Legislature of the Kingdom of Hawaii
| Legislative Assembly of the Kingdom of Hawaii | |
|---|---|
|
Coat of arms of the Kingdom of Hawaii from 1845 to 1893 | |
| Type | |
| Type |
Bicameral (1840-1864) Unicameral (1864-1893) |
| Houses |
House of Nobles3 House of Representatives3 |
| History | |
| Established | 1840 |
| Disbanded | 1893 |
| Preceded by | Council of Chiefs |
| Succeeded by | Legislature of the Republic of Hawaii |
| Elections | |
House of Nobles voting system | Appointed by the Monarch with the advice of the Privy Council |
House of Representatives voting system | Elected by popular vote |
| Meeting place | |
 | |
| Aliiolani Hale, Honolulu | |
| Footnotes | |
|
1Name of Parliament from 1852 to 1864 2Name of Parliament from 1864 to 1893 3Structure in place from 1840 to 1864 | |
The Legislature of the Kingdom of Hawaii was the bicameral (later unicameral) legislature of the Kingdom of Hawaii. A royal legislature was first provided by the 1840 Constitution[1] and the 1852 Constitution was the first to use the term "Legislature of the Hawaiian Islands", and the first to subject the monarch to certain democratic principles. Prior to this the monarchs ruled under a Council of Chiefs.
Structure
The legislature originally consisted of a lower House of Representatives and an upper House of Nobles.
House of Nobles
The members of the House of Nobles were appointed by the Monarch with the advice of his Privy Council. It also served as the court of impeachment for any royal official. Members were usually Hawaiian aliʻis, nobles, and royals or wealthy individuals. The position had no salary. It originally consisted of the king plus five women and ten men (contrastingly, women did not universally get the right to vote in the U.S. until 1920).[2] After the overthrow of the Kingdom and the subsequent U.S. annexation this body was reconstituted as a Senate.
House of Representatives
The members of the House of Representatives were elected by popular vote from several districts in the Kingdom. Revenue-oriented bills were issued through the House of Representatives, and it served as the grand inquest of the Kingdom.
History
From 1840 to 1864, it existed as a bicameral parliament. However, with the 1864 constitution, the Legislature was unified into a single-house legislature. This constitution also created property and literacy requirements for both legislature members and voters; these requirements were repealed by the legislature in 1874 during the reign of Lunalilo. The 1887 constitution made the House of Nobles elected to six-year terms, with higher property requirements.[3]
After 1893, it became the legislature of the Territory of Hawaii, and then the Hawaii State Legislature in 1959. It now consists of the Hawaii House of Representatives and Hawaii Senate.
Presidents of the House of Nobles
- King Kamehameha III (1840-1851)
- Keoni Ana (1852-1854)
- Lot Kamehameha (1855)
- Keoni Ana (1856)
- Legislature didn't meet in 1857
- Mataio Kekūanāoʻa (1858-1860)
- Legislature didn't meet in 1861
- Lot Kamehameha (1862)
- Legislature didn't meet in 1863
Speaker of the House of Representatives
- William Little Lee (1851)
- George Morison Robertson (1852-1853)
- A. G. Thurston (1854)
- George Moison Robertson (1855-1856)
- Legislature didn't meet in 1857
- George Morrison Robertson (1858-1859)
- James W. Austin (1859)
- Lawrence McCully (1860)
- Legislature didn't meet in 1861
- William Webster (1862)
- Legislature didn't meet in 1863
Presidents of the Legislature
- Mataio Kekūanāoʻa (1864-1868)
- Paul Nahaolelua (1870-1874)
- Charles Reed Bishop (1874-1874)
- Godfrey Rhodes (1876-1878)
- Charles Reed Bishop (1880)
- Godfrey Rhodes (1882-1884)
- John Smith Walker (1886)
- Samuel Garner Wilder (1887)
- William Richards Castle (1887)
- Samuel Garner Wilder (1888)
- William Richards Castle (1888)
- John Smith Walker (1890-1893)
Vice-Presidents of the Legislature
- Samuel Northrup Castle (1864)
- Godfrey Rhodes (1866)
- John Mott-Smith (1867), pro tempore
- Godfrey Rhodes (1868)
- Harvey Rexford Hitchcock, Jr. (1870)
- David Howard Hitchcock, Sr. (1872-1873)
- Simon Kaloa Kaai (1874)
- Luther Aholo (1876-1886)
- James Kauhane (1887-1893)
Further reading
- Hawaii (1918). Robert Colfax Lydecker, ed. Roster Legislatures of Hawaii, 1841-1918. Honolulu: Hawaiian Gazette Company.
References
- ↑ "The 1840 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii". Hawaiian Electronic Library. 1840. Retrieved 2009-11-25.
- ↑ "Women and the Law". Hawaiian Journal of History (Hawaii Historical Society) 11. 1977. hdl:10524/444.
- ↑ Anne Feder Lee (June 30, 1993). The Hawaii state constitution: a reference guide. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 4–5. ISBN 978-0-313-27950-8.