Partly-printed DS as president, one page, 8 x 10, September 18, 1899. President McKinley directs the Secretary of State to “cause the Seal of the United States to be affixed to the Executive Order prohibiting issue of registers to vessels by Hawaiian authorities.” Signed boldly at the conclusion by William McKinley. In fine condition.
Accompanied by an original print of the referenced executive order, which reads: “In the exercise of the power conferred upon him by the Joint Resolution of Congress, approved by the President on July 7, 1898, entitled ‘Joint Resolution to Provide for Annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the United States,’ the President of the United States hereby directs that the issue of registers to vessels by the authorities of Hawaii, entitling such vessels to all the rights and privileges of Hawaiian vessels in the ports of nations or upon the high seas, shall hereafter cease.”
The Newlands Resolution, which was passed on July 7, 1898, by the United States Congress to annex the independent Republic of Hawaii, was the first major piece of legislation to make Hawaii a part of American territory. This executive order, entitled ‘Hawaii–Registration of Vessels,’ represents America’s attempt at forcing Hawaii to submit to its new territorial status, one that the Republic of Hawaii was not fully willing to accept.
Per University of Hawaii law professor Williamson B. C. Chang: ‘The Republic did not act as if it were a territory of the United States...The Republic continued to register sailing vessels under the Hawaiian, not the United States flag. The Republic ignored the application of the Chinese Exclusion Act then in force in the United States. Hawaii was not part of the United States. The Joint Resolution had no effect. Finally, the system of contract labor on the sugar plantations, a form of involuntary servitude abolished in the United States continued in Hawaii even after the effective date of the Joint Resolution.’
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