Wickersham

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The early Alaskan delegates to Congress 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.

The most influential and effective delegate during those early years was James Wickersham. He was 43 when he first came to Alaska to serve as a district court judge. Wickersham served in Eagle, Nome, Fairbanks, and Valdez before resigning in 1907. In 1908, he was elected as Alaska's delegate to Congress.

For the next thirty years, Wickersham was Alaska's most important political leader. He introduced many bills to create a territorial legislature, arguing that since the non-Native population had grown to more than 25,000, Alaska deserved that right given to other territories when they had a population one-fifth the size.

James Wickersham

One of the main arguments against a territorial legislature came from Alaska's appointed governor, Walter Clark, who said the territory could not afford a legislature. His views were in sync with those of the large companies that feared new taxes and claimed it was far better to have continued federal control than to have even limited self-government. "A large portion of the agitation for territorial government comes from the saloon element in Alaska, which is desirous of decreasing the burdens now imposed on that business and at the same time obtain a greater liberty than they now have in the conduct of their business," said the previous governor W.B. Hoggatt.

Wickersham countered such arguments by saying it was disgraceful to deny Alaskans self-government "while the big interests are permitted from day to day to gather to themselves the advantages and undeveloped resources of the land." He said a legislature would be like a policeman on the ground, keeping Alaska's resources from being exploited by the big companies.

Though he had no vote in Congress, Wickersham worked tirelessly after his election in 1908 to get a territorial legislature for Alaska. Helped by political changes in the makeup of Congress, the Organic Act of 1912 finally cleared the House and Senate in 1912, creating an elected legislature. President William Howard Taft chose to sign the legislation on August 24, 1912, Wickersham's 55th birthday.

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