delegation.

Report Title: 

Robert William Kalanihiapo Wilcox; Hawaiian Government