White Enough to Be American? by Lauren L. Basson

Author:Lauren L. Basson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 2010-03-04T16:00:00+00:00

Robert Wilcox as delegate to Congress. Photograph by J. J. Williams. Courtesy of Hawaii State Archives.

Buoyed by the outcome of the congressional debates over the future government of Hawaii, Wilcox returned home with renewed energy and prepared to launch a campaign to return to Washington as Hawaii's official congressional delegate. He pursued this goal by organizing the Home Rule Party, a third political party devoted to addressing issues of importance to Native Hawaiians. Wilcox's organization of the Home Rule party and his campaign for delegate frustrated his Republican opponents enormously. It inspired a series of confused attempts on their part to articulate a clear definition of the relationship between U.S. party politics and their vision of “Americanism.” Wilcox's promotion of Hawaiian statehood, one of the major aspects of his political platform, also challenged conventional definitions of the U.S. state and led Hawaiian Republicans to articulate the racist dimensions of their vision of the state more overtly.

Wilcox's interactions in Washington during the congressional debates introduced him to the powerful and divisive role of party politics in the U.S. political process. He became immediately frustrated with this aspect of the U.S. political scene and, in a letter home, expressed his sense that party politics promoted rather than countered injustice. “Here in the United States everything is run by party politics and not by the justice of the cause. Whatever the Democratic Party supports, the Republican Party will surely kill it. The Hawaiian cause became the victim of party politics here. Justice cuts no figure in American politics—party politics above all” (quoted in Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 16, 1900, 4).

Wilcox's negative impression of party politics in Washington, D.C., contributed strongly to his decision to run for delegate to the U.S. Congress as a third-party candidate. Wilcox believed it was necessary to run for office as a member of a local party in order to place the emphasis of his campaign on the issues most relevant to the needs and interests of Native Hawaiians. The issues being debated by the Republicans and Democrats on the mainland seemed to hold little relevance for Hawaii. In an interview given upon his return to Hawaii, Wilcox remarked:

I don't see what we have to do with the Republican or Democratic Parties in these Islands. We are hardly a Territory yet and know nothing of Mainland politics. I am for home rule, myself. I believe in home rule, in an independent party. I think we ought to establish a party to study the interests of the Islands alone. These Islands are a very small part of the great America. We can represent ourselves better by a home party than through Mainland politics. (quoted in Pacific Commercial Advertiser, June 5, 1900, 2)

While the Home Rule Party focused on issues of importance to Native Hawaiians, it also sought to demonstrate its inclusivity, adopting the motto, “Equal rights for the people” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, June 8, 1900, 1). During one of his first speeches for the Home Rule Party, Wilcox reminded his followers, “We are all Americans” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, June 7, 1900, 1).

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