Home Rule Party of Hawaii
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Home Rule Party
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| Leader |
Robert William Wilcox Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole Charles Kahiliaulani Notley |
| Founded | June 6, 1900 |
| Dissolved | after 1914 |
| Merged into | Hawaii Republican Party |
| Headquarters | Honolulu |
| Ideology |
Republicanism Hawaiian nationalism Native Hawaiians' interests |
As soon as the United States annexed the Hawaiian Islands and established the Territory of Hawaii, native Hawaiians became worried that both the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i and Hawai‘i Republican Party were incapable of representing them. In 1900, native Hawaiians and their supporters created the Hawaiian Independent Party (later renamed the Independent Home Rule Party).
On June 6, 1900, Robert Wilcox, upon his return from the U.S. continent advocating for native Hawaiian rights in the Organic Act, spoke to a rally sponsored by Hui Aloha ʻĀina and Hui Kalaiʻāina, the two main Hawaiian political clubs. In his speech, he said, "The question of the restoration of the Monarchy is gone from us forever. We are now a people, however, who can vote. You all know we have two-thirds of the votes in this country." He also advised against racial loyalties, saying, "We are all Americans. We should not consider personality." On June 7, 1900, the Hawaiian Independent Party was established, its motto being, "Equal Rights for the People". Despite its motto, and Wilcox's sentiments, it would remain a racially based party.
In the first election in 1900 the ruling Republican Party (formerly the Reform Party) misjudged the voting demographics under the territorialship, though the new government excluded Asians, women, and other minorities, it allowed more people to become eligible voters, swinging the voting majority toward Native Hawaiians. The Home Rule Party succeeded on a nationalist platform in becoming the majority party in the Territorial Senate. In the Territorial House of Representatives, the Home Rule party gained a plurality, but importantly not a majority, of the seats. They sent Robert William Wilcox to represent the territory in the United States Congress. On November 11, 1900, the Independent Home Rule Party was formally established, and the two anti-annexation groups that formed it, Hui Aloha ʻĀina and Hui Kālaiʻāina, were officially dissolved.
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