What was the organic act of 1884

The situation had changed little by , when Ivan Petroff was hired to conduct the first census. Although much of Alaska could not have been covered, he reported finding 33, people, with only whites excluding military personnel. The problem of the small population was compounded by many negative descriptions of the residents by visiting government agents - for example, William Morris of the Treasury Department reported in that "there are in this country as God-abandoned, God-forsaken, desperate, and rascally a set of wretches as can be found on earth.

Their whole life is made up of fraud, deceit, lying, and thieving, and selling liquor to the Indians which they manufacture themselves" in Hinckley, Since the arrival of the Russians, the Tlingit Indians had generally maintained an uneasy truce with the white invaders. In , however, following the closure of the Army fort at Sitka, the situation there worsened to the point where the whites appealed to the Royal Navy at Victoria for help.

Captain Holmes A'Court immediately took the man-o'-war Osprey to Sitka and stood guard over the settlement until the embarrassed U.

Navy sent the Alaska up, seven weeks later. The Revenue Cutter Service had dispatched the Oliver Wolcott , but had neither the armament or manpower to provide sufficient protection, so the Osprey remained. Two years later, the residents of Juneau went so far as to elect a representative and send him to Washington.

Although he was not recognized, the move helped to show Alaska's resolve that Washington must either take responsibility, or legally pass responsibility over to the territory to manage its own affairs. Finally, in , the residents of Alaska were successful in convincing legislators in Washington that some form of local government was necessary for development of the country's extensive resources.

The First Organic Act created the District of Alaska, and allowed for the appointment of a skeleton bureaucracy.

Although the act allowed for a school system, district and circuit courts, and the enforcement of mining laws, it had a lengthy list of shortcomings. All officials were appointed by the president, the act didn't allow for an Alaskan representative in Washington, the handful of officials appointed could not hope to govern a territory the size of Alaska, and no provision was made for either a system of land laws or for the collection of taxes.

The Organic Act was remarkable in its simplicity, but the biggest problem arose not from that simplicity, but from the men who were appointed as officials under the act. Never before had so "colorful" a group tried to govern a state or territory - alcoholism, fraud, just plain incompetence, and mental "irregularities" were rampant at all levels of the new government. Attorney Edward W. Haskett and U. Marshal Munson C. Hillyer were al fired by President Grover Cleveland for a wide range of mistakes they had made, with the final mistake being raising the ire of Presbyterian minister Dr.

Sheldon Jackson , who had been appointed Alaska's first general agent of education in The temporary seat of government of said district is hereby established at Sitka. Authority and duties of governor SEC. That there shall be appointed for the said district a governor, who shall reside therein during his term of office and be charged with the interests of the United States Government that may arise within said district.

To the end aforesaid he shall have authority to see that the laws enacted for said dstrict are enforced, and to require the faithful discharge of their duties by the officials appointed to administer the same.

He may also grant reprieves for offences committed against the laws of the district or of the United States until the decision of the President thereon shall be made known. He shall be ex-officio commander-in-chief of the militia of said district, and shall have the power to call out the same when necessary to the due execution of the laws and to preserve the peace and to cause all able-bodied citizens of the United States in said district to enroll and serve as such when the public exigency demands; and he shall perform generally in and over said district such acts as pertain to the office of governor of a territory, so far as the same may be made or become applicable thereto.

The Act provided for a judge, clerk, several commissioners, and a marshal with four deputies. This court system was to enforce the applicable laws of the State of Oregon.

During these early years no legal distinction between Native and non-Native residents of the territory was made in terms of service delivery. Federal Indian Law for Alaska Tribes. He had much influence over policies in Alaska and he often clashed with the early governors about those policies. Prospectors headed north by the tens of thousands after gold was discovered in the Klondike in They spilled over into Alaska, joining the gold-seekers who had come earlier to the Forty Mile and Circle gold strikes, and those who would come later to Nome and Fairbanks.

Alaska's population doubled between and , reaching 63, The increase led to more pressure to expand the government system in Alaska which had been inadequate since its adoption in In the s, the traditional "miners' meeting" was the only form of local government many of the gold rush towns knew. The miners would gather in a group and adopt rules and regulations by a majority vote.

This practice from the American West was the only form of local government in Interior Alaska until In the midst of the gold rush publicity that put Alaska in the national spotlight, Congress tried to correct some of the problems in the laws about Alaska.

It adopted a new civil code that allowed any community of or more to incorporate with seven-member city councils and three-member school boards. The major towns took steps to organize under the provisions of this law and elect local officials. Congress also set up new judicial districts, important for filing legal papers. It adopted a code specifying what activities were illegal and the punishment for violations. Much to Sheldon Jackson's dismay, the prohibition on alcohol was repealed.

The civilcode of was fine as far as it went, the governor of Alaska told Congress in , but "I think it would be wise to provide some means by which the Alaskan code of laws could be revised. One element in the new laws allowed for territorial taxation, in the form of business license taxes. This led to complaints of "taxation without representation," a contradiction that helped spur the campaign to give Alaska a voice in Congress.

In , a Senate subcommittee reported that "the universal opinion among all classes in Alaska is that the District should be represented by a delegate in Congress. Repeated attempts by Alaskans and sympathetic members of Congress to get a delegate failed to get out of committee during the latter years of the 19th century. Many people believed that even a representative without a vote would be better than no representative at all. Alaskans wanted someone who could lend balance to the political situation in Washington D.

Historian Jeannette Paddock Nichols wrote in that the corporations preferred this "self-appointed delegate" system. Frustrated at the lack of progress, citizens of Valdez sent a telegram to President Theodore Roosevelt on the day of his inauguration: "On behalf of 60, American citizens who are denied the right of representation in any form, we demand, in mass meeting assembled, that Alaska be annexed to Canada.

The campaign for a representative voice in the nation's capital paid off in , when Congress finally allowed Alaskans to have one non-voting member in the U. Some Congressmen supported the addition because Alaska was becoming more famous as a result of the gold rush and so it required more attention.

As President Roosevelt put it in a message to Congress, he preferred an elective delegate "whose business it shall be to speak with authority. The early delegates made it a priority to seek a locally elected legislature to expand the voice of Alaskans, and to allow for a truly representative government, not one that was controlled so much by federal appointees. Dedication of Court Building in Fairbanks by Judge Wickersham, The most influential and effective delegate during those early years was James Wickersham.

He was 43 when he came to Alaska to serve as a district court judge, appointed by President McKinley. Wickersham served in Eagle, Nome, Fairbanks and Valdez before resigning in For thirty years Wickersham was the most important political leader in Alaska.

Wickersham won the election and became a delegate in He gained public support with warnings that the corporate power of J.