Legislature of the Republic of Hawai‘i

Corporate body

Legislature of the Republic of Hawai‘i

1894-1898

Following the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in January 1893, there was no legislature per se until 1895. On July 2, 1894, a constitutional convention unanimously approved a previously drafted constitution for the Republic of Hawaii, which succeeded the Provisional Government on July 4, 1894. On October 29, 1894, elections were held for the 15 senators and 15 representatives of the Legislature of the Republic of Hawaii, which first met, in joint session, at noon on June 12, 1895, to hear President Dole welcome the reconstitution of a regular legislative body in Hawaii and define the important issues confronting the nation. There were four sessions of this legislature: the Special Session of 1895 (53 days), the Regular Session of 1896 (100 days), the Extra Session of 1897 (Senate only, 3 days) which ratified the Treaty of Annexation, and the Regular Session of 1898 (120 days). The Republic of Hawaii officially ceased to exist upon annexation. Although the executive departments continued to carry out their administrative functions, under the auspices of the U.S. State Department, until passage of the Organic Act in 1900, the Legislature of the Republic of Hawaii adjourned for the last time on July 7, 1898, coincidentally the same day that President McKinley signed the Resolution of Annexation.

Legislature of the Territory of Hawai‘i (1901-1959)

Legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom (1840-1893)

Hawaiʻi State Archives

Created 1993-03, Allen H. Hoof

2021-01-11, Carol Kellett: entered into AtoM.