page_title: Attorney General of Hawaii
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Attorney General of Hawaii / History / Origins
caption_attribution_description: English: Executive Council of the Provisional Government of Hawaii (left to right): James A. King, Sanford B. Dole, William Owen Smith and Peter Cushman Jones.
context_page_description: The Attorney General of Hawaii is the chief legal officer and chief law enforcement officer of Hawaii. In present-day statehood within the United States, the Attorney General is appointed by the elected governor with the approval of the state senate and is responsible for a state department charged with advising the various other departments and agencies of state government. The Attorney General is responsible for the prosecution of offenses under state law. The Attorney General can only be removed by an act of the state senate. In rare occasions, the Attorney General serves as acting governor in the absence of both the governor and lieutenant governor from the state for an extended period of time.
  The office has existed in several forms throughout the history of the Hawaiian Islands. It was created by Kamehameha III and was part of the administration of each successive monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii. The office was kept in the provisional government, after Liliuokalani and the monarchy was overthrown, and became a part of the succeeding administration of the Republic of Hawaii.
context_section_description: John Ricord served as the first Attorney General of Hawaii. He arrived in the Kingdom on February 27, 1844 on the Columbia. He was the first Western-trained lawyer in the islands. 
  The previous year a land dispute by Richard Charlton led to a British occupation known as the Paulet Affair. A related case of Ladd & Co. required lengthy arbitration. These cases would consume his entire time on the islands. Within a few weeks he swore allegiance to Kamehameha III and on March 9, 1844, was appointed first Attorney General. In July 1845 he joined the Privy Council.
  On October 29, 1845, the executive branch of the government was formally organized through legislation he proposed. On May 17, 1847, he resigned all his offices, and on June 12 was released from his oath of allegiance, so he could resume his citizenship of the United States.
  He left August 19, 1847.
  The office of Attorney General was suspended until the 1860s.
  His work on organizing the courts was taken over by the second trained attorney to arrive in the islands, William Little Lee.
caption: William Owen Smith (third from left) was Attorney General of the provisional government and succeeding Republic of Hawaii. From left to right: Interior Minister James A. King, President Sanford B. Dole, Smith, Finance Minister Peter Cushman Jones.
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