On October 8, 1840, the Kingdom of Hawaii (Native spelling: Hawai‘i) adopts its first constitution, creating a formal government and granting all citizens of the independent nation equal rights, stating that “chiefs and people may enjoy protection under one and the same law.”
Passed during the rule of King Kamehameha III, the new system established a governmental structure in which, for the first time, citizens could vote to elect a house of representatives that would hold joint law-making power with the council of chiefs—giving commoners their first-ever voice in the government. The constitution also created a public school system and Hawaii’s first-ever Supreme Court.
Adopted one year after passage after the nation’s Declaration of Rights (described as Hawaii’s Magna Carta), the new governmental structure established the Polynesian island nation as a constitutional monarchy.
According to noted 19th-century Hawaiian historian and scholar Samuel Kamakau, Hawaii’s chiefs originally objected to the new laws, concerned they would diminish their status. But, Kamakau noted, older holdouts died before the laws were passed.
Some citizens also criticized the constitution as overly influenced by outside Western ideas. King Kamahameha III had asked William Richards, a New England missionary and eventual Hawaiian diplomat, to teach the ali’i, or Hawaiian nobility, about Western law, politics and economics. Historians believe Richards was instrumental in encouraging passage of the new laws—and that he himself played a large role in writing the constitutional document.
Because of their acceptance of Western values, the 1839 Declaration of Rights and the 1840 constitution eventually helped the Kingdom of Hawaii become recognized as an independent nation by the United States, France and Great Britain.
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