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GALUSHA A. GKOW

GALrSHA A. GRO"Vir
From the portrait presented to Congress by the State of Pennsylvania
and hanging in the Speaker's room in the Capitol

GALUSHA A. GROW
FATHER OF THE HOMESTEAD LAW

BY
JAMES T. Dubois
AND '
GERTRUDE S. MATHEWS

BOSTON AND NEW TOBK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
1917

COPYRIGHT, I917, BY JAMES T. DUBOIS
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published March igiy

c^i'S-eso

¦ That country is greatest and most glorious in which
there is the greatest number of happy firesides."

To Andre'w Carnegie's peculiarly dis
criminating appreciation of the worth
of Mr. Gro"w and his work, a feeling he
most generously demonstrated, is due
much of the stimulus which led to the
writing of this volume. When Mr. Grow
planned his autobiography, undertaken
too late to finish, he wrote:
THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED
TO
ANDREW CARNEGIE
Whose business life illustrates what a boy
of good habits, without money or personal
influence, can accomplish in industrial pur
suits under our free institutions; and whose
idea] of life is the highest and best, that the
possessors of great wealth ought in their life
time to contribute most of it to the welfare of
mankind and beneficent public objects.
Galtjsha a. Ghow

FOREWORD
The definition of history as the biography of
great men holds good in the land movement of
the United States as elsewhere. Galusha A.
Grow, Speaker of the House of Representatives
in Lincoln's time, true statesman, patriot in
so large a sense that to-day we are reaping a
harvest which he helped to sow and largely
cultivated, did human, historical work which
should make him proportionately honored.
To his foresight and persistence we owe, in
great part, the settlement of the Far West
with genuine homes, the peopling of vast
tracts with earnest homesteaders who could
give that invaluable element, personal interest,
to the task of breaking open the continent,
and the retention to such people of a consider
able part of the domain which, in 1850, was in
so large a measure not only new possession but
entirely unassimilated.
Having followed the politico-geographical
principle that young countries know no ex
clusion from the sea,^ the United States had
* Ratzel, Politische Oeographie der Vereiningten Staaten.

viii FOREWORD
pushed forward to dominion on the Pacific,
completing a monumental expansion of our
territory. Finding ourselves in possession of a
folk-land of fabulous extent, the pressure for
the formulation of some adequate land policy
by which to assure to the nation its proper
development had become active. There was
imminent danger of monopoly, of disastrously
lavish gift to railroads and other utilities,
upon whose pleasure the country must then
wait for a programme which would reasonably
develop it without independent chance for
the common man. Involved in the question
of settlement, moreover, was the momentous
issue whether the territory should be slave or
free. At this epoch, before the matter had become
a party issue. Grow entered the arena of Con
gress, its youngest member. Land bills there
had been in plenty, but ideas on the matter
were conflicting and by no means clear and
broad in principle. (The free-grants plan had
been launched on its course, but, while its
prominent advocates in Congress had pre
sented the idea in various ways, no plan was
entirely compelling and all of them sharply
controversial because of the half-developed

FOREWORD ix
status of the Union and the more or less tenta
tive condition of federal authorityj
k With an appreciation of the value of any
man to the soil, with an instinctive feeling for
the rights of man, and with the vision of su
perb empire compelling him. Grow took up the
practical task of laying a comprehensive, stable
foundation for a continental national life; and
once assumed he never laid it down.
To the land he wished to secure the people.
To invite them, inducement and protection
were necessary. Legislation must be formu
lated which would prove a good investment
alike for the nation and the individual. To
that policy, for which he made a long and diflS-
cult fight extending over ten years' time, cul
minating in the successful passage of the
Homestead Act in 1862 while he was Speaker,
the nation owes much of its present stability.
A great labor, bearing the indelible imprint
of the best spirit of our American times — the
people of the country have not begun to realize
how large a debt they owe to Galusha A. Grow
for the basis of the successful development of a
very great portion of our national estate. Ob
scured in the period of its accompUshment by
an excitement so painful to us as a people that

X FOREWORD
other national policies than those most obvi
ously connected with the Civil War were com
paratively little heeded, it is important that
new light be thrown upon the source of inspi
ration which lies in this conscientious, effec
tive, and far-reaching labor. Because of the
aid that this legislation has afforded to one
of the greatest migrations that the world has
seen, because of the direct connection between
the land and our present prosperity, and be
cause of the worth of the man who was so
ready to give hunself as the instrument of ac
complishment, Galusha Grow's hfe, set in key
with the most throbbing strains of our most
dramatic period, is vital to America.
"The true patriot," says Henry van Dyke,
*'is he who is as willing to sacrifice time and
strength and property to remove political
shame and reform political corruption, as he
who would be ready to answer the call of battle
against a foreign foe. The true patriot is he
who works and votes with the same courage
he would show in arms, in order that the aspi
rations of a noble people may be embodied in
the noblest rulers."
To make the great unoccupied commons
of America a true free folk-land, to introduce

FOREWORD XI
honest settlement on the heels of disastrous
speculation and ineffective preemption. Grow
steadily gave himself with courage and persist
ence to a discouraging civil, economic task. In
pursuance of the work which had fallen on his
shoulders, he came into intimate contact with
some of the greatest Americans of the chmac-
teric period of our history.
In the following account we have endeavored
to preserve, so far as possible, the direct per
sonal style with which Mr. Grow narrated the
incidents of his hfe, many of them told in the
sunset years as he rested in his wicker chair on
the great veranda of his home in Glenwood,
Pennsylvania, or while reclining on the old-
fashioned sofa in his room. He left behind him
manuscripts and memoranda, notes biograph
ical and historical, fugitive articles and frag
ments, which contain incontrovertible proof of
lofty feeling and a simple ruggedness of char
acter which should make his patriotic story
suggestive, since they give direct testimony to
the rise of a man who consistently followed
the primeval impulse within him to its great
ends of broad human benefit.

CONTENTS
I. Early Youth  1
n. Education and Formulating Purposes . . 28
in. The Law and the Land  43
IV. Man's Right to the Soil and Men's Rights 70
V. New Relationships  91
VI. The Domain as a Social Question . . . 102
VII. The Senate takes a Stand  120
Vin. The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise . 134
IX. Results of the Repeal  146
X. Kansas: and Keitt vs. Grow  163
XI. Organizing the Farmers' Frontier . . .183
Xn. A States' Rights Plan passes . . . .204
Xin. Men and Measures  229
XIV. The Speakership  246
XV. Ripe Years and a Return to Action . . 271
Index  297

ILLUSTRATIONS
Galusha A. Grow  Frontispiece
From the portrait presented to Congress by the State of
Pennsylvania and hanging in the Speaker's room in the
Capitol.
The Grow Homestead at Glenwood, Pennsylvania 12
Daniel Freeman of Nebraska, the First Home
steader  50
The First Homestead Patent  98
Daniel Freeman, the First Homesteader, and Galu
sha A. Grow, Father of the Homestead Law, at
the Grow Welcome Home m Montrose, Pennsyl
vania  146
The Grow Welcome Home at Montrose, Pennsyl
vania  194
Mr. Grow reading his autobiography on his veranda
AT Glenwood  242
Mr. Grow at eighty-three, on his veranda at Glen
wood  288

GALUSHA A. GROW

CHAPTER I
EARLY YOUTH
The event of birth is all too frequently insig
nificant. A pleasure to record where it is em
phatically to the contrary, it must be set down
that a son was born August 31, 1823, in
Ashford, Windham County, Connecticut, to
Joseph and Elizabeth Grow, great-great
grandchildren of that Grow, of Ipswich, Mas
sachusetts, who in the sixteen hundreds was
one of the "commoners" of the town.
About the time of the baby's christening an
aunt who lived in Vermont was visiting his
mother. The Christian name of her husband
was Aaron. She was an admirer of Governor
Galusha, of Vermont, and asked permission
to name the child "Aaron Galusha," which
was granted, and his weighty nomenclature
was so recorded in the family Bible. The name
of their nearest neighbor was also Aaron, how
ever, and fearing that it might be thought that

2 GALUSHA A. GROW
the boy took his name from him, the family
began calling him "Galusha." When he be
came ten years old it was sometimes necessary
to write his name, and as it did not please
them as "A. Galusha Grow," that being in
their estimation hardly definite enough to
designate any particular person, he began
writing it "Galusha A. Grow" and continued
it ever after.
When he was a little over four years old, his
father died, leaving his mother with six chil
dren and property hardly suflScient to pay the
debts. Of the children Julia was the eldest,
being fifteen; then came Edwin, Frederick,
Samuel, Galusha, and Elizabeth, who was only
eighteen months old. Samuel went to live
with "Uncle Thomas Grow" in Hampton.
Galusha went with his uncle, Kinney Gallup,
to his grandfather. Captain Samuel Robbins,
in Voluntown, who was a soldier in the Conti
nental Army and was among the first volun
teers who went from Connecticut to Boston
after the battle of Lexington.
His mother spent a few months in settling
up her business affairs in Ashford and then
went with the rest of her children to her fa
ther, Captain Robbins, where they spent seven

EARLY YOUTH 3
years. Edwin and Frederick worked on the
farm doing heavy labor, while Galusha was
general chore-boy, milking the cows and caring
for the horses. At times he drove the oxen for
Edwin to plough, rode the horse bareback in
cultivating corn and potatoes, and attended
school in winter.
The hotel at Voluntown was kept by Cap
tain Robbins, and during his life and many
years after it was the place for transacting all
township business, the elections and meetings
of the selectmen who had charge of town
affairs being held there. The annual drill of
the militia company of the township took
place on a large meadow near the hotel, and
the great day of the year for small boys and
grown men was "Training-Day." Probably
it was in this place that Galusha came to hear
many tales of the Liberty Pole times of our
forefathers, and the fact that he remembered
them all his life makes the assumption war
rantable that they must have instilled into his
blood some especial interest in the idea of free
dom, of revolt on principle, and of love for
political action.
Early in the Revolutionary War Liberty
Poles were first used, and closely following it

4 GALUSHA A. GROW
became the fashion of every village to have
a "Pole-Raising" or "Training-Day." These
events were popular with the farmers who
came to such centers as Voluntown, driving
for miles from all directions and in all kinds of
vehicles from logging-wagons to Revolutionary
coaches. More than one of the men gathered
at Galusha's grandfather's inn remembered all
the excitement of the origin of these poles,
when "Citizen Gen^t," Minister from France
to our country, tried to fit out privateers from
our ports and enlist men for expeditions
against the Spanish territory. In America the
Republicans, who were the American partisans
of France, sympathized with his movements.
When President Washington issued a procla
mation in 1793 declaring the neutrality of the
United States, more sympathy for Genet's
schemes was aroused, and Democratic Clubs
set up Liberty Poles surmounted by flags bear
ing various inscriptions favorable to France.
To this tradition of that Training-Day
which was so great a feature of Galusha's boy
hood was added that of the revolt in west
ern Pennsylvania against the excise law, when
the red "Anarchy" or "Sedition Poles" were
the distinctive emblems of a disturbance

EARLY YOUTH 5
which had to be suppressed by armed force of
the Government. The fad, dying out about
1800, sprang to life again when the British
lion began to growl. Later on, when Whigs
and Democrats were in the midst of their bit
terest contests, each party vied with the other
in raising poles at their political meetings, and
they were considered quite as essential to the
success of the day as the speech-making. The
party loyalty of a community came to be
measured by the height of the pole. Very often
sailors were brought from port towns far into
the interior to help in "riggin' " the poles after
they were raised. These jolly tars in their sea
men's uniform were half the show, and they
were lionized and bountifully entertained with
applejack and pumpkin pie, and not infre
quently with free whiskey and a free fight.
The masses of both parties had come to
regard the emblem itself with a sort of super
stitious awe, and to children like Galusha such
superstition made of the Liberty Pole a mystic
shrine. If these poles were such a rage that a
mass meeting without one was to grown-ups
like a schooner without a sail, imagine the
scorn of a small boy who venerated his Liberty
Pole as an Indian his totem! No political

6 GALUSHA A. GROW
demonstration in any era could have been
finer to any small boy, and Galusha was a real
boy. The accompanying campaign disease known
as the "campaign ditty " had its own delights,
but it was by no means so compelhng. Still,
from the old men who congregated in the hotel
and "reminisced," Galusha absorbed many
an ancient verse. First used in Washington's
campaign they had at this time none of the
wit and bitterness which afterwards charac
terized them. The rancor of party feeling did
not develop until almost 1800, and it was
then that bitter partisanship began to express
itself in political songs. One, dating from Jef
ferson's campaign against Adams, ran: —
" The Federalists are down at last.
The Monarchists completely cast.
The aristocrats are stript of power.
Storms o'er the British faction lower.
Soon we Republicans shall see
Columbia's sons from bondage free.
Lord ! How the Federalists will stare
At JefPerson in Adams' chair!"
Perhaps Mrs. Grow feared the influence of
the inn for her children; certainly Galusha was
"taking in" a good deal for his age. For vari
ous reasons in the winter of 1833-34, she con-

EARLY YOUTH 7
eluded that it would be better for them to go
West and grow up with the country. Orrin S.
Kinney, who married Galusha's sister Julia,
had the winter before gone out to eastern
Pennsylvania to found a home. He bought a
tract covered with heavy timber in Greenfield,
about four miles from Carbondale, and began
cutting a fallow of five acres, expecting his
wife to join him in the spring. When Mrs.
Grow consulted her father about going West
he agreed that before she departed she should
receive the portion of the property which he
had allotted to her in his will.
The same winter Charles Barstow and
Samuel Newton, who were living near Volun
town, went to northern Pennsylvania, or "up-
country" as it was then called, to establish
new homes. Barstow bought the Crystal Lake
Hotel property, about two miles from Dundaff
in Susquehanna County, and Newton pur
chased a farm on the Milford and Owego
Turnpike, three miles out of Montrose, and
were to take possession the next spring. On
their return to Connecticut they chartered a
sailing vessel on Long Island Sound engaged
in trade between New London and New York,
to take their families to Rondout on the

8 GALUSHA A. GROW
Hudson River as soon as the Delaware and
Hudson Canal was open.
Hearing that Mrs. Grow was going to move
"up-coimtry," they came to Voluntown to see
if it would suit her to go on the sailing vessel
they had chartered. She accepted the offer,
and the last of April, 1834, the three families
gathered together their household effects, put
them aboard the little ship Mystic, nearly
opposite New London, and commenced their
journey through Long Island Sound. Mrs.
Grow took with her Julia, Edwin, Elizabeth,
and Galusha, and after five days, having
stopped in New York one day to make some
purchases, the Mystic arrived at Rondout.
There everything was transferred to a flatboat
on the Delaware and Hudson Canal, the first
one to make the spring trip to Honesdale, in
Wayne County, Pennsylvania, which was the
end of their water route. They were detained
one day at Port Jervis by a break in the canal,
and it took them five days to reach Honesdale,
where their goods were transferred to wagons
drawn by two-horse teams.
Then the journey overland was begun. One
can see the small boy of ten, his' ardent im
agination all astir, facing the great, wide

EARLY YOUTH 9
mysterious West which stretched before them
in interminable reaches, full of unexplored
wild resources. The excitement of an adven
ture journey of magnitude into that moun
tainous country which, although pioneered
long before, from its obstinacy to subjugation
had still the character of real wilderness, must,
to judge by later developments, have tran
scended all ordinary, childish excitement and
touched that Great Wonder, the experience of
which is so valuable an asset to any human
life. By sea four days, a twenty-four hour space
in that New York whose remote edge was
Twenty-third Street, a canal-boat journey
which meant slow, dreamy days in a unique
environment on a placid water, and then the
beginning of a caravan movement, painful
and snail-like, toward that corner of the globe
where the Creator, when He made the earth,
seems to have dumped the leavings in a pic
turesque manner — this was such a romance
as one remembers throughout one's journey
down the life-path.
"A mover up-country!" — the phrase must
have been magic to a small boy. With nomadic
instinct keenly ahve as he bumped along the

10 GALUSHA A. GROW
uneven roads to the new country in whose
vague area they were to find themselves a
home, he could not escape the lure of migra
tion. Such experiences leave deep roots in
the sensitive, romantic minds of children.
Galusha was part of a greater movement than
he could possibly know, a migration which
had in it sweeping, elemental forces. Prob
ably conscious only of the keenest interest
in the adventurous advance of his own people
inland, in the natural resources, he really re
ceived on this pilgrimage a motif for a life-
work which tied him even thus early to a
Cause. It was given to him to perceive the
glamour of the new land and the inherent
hardship of its conquest at that period when
youth moves mountains by a wave of the hand,
seeing its high vision with the clarity of reality.
The mother, whose resolution and vigor,
whose good sense and ability took her out to
battle with the primitive for the good of her
children, inspired by that touch of altruism
which often makes the ordinary homestead
so poignantly appealing, demonstrated her
brave nobility. Alone in her responsibility,
even the pilgrimage must have been an appall
ing task, and with the handicap of limited

EARLY YOUTH 11
resources the establishment of a new home
demanded fortitude, eflSciency, and courage
of the highest order. When she came to the
enchanting Tunkhannock Valley, the settlers
were building log huts out of the tall pine
and hemlock trees which surrounded them on
all sides. Trails, often only blazed ones, struck
through the dense and far-reaching woodland
to the gristmill, the post-oflSce, and the black
smith shop. Usually in such settlements was
found a small store containing general mer
chandise. Mr. Barstow went to his purchase at Crys
tal Lake. Mr. Newton took his family to his
farm near Montrose. "Sister Julia" and her
husband went to Greenfield. Mrs. Grow,
having no abiding-place, deposited her belong
ings in the barn of Ephraim Johnson, who
lived on a farm midway between Crystal Lake
and Dundaff. Mr. Johnson had been her
neighbor in Connecticut, and at his invitation
they remained in his house while his son drove
Edwin Grow around the country to procure
a suitable homestead.
After driving for three days, a farm of four
hundred acres was purchased of Solomon
Millard for twelve hundred dollars, in the

12 GALUSHA A. GROW
valley of the Tunkhannock Creek at a hamlet
called Glenwood, located about sixteen miles
from the junction of the creek with the Sus
quehanna and four miles from the post-office.
The nearest store was at Dundaff, eight miles
away. Edwin and Galusha were the farmers. The
only stock they had on the farm that summer
was one cow and a yoke of oxen. They sowed
a field of oats and planted some corn and po
tatoes, borrowing a plough and harrow from
their neighbor, William Hartley. One day, as
Galusha went to get the plough for the third
time, Mr. Hartley said, "I will lend you any
thing on my farm this season, but next year
I will neither borrow nor lend ! " They heeded
this warning with care.
In that year^ the wild pigeons nested on
Elk Mountain, the highest elevation in north
eastern Pennsylvania, and they were very
destructive to the fields of oats and corn for a
radius of twenty miles. In the day they passed
from their mountain roost to their feeding-
grounds like a dark cloud covering the sun.
At night the farmers for miles around drove
to the roosting-place and with long poles
1 Mrs. Blackman, History of Susquehanna County.

EARLY YOUTH 13
struck down thousands of pigeons, and carry
ing wagonloads home, salted them for winter
use. The " Volimteer," a newspaper published
at Montrose, referring to the great pigeon
invasion, said: "They occupied a district nine
miles long and two miles wide, every tree and
branch of which was crowded with pigeons,
and while these pests feasted on the farmers'
fields the farmers returned the compliment by
feasting on them."
During that same summer and autumn they
practically destroyed all the grain crops in
the region surrounding Elk Mountain except
where the farmers were vigilant in protecting
their fields. Galusha's mother assigned him
to a post upon the ridge of a barn shed which
stood in the cornfield, and his business was
to sing songs, giving loud cat-calls or Indian
whoops, and rattling sticks on the shingles to
scare away the hungry winged robbers and
prevent them from lighting in the fields. He
held this post from the time the corn was
planted until it was harvested, and he was
always at his station from daylight until dark.
A constant guard was necessary, as in a few
hours' time a swarm of pigeons, if undisturbed,
would destroy a good-sized field of grain.

14 GALUSHA A. GROW
The winters of 1834-37 Galusha went to
the district school about a mile distant, and
he always after mentioned with particular
pleasure the spelling-bees in which not only
the scholars but parents were participants.
These contests called for "choosing sides,"
and the people from the various school dis
tricts would gather at the log school and fight
out their battles in words. In this old building
Galusha first took part in debate.
"I often prepared myself, while walking
over a mile twice a day to fodder the cattle,"
he notes, "to argue whether the hen that
hatched or the hen that laid the egg was the
mother of the chick," and subjects of like
importance. Sometimes the question debated
was of a political character, and in these con
tests he became deeply interested. The ques
tions to be discussed were announced by the
teachers a week ahead, and it was there he
learned the art of "talking on his feet."
In August, 1834, Frederick, who had been
left at Voluntown to close up business and
dispose, so far as possible, of the land Captain
Robbins had conveyed to his mother, came
to Glenwood, and soon thereafter Mrs. Grow,
having decided that there was a good opening.

EARLY YOUTH 15
set apart one room in the farmhouse for a
general store. Business flourishing, a building
of three rooms was erected the following spring
to accommodate the increasing trade. Fred
erick took charge of the store and made
Galusha clerk. They traded groceries and
cotton goods for butter, bark, and hides, and,
the business prospering, branched out into
"lumbering " as it was called in those days.
They handled a large amount of "sawed lum
ber" which they floated down the Tunk
hannock to the markets scattered along the
Susquehanna River.
At fourteen years of age Galusha took his
first trip down the river to Columbia. It took
about five days to make it, and all through
the journey they lived in a rough cabin on the
rafts and slept in straw bunks, cooking their
own meals and doing the "housework" them
selves, as no women were on board. At Mari
etta the up-river pilots and most of the men
returned home and new pilots and crews ran
the raft on to Port Deposit.
Galusha made several of these trips with
Frederick as far as Marietta and Columbia,
but did not go "all the way through " — so
they spoke of going to Port Deposit — until

16 GALUSHA A. GROW
the spring freshet of 1837. Then, with Fred
erick, he made the long journey clear to the
Port, which was at the head of navigation
on Chesapeake Bay, where lumber merchants
from Baltimore and Philadelphia came to
purchase supplies for their customers. At that
time Port Deposit was the center of distribu
tion of all lumber that came down the Sus
quehanna River and was a very interesting
and busy place, Galusha enjoyed his sojourn
there in full measure. All these practical ex
periences, while stimulating to the imagina
tion, helped to transmute fancy to definite
utilitarian power.
The panic of 1837, the year Martin Van
Buren assumed the Presidency, caused a severe
depression in business, and the lumber business
being dull, lumbermen became impatient and
sacrificed their stock at low prices. Two men,
Horace G. Phelps, uncle of William Walter
Phelps, who lived in Dundaff, Pennsylvania,
and Benajah Bailey, of Painted Post, New
York, were largely engaged in lumbering on
the Tioga Branch of the Susquehanna near
Corning, New York, and had a big stock of
pine and hemlock at Port Deposit. When
Frederick and Galusha reached that place with

EARLY YOUTH 17
then- raft, Mr. Bailey asked Frederick to let
Galusha take charge of a vessel loaded with
lumber and go down the Bay and find as good
a market for it as he could. Frederick told
him that Bailey wanted him to go and sell
the lumber. Galusha demanded, "Go where?"
Frederick replied, "Go until you sell it, if
you have to go to Norfolk or Richmond,
and then meet me in Baltimore with the
cash." Galusha accepted the proposition "so quick
it made Frederick stare, as he thought it was
too big a task for a boy of fourteen."
When the vessel was ready, Mr. Bailey said
to him : " Galusha, you are supercargo of this
ship, and you may sell the lumber at any
price you think best; but sell. If you want to
consult the captain about anything, do it, as
he has sense and is my friend."
Unafraid to tackle anything, venturesome
but by no means reckless, with a few dollars
in his pocket, he started on his voyage into
veritably unknown waters and strange lands.
Arriving at Annapolis he went ashore in search
of a buyer. He went into the office of a general
merchant by the name of Adams, who agreed
to buy the cargo at a fair price. As Galusha

18 GALUSHA A, GROW
passed out of the place, in high spirits, Adams
suddenly changed his mind and called him
back, saying he would not buy. Galusha was
provoked at this commercial looseness and
left without saying a word. He had respect
for adherence to a promise given.
A man he met on the street told him that
a gentleman named Claude, who was not a
dealer in lumber, but who owned a plantation
on an inlet a few miles from Annapolis, wanted
some lumber. He went in search of Claude,
finding him behind the counter in a small
store, a sharp-featured man with a sandy
complexion. Galusha stepped up to him and inquired,
"Do you want my pine lumber?"
Claude looked at him as though he thought
Galusha ought to be in a kindergarten. Finally
he demanded, "Where are you from?"
He told Claude that he had come from
northeastern Pennsylvania on a raft, which
seemed to puzzle him. Being very curious,
Claude put the boy through a thorough cate
chism about his family and business, Galusha
replied briefly, cautiously, quite holding his
own under interrogatory fire.
At last Claude made reply to his first ques-

EARLY YOUTH 19
tion. "I want fifteen thousand feet of pine
boards for my plantation,"
"That would only take half my cargo,"
protested Galusha, "I do not want to sell
half of it, for if I must go farther to sell the
rest I might as well go with a whole load as a
half." Claude refused to buy it all, so Galusha
started again in pursuit of a buyer. On the
street he met a kindly faced old man and told
him he had a shipload of lumber to sell. He
stared at the boy in surprise, but seeing he
was serious, told him that a man named
Carter down on the Patuxent River wanted
lumber for a large tobacco barn. It was twenty
miles to Carter's.
Galusha hired a saddle-horse at the livery
stable and started for the Carter plantation,
reaching it just after sundown. He found Mr.
Carter in shirt-sleeves, standing in his front
door. "Do you want a shipload of lumber?" asked
Galusha. His answer seemed to stop the boy's heart.
"I bought all I need this morning."
Galusha turned to go, but Mr, Carter kindly
insisted that he should spend the night under

20 GALUSHA A. GROW
his roof. For the first time he realized the
meaning of Southern hospitality, for Mr.
Carter and his family were very gracious to
him. During the evening he told Galusha
that the year before he had purchased a large
supply of pine from William Hartley, who was
a neighbor of the Grows at Glenwood. He
at once felt that he was not entirely among
strangers. He returned to Annapolis in the morning,
leaving the livery stable with the intention of
seeing Mr. Claude again. He met Mr. Adams
on the street, who said, "Young man, I have
changed my mind; I will take the entire cargo."
"No, Mr. Adams," Galusha replied, "you
backed out of your first bargain, and I do not
care to trade with a man who won't stand up
to his agreement." He left Adams staring
with surprise.
Galusha went to Mr. Claude, who had
treated him with kindness, and told him about
Adams. Mr. Claude proposed that he would
take half and let Adams have the other half
and so dispose of it without further expense.
Galusha objected: "Adams made a bargain
with me for all of it and balked, and I never
did like balky horses." But Mr. Claude urged

EARLY YOUTH 21
him to do as he proposed, and while it hurt
his dignity, the boy finally agreed. He was
already experienced enough in trading to
know when to compromise, having developed
considerable acumen.
Adams wanted just half the cargo, and
Galusha requested him to have an inspector
ready to count it. When Adams came to pay,
he offered Galusha a check, but the boy
wanted cash or nothing. Adams flushed and
protested, "Do you want to come some
Yankee trick on me?"
"No," the boy retorted, "and I don't pro
pose to let you come any on me!"
This seemed to please the older man and
he sent a messenger to the bank for the cash.
"When he handed it to me," writes Mr. Grow,
"I put it in my purse with the money received
from Claude, pinned it tight in my pocket
with three pins, and started, with happy
heart, to deliver the rest of the lumber to
Mr. Claude at the plantation." Claude in
sisted that Galusha and the captain take din
ner with him and afterwards took them out tp
look at his plantation.
The slaves were cradling wheat. It was the
first time the boy had seen slaves at work.

22 GALUSHA A. GROW
After they had left, the captain remarked,
"I don't suppose people up your way think
much of slavery." Galusha told him soberly
that they did not like it and that "some day"
they were going to see the end of it.
To this he replied with a robust oath, "Not
by a damn sight."
"You wait," retorted Galusha, pretty hot,
"and you'll see the sight all right and some
of the damn with it!"
Elated by his luck, he caught the boat for
Baltimore. Getting in early next morning,
he found Frederick and Mr. Bailey at the hotel
waiting for him. He proudly turned over the
cash. Mr. Bailey, who had almost come to
the conclusion that he had made a mistake in
not keeping all the lumber together at Port
Deposit, was so pleased with the lad's steward
ship that he rewarded him more liberally than
he had expected. It was the first money
Galusha had ever earned, and he exclaimed
exuberantly to Frederick, "I might as well
spend some of this 'Red Dog' before the banks
break! I am going to Mount Vernon."
Frederick had to remain in Baltimore for
several days to finish his lumber deals, but
Galusha took the first Baltimore & Ohio train

EARLY YOUTH 23
for Washington and reached it just in time to
catch the boat for Alexandria. He was full of
a boy's tender feeling for heroes. First thing
next morning he walked to Washington's
tomb, reaching Mount Vernon at eleven
o'clock. In the flower garden back of the man
sion he met an old colored man and told him
he had come from northern Pennsylvania on a
raft and had walked from Alexandria to see
Washington's grave.
The old negro was greatly impressed. "Chile,
dat is de mos' wonderful thing dat ebber hap
pened!" he commented, and pulling a bunch
of flowers, asked questions about the trip.
After visiting the mansion, where Galusha saw
the mementoes of Washington, the old man
took him to the tomb. As they approached it
he took off his hat. The boy, quick to rever
ence, followed his example with democratic
simple-heartedness, and they both stood
speechless, vibrating with the present power
of past great deeds.
When they turned away, the old man broke
the silence for the first time since reaching the
sacred spot. " Dar am just two pussons I 'se got
a pow'ful respec' fur. One lies in dat marble
s'cofagus and de udder 'spired on de cross!"

24 GALUSHA A. GROW
Then Galusha, in contemplative mood,
started on his way back to Alexandria. As
they parted at the gate his venerable guide
gave him a farewell which seems to have
added the finishing touch to the lad's sense of
adventure. "God bress you, my sailor boy,
and keep you from harm."
Sailor boy! "I would have walked a hun
dred miles for such a sojourn as I had in that
beautiful place with that kindly old guide!"
Grow set down seventy years afterward.
The next day he spent in Washington, visit
ing the Capitol, Navy Yard, and Patent Office,
and finally went to the White House to see
President Van Buren. He rang the bell and
told the guard he wanted to talk with the
President. "What do you want of him?" the guard
demanded. Galusha answered ingenuously, "I just
want to see what a real live President looks
like and hear him talk."
The guard smiled. "The President has gone
to Sharon Springs, but you may go through
the public rooms and out into the park."
Disappointed, he took what comfort he
could in the glories of the Mansion, and then

EARLY YOUTH 25
went down Pennsylvania Avenue. There tha
most conspicuous conveyance he saw was a
rickety old omnibus which plied between the
Navy Yard and Georgetown, and as it rattled
over the uneven cobblestone pavement it
made a noise like musketry fire. Over the
Tiber, which was called "Good Creek" before
the city was founded, was a wooden wicket
bridge, and the houses along the avenue looked
shabby even to a boy from the backwoods. As
he passed along the thoroughfare he saw a
group of slaves, men, women, and children,
roped together, driven by a man holding a long
whip. He would now and then snap it over
their heads with a report like a pistol shot.
He did not strike any of the slaves, but he
seemed skillful at making the snapper crack,
and cracked away sinisterly as he hurried the
drove on toward the Capitol. Galusha re
membered what he had said to the captain
on the Baltimore steamer and hoped that his
prophecy would come true at an early date.
He left for Baltimore not much impressed
with the capital of his country, especially
because of the slave incident, and after spend
ing two days in the "Monumental City," with
Frederick he started upon the long journey

26 GALUSHA A. GROW
home. They crossed the Susquehanna River
at Havre de Grace on a ferry-boat, and went
through Philadelphia on an omnibus line from
Pine Street Depot and sailed up to Borden-
town, taking a train from there for New
York City.
From New York they traveled a night and
two days by stage over the Milford and Owego
Turnpike to Lenox Corners, which was four
miles from home. They made this distance
on foot, thus completing a journey occupying
seventy-five hours,
"It took me a month to stop talking about
the trip, and the boys of my acquaintance
thought I had been pretty nearly around the
world. I felt that I was a traveled young man
in every sense of the word!" Mr. Grow re
cords. The great event at that time in the life
of a boy living in the region surrounding the
head waters of the Susquehanna was a trip
down the river on a raft "clear through." As
he had not only gone "clear through," but
miles and miles beyond, to the tomb of
Washington, he had no rivals among the boys
of northeastern Pennsylvania, and conse
quently stood unique and secure in his proud
fame.

EARLY YOUTH 27
Characteristic reflection and laconic humor,
for which he must have had need, by no means
deadened the romance which at this period
held him by the throat. The ingenuousness
with which he made his advances upon life
might have seemed sheer audacity had he
been pretentiously knowing. His transparent
innocence displayed his sincerity and direct
motives. His experiences were his treasures,
joyfully prized. His tentative traits showed
a personality which later, full blown, was to
become superbly sound and effective.

CHAPTER II
EDUCATION AND FORMULATING PURPOSES
In this period of his contacts with individuals
in the mountains who were dealing with prim
itive tasks, where only by the toil of settlers
any advance was made, the boy saw the worth
of people and how yearningly interminable
acres awaited the application of human power.
The appeal of land, the great resource, the
touchstone of humanity, held him. Equally
gripping was the appeal of the needy worker
who turned his all into virgin land and fought
valiantly for its productiveness. Passing along
the rude trails he watched the hard labor of
settlers trying honestly to acquire their homes
against tremendous odds. Too often they
were endeavoring to support their families
while paying off the land-shark, some specu
lator who perhaps had never left the confines
of the city, but had secured title at abnor
mally cheap rates and had resold at a price
frequently three hundred per cent on his
investment.
>- The land-shark's only claim to the soil was

EDUCATION 29
that he had paid a pittance to the surveyor
and axeman to blaze a line through the forest
in addition to a meager sum paid to the State
for a patent. Securing advantageous locations
and exploiting them, he victimized those who
should have been protected, made huge profits
upon his sharp business, and put upon the
home-maker a burden heavier than he should
have been allowed to bear.
Grow then began to perceive what later
came to such rich fruition : the idea that a man
who gives his heart to work which brings such
results to the nation as the homesteader does
has earned title to that homestead. Some dim
dream stirred him of a miracle for America
which might be followed by the provision of
homes for all who came. He could not foresee
that this feeling born in him would lead to his
own good work in the world, nor realize that
the acceptance of such perceptions as his
firing-line in the battle of progress frequently
brings alman to his best effectiveness; but the
current of life forces caught him at this point,
to carry him steadily onward.
His mother showed an especially strong love
for him. "Boy Galusha!" she called him, and
felt perfect assurance that his understanding

30 GALUSHA A. GROW
of her mood would be comprehensive. The
days were busy with the manifold activities
of their several enterprises. To the store and
the lumber had been added the collection of
neighborhood cattle and driving it to market;
and finally Mrs. Grow, always ambitious, had
added a gristmill to the other concerns. In the
evenings the family gathered in the warm
kitchen to talk over the incidents in their
business — perhaps the next trip down to
New York with their cattle, or of receipts from
the mill, the state of crops, stock for the store,
or the best ways of handling trade. "They
were all in a pile!" according to the homely
neighborhood phrase for a family which had
common instead of separate business inter
ests. Frederick had a good deal to say in these
evening conferences, Sammy less, and Edwin,
even then, little indeed. Mrs. Grow was the
family manager. She settled affairs. She com
monly sat on the step which led down into
the kitchen, paring apples as she talked —
apples were plenty and they consumed, as
every country family does, unending quanti
ties. It was an evening job to prepare them
and Galusha sometimes helped. When it was

EDUCATION 31
done and business settled, Mrs. Grow fre
quently told ghost stories, or merry tales.
With her good strong muscle she even person
ally attended to playful boyish ebullitions of
strength, and usually put the lad on his back
on the floor. If her industry was endless, her
common sense unusual, and her spirit firm, it
is certain that her love of fun was very deep.
In this homely comradeship of the evenings
the mother had enjoyment, and the sons no
small part of their character training.
One day, in the spring of 1838, Mrs. Grow
had Frederick hitch up. When she was seated
in the carriage she called Galusha to her.
"I am going to Harford to make arrange
ments for you and Ehzabeth to attend
Franklin Academy this year," she told him.
"I want you to go through college and study
law and be one of the smartest lawyers there
is in the State!"
It was characteristic of Mrs. Grow to say
nothing until her decision was about to be
consummated in an act. Galusha was strangely
moved; he had never hoped to go to college,
but he was instantly settled in the pursuit
of his life. He had habitually followed his
mother's advice, a fact to which he felt, in

32 GALUSHA A. GROW
his mellow later years, that he was indebted
for whatever success he had been fortunate
enough to achieve. A week afterwards he
began a course at the Academy, boarding
at Mrs. Walker's, the mother of Governor
Walker, of Virginia, who resided a mile from
the school. Previously his education had been
confined to a few months of district school
each year. He continued at the Franklin
Academy until the spring of 1840, and the
following summer he studied Greek under
William Richardson, son of Preston Richard
son, the former principal, who died shortly
after Galusha entered the institution.
In September, 1840, Galusha entered the
freshman class at Amherst. It was to cost him
"all told" four hundred dollars a year during
his college life. That amount seemed very
extravagant to the family and neighbors, and
he could never make them fully understand
why living at Amherst was so much more than
living at Glenwood, The selection of this col
lege was controlled by the fact that William S.
Tyler, who was from Harford and had fitted
in part for college at Franklin Academy, was
then a well-known professor of Greek and
Latin at Amherst. Galusha was to get ready

EDUCATION 33
for his study of law, but he also determined,
on the advice of his mother, to have a practical
craft, and studied surveying.
There were no gymnasiums at the college in
those days, and each student looked out for
his own physical exercise in his own way.
Galusha's athletic practice consisted of cut
ting eight-foot wood into two-foot lengths, and
carrying them up two flights of stairs to be
used in an open fireplace which was supposed
to warm his room.
"I have never been able to figure out just
how such a small fireplace could eat up such
a large amount of wood and throw off such a
small amount of heat," he used to say after
wards. "I have concluded that it must have
been the exercise of sawing and carrying that
kept me from freezing to death. Aside from
this effort. Professor Hitchcock, who had the
chair of geology, took the class on extended
excursions along the Connecticut River, and
as another form of athletics he suggested the
organization of a military company, which
was got up at once; and to my surprise, I was
elected captain."
The year he went to Amherst Grow was only
seventeen. Still, he took a deep interest in

34 GALUSHA A. GROW
what was probably the greatest of all political
contests, because it marked the awakening of
a new political consciousness in the people, the
Harrison- Van Buren fight. It plunged the
country into immense excitement. Texas had
applied to Congress for annexation. The
South demanded it for slave purposes; the
North opposed it on the same grounds. Grow's
sympathy was with the Democratic Party,
but with that faction which was against the
expansion of slavery. A number of incidents
which occurred about that time had stirred
him very much.
A feeling of resentment had been roused
against the pro-slavery men of the North for
the acts of brutality they inflicted upon those
interested in limiting the slave business to
territory then occupied by the serf system.
William Lloyd Garrison, who belonged to the
radical wing of the abolitionists, had been
dragged through the streets of Boston with a
rope around his body, and had been rescued
by the police and thrown into jail to save him
from the mob. He believed in the right of
every innocent being to equal freedom with
every other, and refused to support any other
view even by implication. The South would

EDUCATION 35
not tolerate him, and Southern sympathizers
in the North made his life a devil's rest.
Another outrage occurred in a hall in Phila
delphia where some anti-slavery women had
met. A mob stoned the building and finally
burned it to the ground. In New Hampshire
and Connecticut, schools for colored children
were destroyed by pro-slavery men. At Alton,
Illinois, some time before, Elijah Lovejoy,
brother of Owen Lovejoy, later a friend and
political adherent of Mr. Grow's, was mur
dered by a mob of Southern sympathizers.
"These and many like incidents drove me
into the anti-expansionist Democratic Party
of the North," he once said.
At this period the country was in the throes
of a great business depression, and Martin
Van Buren's administration was blamed for
the condition of affairs. The new Whig Party,
which sprang from opposition to President
Jackson's economic principles as well as his
so-called "executive usurpation," had deep
vitality. The hero of Tippecanoe, William
Henry Harrison, of Ohio, who had defeated
the Indian chief Tecumseh thirty years before,
caught the fancy of the people, who became
enthusiastic — not to say hilarious — on the

36 GALUSHA A. GROW
subject of an entirely democratic candidate.
Tyler, "pro-slave and then Whig," was a good
running-mate. Extremes of protest against
Van Buren, charged with being an aristocrat,
made the supporters of Harrison claim, as
though it were heroic, that Harrison had
lived in a log cabin and subsisted on hard
cider. Imagine a more thrilling time to have been
caught by the great game of politics than that
year, when the country began to be torn by
strong factional strife! Any and every boy
must have rejoiced in the spiciness of that
"hurrah campaign," and enjoyed the jokes
and spirited fire of spontaneous songs. Cer
tainly Mr. Grow cherished the memory of
some of them ever after; perhaps the choicest,
the first sung to the tune of " Yankee Doodle,"
being the following: —
" That Matty loves the workingman
No workingman can doubt, sir.
For well he doth pursue the race
To turn the workers out, sir!
" He turns them out of Whig employ
He turns them out of bread, sirs.
The middlemen he doth annoy.
By striking business dead, sirs !

EDUCATION 37
" For Matty is a Democrat —
Sing Yankee Doodle Dandy !
With spoons of gold and English coach
And servants always handy ! "
The other ran : —
" What has caused the commotion, 'motion, 'motion
Our country through?
It is the ball a-rolling on, for Tippecanoe and Tyler too!
And with them we shall beat Van.
Van, Van, the used-up man !
" Let them talk about hard cider, cider, cider.
And log cabins too —
It will only speed the ball for Tippecanoe and Tyler too.
Van, Van, Van
You're not our man!"
In spite of his Democracy, it was obvious
that Grow could not have lived through an
hour so critical to his growth, when the cry
was "Land! Land!" always "More land!"
without having his sensitiveness to the sub
ject, already deep, greatly quickened. With
the appreciation of what opportunity our
agricultural land offered, with an instinctive
sympathy for the earnestness with which our
young nation was pushing out tendrils of
settlement toward the West, it is to his honor
that he preferred to oppose the annexation of
territory unless it could be free soil. Perhaps

38 GALUSHA A. GROW
the very gap between his own impulse and the
party's stand for acquisition, coupled with
slavery, gave a final fascination to candidates
and their policies.
At any rate, he kept closely in touch with
the political situation. He watched the Creole
case with much interest when it came up in
1842, when Giddings offered a series of resolu
tions in the House claiming that the States
had never delegated their jurisdiction of the
slave question to the National Government,
that slavery was an abridgment of a natural
right and could only exist by positive law,
and that a United States vessel on the high
seas is under United States and not state
jurisdiction. The debate on these resolutions
became so threatening that the majority of
the House, under slave domination, brought
the discussion suddenly to an end and voted
a censure upon Giddings for introducing the
subject, a censure so severe that he was forced
to resign his seat. His Ohio constituents im
mediately reelected him with direct instruc
tions to present the resolutions again. During
the negotiations of the arbitration treaty the
matter was disposed of satisfactorily to both
Governments and the excitement died out.

EDUCATION 39
Such matters stimulated Grow to take part
actively in the political discussions at Amherst
and he made his maiden speech in the Polk-
Clay campaign. He had studied carefully the
platform adopted by the Whigs (1844) and
decided it meant everything or nothing:
Henry Clay was the Whig nominee; annexa
tion of Texas was the prime topic of the hour,
partly due to Tyler's forcing it. Clay was
supposed to be against the project and the
Liberty Party refused to endorse him, select
ing J. G. Birney the second time as their can
didate. Grow's natural sympathy in the mat
ter, despite his aversion to slavery, led him to
stand with Polk.
i His stanch forthrightness in his undergrad
uate years was very marked. A classmate
wrote thus amusingly of him in an article pub
lished in the "Hampshire Gazette": "Like
Galileo, whom he personated in a commence
ment colloquy. Grow would boldly set forth
in the face of the world a new system if sat
isfied of its truth, but not like Galileo would
he recant, for fear had no place in his vocabu
lary." His fellows predicted that he would be
in Congress five years after his graduation.
He finished college satisfactorily but not

40 GALUSHA A. GROW
brilliantly, a good surveyor, a good speaker, a
good thinker, albeit not strikingly original.
At commencement he delivered an oration
on "Moral Mobocracy,"
His confidence at this time seemed unshak
able, but it arose from the ability he had
acquired to meet everything as it came. His
sources of strength were those of the plain
people. From the time he milked the cows
of his maternal grandfather in Connecticut to
the time he entered Amherst he had lived the
simple life of a boy whose lot is the wilderness
and whose abiding-place is such an isolated
farm — conditions which seem not infre
quently to produce Americans of great worth.
The day after his graduation he started for
home. At Springfield, Massachusetts, there
was a great throng of people, and hearing that
there was to be a rally to ratify Henry Clay's
nomination for President, he could not resist
the temptation to stop over and hear the "Big
Three," Daniel Webster, Rufus Choate, and
Horace Greeley, who were to speak.
"I listened in breathless admiration to those
great men, and their words inspired me with an
irresistible desire to take part in the campaign,"
he acknowledges. "The rounded and majestic

EDUCATION 41
periods of Webster, the concise and logical
statements of Choate, contrasted strangely
with the fierce, sledge-hammer blows which the
great editor launched at the platforms and poli
cies of his opponents."
So interested was he that he entered actively
into the campaign as soon as he reached home,
making his first speech from the south end
of the bridge which crosses the Susquehanna
River at Hallstead, Pennsylvania, the place
at that time being called "Great Bend Vil
lage," while Great Bend on the opposite side
of the river was called "Lodersville." Noth
ing interested him like politics. "He wasn't
like most young fellows," said a boyhood ac
quaintance. " There was one girl he might have
married, but his mother stopped that — didn't
think she was good enough — and — well, she
wa'n't, either! The Grows was real big people
and she wa'n't thedr kind. And they said that
one farmer livin' up that way locked his daugh
ter up and kep' her there because she was so
crazy in love with young Grow. But whether
that's so or not, I don't know. He did n't seem
to care about things like that, but he liked
to be off somewhere speakin'. "
"He was always into anythin' to be done,"

42 GALUSHA A. GROW
added another friend, driving his spade into
the ground with the vigorous thrust of youth
which denied his years; "like diggin' potatoes
now. He 'd pitch in and help ! "

CHAPTER III
THE LAW AND THE LAND
Pennsylvania at this epoch was still a "seed-
plot of frontier immigration," passing on her
inhabitants, and the dweller therein did not
suffer, as did the New Englander, from the
acuteness of sectionalism,^ Grow was fortu
nate to live in an environment where wide
interests were encouraged. With the earnest
ness which early characterized him, he went
on to that study for the bar which his mother
with such sterling judgment had indicated.
After the campaign was over he entered the
office of Governor Cleveland, of Connecticut,
where he remained several months, going from
there to read law with F. B, Streeter, of Mon
trose, Pennsylvania, in the winter of 1845, and
in the spring of 1847 was admitted to the bar in
Susquehanna County. He formed a partner
ship with David Wilmot, of Proviso fame, who
was at that time a member of Congress from
the district which was composed of the coun
ties of Bradford, Tioga, and Susquehanna.
' Turner, The Frontier in American History.

44 GALUSHA A. GROW
Wilmot, Grow found, was in some ways a
remarkable man. Born in the hamlet of Beth
any, he had moved at the age of eighteen with
his father to Dimock. Fortunately, at a near
by country-seat called "Woodburne," there
was a good library to which young Wilmot had
free access. In several volumes written by the
Quaker companions of the Father of Pennsyl
vania, he found strong sentiments against the
institution which made merchandise of men.
They influenced his actions all the years of his
life. He often told Grow that at this library he
stored up a knowledge of our political institu
tions which was of great value to him in his
public service. He studied law in Wilkes-Barre
and commenced practice in Towanda, where
Grow became a member of the firm.
"He was a typical old-time statesman,"
Mr. Grow once wrote of him. "Very portly,
his face was beardless and full of intelligence.
At certain times he reminded me of Edward
Everett, although he did not have Everett's
refined ways and accomplishments. He had
a logical mind and was a forceful debater on
questions in which he was interested, such as
restricting the encroachment of slavery on
the free soil of our virgin territories. His fight

THE LAW AND THE LAND 45
for this principle brought forth his famous
Proviso in 1846, during the Mexican War.
The war was popular in the South, which de
sired more territory for slave purposes, but
the North was lukewarm in its prosecution
and Congress was trying to enable President
Polk to negotiate a treaty by appropriating
two millions of dollars for a large slice of ter
ritory which the South was desirous of secur
ing for their slave system. While Wilmot was
in favor of obtaining territory, he was thor
oughly imbued with the Northern spirit and
offered an amendment that "in any territory
acquired from Mexico neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude shall ever exist other
wise than in punishment of crime where the
parties shall have been duly convicted."
This Proviso lay as much in the hour as the
man, although later many Northern Demo
crats were frightened into withdrawing their
support. Wilmot remained true to his convic
tions, although he realized that his resolution
was creating a wide split in the Democratic
Party in his district. He stood bravely against
all threats, one of the sturdy forerunners of
the time of freedom.
It has been asserted that Wilmot is not the

46 GALUSHA A. GROW
real author of the Proviso; that either Jacob
Brinkerhoff or Samuel P. Vinton, of Ohio,
wrote it and requested Wilmot to introduce
it. Mr. Grow contributes on this point: "I do
not recall Wilmot ever mentioning the ques
tion of authorship, although we discussed
the words and spirit of the Proviso many
times. As these perfectly harmonize with the
views he often expressed and emphasized to
me, I am convinced that he is responsible
for the Proviso both in text and spirit and
that he merits all the fame that came to him
by its existence."
Wilmot and Grow differed somewhat in
the way they regarded the slavery question.
Beginning his career a Democrat, young Grow,
with his strong humanity and keen feeling
on the subject of bondage, was moved by a
strong desire to play an effective part in the
settlement of the slavery issue, but he con
sidered that the only way to approach it was
through allied economic questions. To Wil
mot the question was more detached. Grow
firmly believed that the land was the great
solvent. Controversial discussions between
them on the various big topics of the day —
immigration and labor, for instance — were

THE LAW AND THE LAND 47
inextricably mixed with How are we to solve
the problem of the hunger of the crowds for land
and the hunger of the land for the people? The
cry for land was in reality the "Marseillaise"
of the "bread-fight" then going on, due to the
pressure of that immigration which so excited
political America that the Native American or
Know-Nothing Party was organized in protest.
Grow felt that the on-to-the-land impulse
was really an outworking of the soul of the
nation, and the Government was failing when
it did not so offer the soil that the people could
gratify their insatiable appetite for home-
building. To-day, with our thriving civilization, the
feeling of complete union among our States,
our vast homogeneous business system with
its great and more or less unified parapher
nalia of transportation, commerce, and com
munication, its facilities for credit, industry,
and trade, it seems practically impossible to
transpose the West to the true key of seventy
years ago. Grow, listening to its call, visualiz
ing its future, could then with even greater
difficulty foresee the practical changes which
must take place; but he must intensely have
felt the urge of the young country.

48 GALUSHA A. GROW
Not then proven even a transcontinental
force, the life principle of nations pushed us
forward toward the other ocean. Groping for
true continental dominion, the acquisition of
Mexican territory, Texas, and the award of
Oregon completed our instinctive wants and
we had an area of between five and six billion
acres. It rendered us a contiguous structure,
articulated; but we were as a skeleton upon
which the flesh must be mounted.
The great West lay ready; what is roughly
a third of our country was still a mysterious,
unfulfilled promise, a lure to hardy spirits who
must inevitably overcome enormous hard
ships and great danger to perform the duty
which would bring forth uncertain rewards.
That migration, of which De Tocqueville ex
claimed in 1812, "No event can be compared
with this constant removal of the human race
except perhaps those irruptions which pre
ceded the fall of the Roman Empire," had
in forty years surged on momentously.^ The
frontier was moving forward, but at this time
the flood of migration had apparently spent
itself at the western boundaries of Missouri
*¦ Ellen Churchill Sample, American History and its Geo
graphical Conditions.

THE LAW AND THE LAND 49
and Iowa. The pivotal central valleys of the
country, territories drained by our master
rivers up to the edge of arid regions, were
roughly conquered. But beyond stretched
areas utterly new, waiting confidently in their
fabulous wealth, full of marvelous minerals,
untellably abundant of all resources. They
gleamed in a sunset glory, and following those
forerunners of agricultural settlement, hunt
ers, trappers, cattlemen, all possessing endur
ance, sagacity, and resource, picked their way
across the mountain passes, painfully break
ing open the trails for a few heroic settlers.
"Manhood in its prime and womanhood in its
bloom are the core of all emigration," ^ says
Collier in his interesting papers on coloniza
tion. The impress of such developments upon a
young man already in the grip of the land
idea, already with a vision of the nation ex
panding on a grand and beneficent scale, was
naturally great. This effect could not escape
being strengthened by the sweep of the im
pulse which possessed our people, who were in
" that anticipatory fever which, just as height
ened temperature marks the plant before
' Collier, "Colonization," North American Review, 1910.

50 GALUSHA A, GROW
budding," ^ marks the great folk-movements.
Motived by those causes, the adventure
spirit, hunger, gold lust, desire for freedom of
various sorts, which impel all migration, the
earnest, adventurous advances of our emi
grants into the "Indian country" and the
back-land, the Oregon parties, the Mormons,
the early Californians, touched the national
imagination. The effect of the romantic
movement westward had a telling effect on
the spirit as well as the physiology of the neyv
country. For behind the forerunners hived a
people full of ambition, of energy, of aspira
tion, ready to seize the opportunity and ad
vantage, willing to hazard or achieve, and
urged forward by the rhythmic waves of
immigrants. In 1845 two hundred thousand
came, and each succeeding year more. North
Europe's involuntary aid to us. Migration,
aggressive, heroic, strenuous, was compelling
us to provide for it.
The land-reform plea became ever more
pressing. In 1844 Evans began agitating, in
"People's Rights," to secure four things:
(1) Freedom of the public lands in a limited
quantity to actual settlers; (2) cessation of
* Collier, " Colonization," North American Review, 1910.

DANIEL FREEMAN OF NEBRASKA, THE FIRST
HOMESTEADER

THE LAW AND THE LAND 51
the sale x)f public land to non-resident pur
chasers; (3) the exemption of homesteads; and
(4) the restriction of the purchase of any other
land to a limited quantity. A "Free-Soil"
segment immediately appeared in the Demo
cratic Party. Andrew Johnson's resolution
the following year was the first formulation
of public opinion, a resolution that Congress
should award every homeless citizen or widow
a portion of the domain. This created a good
deal of discussion, much of it sarcastic, but it
paved the way for a new programme and the
proposal of other acts followed closely.
These propositions naturally caused Grow
to review the legislation from early days rela
tive to the domain. He wanted to know, with
a lusty, American, constructive curiosity, why
we had not even natural expansion; what made
the occupation of land in severalty so unsatis
factory a business. He wanted to know why,
after three quarters of a century, we were still
doubtful whether the immigrant was suffi
ciently worth his salt to permit him to have
land. He could not see why, as it has been
since expressed,^ we were getting rid of our
public lands as recklessly as though they were
1 Henry George, Land and Labor.

52 GALUSHA A. GROW
a curse. What he found is relevant to his
whole later life.
The commons up to 1803 were made up
of cessions to the Federal Government by the
original colonies of about two hundred and
sixty million acres which they had received
from King George, tendered to satisfy Revo
lutionary debts. These sufficiently provided
for, a policy was determined upon (1780) con
cerning the formation of Territories into new
States, — which was the foundation of our
territorial system,^ — and a plan was settled
upon for sale of the States' common property.
We did not immediately express our faith
in democracy, as it would seem we should
have done, by taking the log cabin with its
primitive hearth as a symbol for our land
programme. At this time the conception had
not been wrought of private property based
on anything different from aristocratic North-
European forms of land tenure. The first two
million acres went in two sales, and pur
chasers presented themselves, as to the Crown,
to Congress through petitions, which were
there acted upon and referred to the Board of
Treasury.
' Shosuke Sato.

THE LAW AND THE LAND 53
The first great free charter for our public
lands, the Ordinance of 1787 (commonly
called the "Magna Charta" of our land legis
lation), besides dealing with slavery, excluding
it from the Territories, and defining the com
mon rights of dwellers therein, established the
principle of using the common lands for educa
tion and internal improvements,
Hamilton, two years later, submitted the
first plan of a General Land Office for the
administration of the domain, although the of
fice was not established until 1812, In the same
report in which he made this recommendation
he favored small holdings as well as large
sales. His influence was strong; the prev
alent opinion had by this time come to be
that terms of acquisition should be made
easy. Nevertheless, the first general land law ^
(1796) provided for sale only in tracts of not
less than 640, nor more than 5120 acres each.
The custom of sales at public auction was
established and the terms were not less than
two dollars an acre. Credit was afforded; per
mission to pay in evidences of public debt
was given, and the land was forfeit in case of
failure.
* Morris Bien, Land System of the United States.

54 GALUSHA A. GROW
Then Uncle Sam made an effort to strike
a more democratic gait. The unit of lands
offered for sale was reduced to sections and
half-sections at the same minimum price,
with credit extended up to four years, with
interest. This was the first really progressive
achievement, a beneficial act which bore
directly upon settlement, rapid improvement,
and permanent prosperity of the first Western
States. The Surveyor-General, whose office
was then established just about as it is now,
was authorized to lease lands for future dis
position (1800). The earliest recognition of
the preemption right was also contained in
the bill, as it provided that any person who
had erected a gristmill was entitled to purchase
the section on which it stood.
The first expansion of our territorial limits,
unexpected and really unsolicited on our part
when we acquired the vast, magnificent ter
rain known as the "Louisiana Purchase " just
as it was acquired from Spain, including all
the territory on both sides of the Mississippi
River from its mouth to its source, an area
four times greater than France itself and al
most double the area of the thirteen colonies,
made the solution of the land problem far

THE LAW AND THE LAND 55
more imperative. Quite as significant and
happy as the territorial expansion was our
resultantly broadened point of view.
At the time we received this terrain, we fell
far short of being willing practically to ac
knowledge the Government's debt for common
men's labor. Our system failed to provide for
the very classes which were to determine our
character as a nation. Perhaps the most
flagrant example proving this lay in the early
"redemptioners" ^ who, that they might make
for themselves homes in America, availed
themselves of the " privilege " of binding them
selves and their labor to captains or vessel
owners for one, three, five, or seven years.
Even after they had redeemed themselves,
we had no chance of a livelihood to offer on
the great back-land. A modest settler could
not buy directly nor even lease from the
Government a small plot to cultivate.
Trial of true democracy in land tenure was
prevented by the persistent ideas of capitalist
landlordism, maintained unreasoningly. But
after 1803 the country seemed to realize that
something was radically wrong with our sys
tem.
' Horace Greeley, on "Immigration."

56 GALUSHA A. GROW
The following year logical advance was
made. An act was passed by which the lands
were offered for sale in one hundred and sixty-
acre tracts, and payment of surveying ex
penses and patent fees was discontinued. Two
years after that, payment in evidences of
public debt was forbidden, but credit arrange
ments were made even easier. The privilege
of temporary occupation was given to settlers
upon application in 1816. The preemption
idea was resisted as encroachment upon the
rights of the States, however.
Immigration was comparatively slow up to
1820, only some 250,000 foreigners coming.
Not until after that year, when annual totals
mounted rapidly, were the democratic 'results
of our territorial expansion felt in land policy.
Then a new lane began to open in the public
mind, down which the wise of Grow's gener
ation saw a fascinating picture of prosperity.
Oppression in Europe was forcing out the
population, and the United States, presenting
many chances to labor in our varied indus
tries, offered the easiest channel for the sig
nificant flood of potential human wealth.
In spite of this, in agriculture, the backbone
of our existence, little but obstacles was at

THE LAW AND THE LAND 57
first set before these humble people, rich only
in labor power and land love.
The prevailing systems of administration
of public lands were those of John Quincy
Adams, whose plan was to make the national
domain the inexhaustible fund for progressive
and increasing internal improvements, and
Henry Clay's " American " plan. But systems
were not what the West wanted; they wanted
land.^ Benton, the man of widest views on
the destiny of the West, thought a low price
would avail. He proposed and fought through
the first bill modifying the cost of public lands,
and establishing an eighty-acre unit at a dol
lar and a quarter an acre. Demoralizing
credit was stopped. Although no solution, this
was good progress: but even under Benton's
bill public auction still advantaged the buyer
with money over the man without much cash.
A more elaborate graduation proposal was
made later (1828), but the great controversy
over land policy, which later shook the very
foundations of the Union, really began in
1830 when Foote's resolution, a simple pro
posed inquiry into the expediency of tempo
rary suspension of the sales of public lands,
• Benton, Abridgment of Debates.

58 GALUSHA A. GROW
precipitated the great debates of Webster,
Hayne, and Benton, not only on the present
and future conditions of disposal of the do
main, but upon the doctrine of nullification
and its sequence — the dissolution of the
Union at the will of any one State. * At that
time practically two hundred and sixty mil
lion acres embraced within the States of Ohio,
Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Tennessee
were involved; all of Minnesota east of the
Mississippi River, and all of Alabama and
Mississippi east of the thirty-first parallel.
Hayne held that the lands should be trans
ferred to new States on easy terms for the
benefit of settlers and cultivators. He depre
cated their sale for money, either to be divided
among the States or to accumulate in the
Treasury, as leading to corruption and con
solidation. Webster defended the policy of sale at a
dollar and a quarter an acre and maintained
that disunion threatened unless federal author
ity over the lands was upheld. Benton, now a
step advanced from his own graduation plan
of 1821, fought obstinately for the inaugura
tion of a policy by which the lands should no
longer be treated as a source of revenue, but

THE LAW AND THE LAND 59
should be given without charge and still ad
ministered by the Federal Government in its
own favor. They would be, he maintained, the
best sort of common interest for the States,
cementing them as they should be cemented
in union.
This great and prolonged debate set the
ball rolling, and it never stopped for thirty
years more. In 1832 a law passed providing
for sale of as little as forty acres, and quaintly
phrased that, "all actual settlers being house-
keepers on the public lands" should be al
lowed to enter such a tract, a statute which
remained in force less than ten years. The im
portant proposal of this period, however, was
Henry Clay's bill (1832) for dividing the net
proceeds of sales from the public lands among
the States, It passed both houses, but Jack
son, holding it over a session, vetoed it. His
idea, "The Union must be preserved," influ
enced all he did. He was the first effectively
to take the progressive ground that public
lands should not be held as a source of pub
lic revenue, but as an inducement to actual
settlers. So unprotected was the mass of territory,
however, that conditions became scandalous.

60 GALUSHA A. GROW
Land easily obtained from the Government
brought an unearned profit. Great prosperity
lay in its manipulation. Speculation mounted
appallingly, everybody borrowing here, there,
and everywhere to carry all they could. Danger
of monopoly in lands was plain to any eye.
They were paid for mainly, to use the phrase
of the day, in "wild-cat and red-dog state
bank currency," the paper of state banks
which were the repositories of government
funds. Jackson stopped that, laying it down
that tracts should be paid for in gold or silver,
and this "specie order" precipitated a panic.
Some of the States were in financial low
water at this time, and it seemed to many
politicians that the public lands would relieve
them. States owed so much money, a good
part of $200,000,000, to the Barings and other
European financiers that their creditors began
pressing for settlement, suggesting that the
Federal Government assume the debt. A
graduation bill was proposed once more in
1838 to hasten some disposition of public
lands. This failing, party politics, which
greased the way for four fat measures at the
end of the session in 1840, secured the actual
passage of a preemption bill which specified

THE LAW AND THE LAND 61
that the proceeds of the public lands should
be divided among the States,
If this law had stood, our whole subsequent
history might have been considerably altered.
However, it was instantly seen that it could
not operate. The National Treasury was
empty, a loan bill and a tax measure pend
ing. In this act the Federal Government indi
rectly assumed the responsibility for the loans
the States had made, by guaranteeing that
they should have income for operations which
the National Government controlled. The
measure was so comprehensively extrava
gant that it was popular, but its principle was
inimical to the general good. Benton even
considered it a pernicious violation of the
Constitution. Its repeal was secured the fol
lowing year. It was not the preemption right
alone to which there was objection, but the
state guarantee. Benton defended the pre
emption principle to such effect that ampli
fied rights were offered in the enactment of
1841 called the "Preemption Act," which
made land available even for aliens declaring
intention of citizenship.
After three quarters of a century we had
begun to recognize the immigrant as a suf-

62 GALUSHA A. GROW
ficient national asset to permit him in prin
ciple to occupy and buy land with the rest
of us from the Government, on decent terms !
Many men, like Benton, who fought for the
measure, or like Grow, who watched it, were
hopeful that it would induce real occupants
to take tracts. They were doomed to dis
appointment. It never proved more than
partially satisfactory even in the early days.
Its two leading characteristics, private sale
and credit, made it easy of abuse by the mon
eyed. The settler must live on the land,
according to the provisions of the bill, in order
to purchase at a minimum price of a dollar
and a quarter. Too often his occupancy was
a complete farce. After staying overnight in
some rude shack or cabin, the claim could be
filed upon whether or not it was surveyed. The
advance in the principle of the bill was slight.
Occurring at a time when Grow was dis
cussing avidly with his college mates major
and minor affairs of public policy, this act
and all which followed in the ten subsequent
years had for him personal significance.
Young, full of progressive spirit, he argued
ardently the right of the Government to take
advanced social ground in administering its

THE LAW AND THE LAND 63
great common property. He was imbued with
the best of the new spirit through which a
great nationalism must come if a greater
America were to come. And as Texas was
acquired, several years later, — that marvel
ous realm we took from Mexico, — and Ore
gon, still later, Grow became completely and
enthusiastically convinced that this land, held
as free soil and well distributed, would make
a huge success of America, whereas slavery
and bad distribution might ruin us.
"Galusha," remarked a friendly black
smith, within whose hearing he expounded his
views, "you may think you are a Democrat,
but if you go on talkin' like that, you won't
stay long in the party!" — a charge which he
hotly denied, having a suspicion the while that
it might be true.
He was genuinely glad of the repeal of the
Land Act of 1847, which had pledged the na
tional lands for the payment of certain debts.
A federal policy of internal improvements,
popular during the late twenties and early
thirties,^ but completely losing favor by 1835,
was again being urged, and this time extend
ing beyond roads, railroads, and canals to the
* Haney, Railroad Grants.

64 GALUSHA A. GROW
domain itself. McClernand introduced a reso
lution that the traffic in public lands should
cease and that they should be sold to settlers
at cost, but to Grow's disappointment this
was never formulated into law. He watched
Congress turn a deaf ear to the Commissioner
of the General Land Office when he recom
mended that the preemption privilege be
granted to all actual settlers on the public
lands whether they were surveyed or not;
but took hope from the persistent agitation.
Although the aggressive plough furrowed
ever farther westward, nothing more was ac
complished toward the real solution of the
settlers' problem for several years. Up to this
time over one billion acres of unoccupied do
main had been exposed to the greed of specu
lators and monopolists. Five general propo
sitions had been presented to the country.
W. R, W. Cobb's bill for the reduction and
graduation of the prices of lands was the
type of one. The other variously formulated
schemes were: cession to the States wherein
they lay; partition among the States; dona
tions to railroads, canals, and so forth; and
finally, donation to every occupant. The last
plan found entire favor with Grow.

THE LAW AND THE LAND 65
Throughout this whole period the experi
ments in political chemistry were most inter
esting. Elements were being gathered and
tried out which would flux into a great party.
Issues were emerging which would determine
the future of the next century of the nation,
none more persistent than the demand for
lands which had its reflex action in congres
sional bills. The Liberty Party and the fol
lowers of Van Buren joined and called them
selves the Free-Soil Party, standing for "Free
Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men."
They nominated Van Buren on a platform
vigorously protesting against slavery which
contained these famous passages : —
Congress has no more power to make a slave
than to make a king,
A free soil to a free people.
In four years land agitation had become a
potent factor in American politics. Most im
portant in its effect on the public mind was
the measure initiated by Greeley, proposing
to discourage speculation and secure home
stead settlers by allowing every citizen or
applicant for citizenship to preempt one hun
dred and sixty acres on which he might live
for seven years. On proving that he had lived

66 GALUSHA A. GROW
on the land he was to receive forty acres free
if married, eighty if a family man, and the
rest he might buy at a dollar and a quarter
an acre with interest. If the land was not for
the individual's own use, the price was five
dollars. "The soundness of the homestead principle
is not questioned by the adversaries of the
bill," Greeley wrote. "They have a safer
method of warfare. No bill can be drawn so
as to hit their several tastes — if the amount
exempted is too high for one, it is too low for
another. A secure but humble home to every
family is one of the generous aspirations of
a Republican polity." The bill failed, but his
prophecy was stirring to men like Grow, who
saw before them good work to be done.
Voting for Cass for President and Wilmot
for Congress in 1848, Grow again showed his
independence of Wilmot's opinions. Wilmot's
choice. Van Buren, did not receive a single
electoral vote, although he had nearly three
hundred thousand popular votes. In 1850,
however, there was a wide split in the Demo
cratic Party in the district, James Lowry
leading one wing. The Free-Soilers nomi
nated Wilmot for reelection, while the Whigs

THE LAW AND THE LAND 67
nominated John C. Adams, of Bradford
County. Wilmot realized that defeat was
probable, and ten days before the election the
split became so threatening, in spite of earnest
endeavors to restore harmony, that Wilmot
and Lowry met to discuss the matter.
It is typical of Wilmot that even when he
was ready to compromise, he was nevertheless
masterful. He told Lowry that he was ready
to name a compromise candidate, as other
wise the chances of the Whig nominee were
very high. He concluded, however, "But, by
G  , I'm to name the man!"
Lowry submitted, and it was agreed that the
convention should reassemble and nominate
Grow, passing the same resolutions which were
adopted by the convention which nominated
Wilmot. Grow had just declined a unanimous nomi
nation for the State Legislature, and owing to
ill health was at this time rusticating at Glen
wood. His genial oratory was very welcome
on such occasions as that on which Tioga
County celebrated in honor of the few remain
ing Continental soldiers in 1849, but he was
comparatively little known save in his own
neighborhood. A committee of two, a friend

68 GALUSHA A. GROW
of Wilmot and a friend of Lowry, came to
ascertain if Grow would accept the nomina
tion to Congress. This occasioned surprise
among his Tunkhannock neighbors, who were
accustomed to see him working day by day on
the farm with no thought of entering public
service at the time — at least not then. They
found him standing in the waters of the little
river, near where the chapel now stands, super
intending the construction of a bridge across
the stream. After consulting his brother
Frederick, in whose judgment he reposed per
fect confidence and who must have possessed
acumen, he accepted with the understanding
that the acceptance was to be in accord with
the views of his friend, David Wilmot. "From
the day I entered his law firm he had evinced
true interest in me and my political tenets,"
Grow gratefully wrote long after.
Eight days before the election he hurried
to Tioga County and explained his position
on the questions which had caused a rupture
in the party. At the time, John Van Buren,
son of the former President, came to Susque
hanna County to help Wilmot, and finding
that he was out of the race took the stump
for Grow, but somewhat ungraciously. The

THE LAW AND THE LAND 69
election ten days after his nomination (Octo
ber) gave Grow a majority of 1200.
During the winter, until March, he took up
the compass and carried it during a survey of
six thousand acres. His accuracy had gained
him enviable reputation in this line. In the
summer of 1851, and at times during the
winter and summer following, the Congress
man-elect worked on the farm. He also peeled
hemlock bark for a tannery which had been
built about a mile from Glenwood, He lived
in a rough hemlock-board shanty with about
thirty other men. They slept in straw bunks
on the floor. At this time he challenged the
champion bark-peeler in the valley to a match
and beat him, an exploit greatly enjoyed by
the countryside. It bespeaks native dignity
when, at twenty-six one may be a Congress
man, a first-class surveyor, and a champion
bark-spudder at one and the same time with
out injury to any reputation. As training for
a congressional career, subsidiary crafts, the
chief principle of which is " hewing to the line "
with all one's might and main, are not to be
despised.

CHAPTER IV
man's right to the soil and men's rights
When Grow took his seat as the youngest
member of Congress in 1851, the times were
pregnant with danger. Land was more than
ever the ferment in every situation. The cur
tain had risen on the first of five great extem
poraneous acts in the Homestead drama. The
curtain-raiser in the Senate the previous ses
sion had focused attention of Senators from
extremes of the country. Douglas had put in
a straight bill for free grants. Daniel Webster
and General Houston put in homestead reso
lutions. Webster held with Greeley that every
male who had declared his intention of citi
zenship should receive title to a quarter-sec
tion after a period of continuous occupancy;
Seward and Houston, less liberal, would have
excluded immigrants, but were also for the
policy. Debate had been active but not acri
monious. Already alternatives of what was satirically
dubbed the " Vote-yourself -a-f arm " plan were
found in opposing measures to cede the pub-

MAN'S RIGHT TO THE SOIL 71
lie lands to the States in which they lay on
condition that they should be donated to
actual settlers, or to graduate prices. We did
not know what we had power to do with the
wonderful territory which seemed to extend
to the heart of the sun's western rays. It was
a dead weight. Was the state of finances dis
cussed in Congress, the revenue from lands
drew attention; was even the necessity of
snagging the Mississippi urged, it was pro
nounced impolitic to appropriate money un
til some conclusive decision had been taken
concerning our attitude on internal improve
ments, of which the greatest problem was the
settling of the domain itself.
Grow was strongly of the mind that a com
prehensive progressive programme of land
administration, of internal development, must
be adopted to weld the Union more firmly.
The hundreds of millions of acres given as
bounties had not in the main served as a pro
motion to settlement. The would-be occu
pant, he who should have been the most de
sirable of all applicants, was exploited. It
was notorious that the system of land sales
had become media for transferring land into
the hands of capitalists, who made a fat profit

72 GALUSHA A. GROW
from the home-seeker or held the soil idle. A
"lottery system" prevailed, yet the land itself
was calling. Petitions flooded Congress, sent
in by thousands who, impelled by that won
derful impulse to better themselves which
has been so amazing a factor in the New
World, yearned to go West. But — was the
territory we had acquired to be slave or free,
to be worked as plantations or by individuals
who could put their hearts into their small
plots; to be donated or sold; to be held indefi
nitely or lavished on corporations?
The persistent opposition in the South to
any policy which tended to augment the
number of small farms was due to the knowl
edge that slavery could not thrive, nor sur
vive, in regions where the large planter had
to make way for the small farmer, and their
energetic opposition to any effort to open the
domain to homesteaders left all queries unan
swered. The nature of the occupation of the
public lands was inextricably involved with
the question of the negro. The Clay Compro
mises, dealing with the new terrain, showed
this. They contained a decision upon the
owning of slaves in the baby State of Cali
fornia which had applied for admission, and

MAN'S RIGHT TO TIJE SOIL 73
passed only because slavery was left to be
settled by each new State formed out of
Texas. The South was placed in a position to
obstruct their admission unless she should be
awarded her share of slave territory.
Temporarily stilling the spirit of sectional
strife, the Clay Compromises could not affect
the powerful unseen undertow in the current
of events which was sweeping the nation
slowly but surely into the depths of civil war.
In reality the most startling struggle of our
national life was on; the fight over the Repeal
of the Missouri Compromise was in fact begun.
"Bloody Kansas" was in the early throes of
her bitter struggle against the encroachments
of slavery. Pacific Railroad bills backed by
powerful lobbies were agitating the political
sea, and anti- and pro-slavery giants were only
pausing before preparing for the final fray.
Southern members of Congress calmly asserted
that slaverv must expand; Northern members
heatedly answered that it must be restricted
or die. The "irrepressible conflict" was gath
ering momentum under a guise of peace.
Grow, inexperienced, excited by his sudden
exaltation to the ranks of the House, sat
silent in the old Hall. With no belief that the

74 GALUSHA A. GROW
deliberations of that body would in his time
be riven by the issue of slavery, he gave him
self to the subject of land, clearly seeing the
entanglement of the two questions, and all the
more resolved to do his part toward the formu
lation of a clean-cut policy which would not
agitate the negro question. He knew, as
Woodrow Wilson has since so wonderfully
shown, that it was the West which made the
public-land question, the tariff question, and
the question of slavery what they were, Wilson
says: —
Without the free lands to which every man
might choose to go, there would not have been
that easy prosperity of life and that high standing
of abundance which seemed to render it necessary
that, if we were to have manufactures and diversi
fied industry at all, we should foster new undfer-
takings by a system of protection which should
make the profits of the factory as certain and
abundant as the profits of the farm. It was the
constant march of wagon trains to the West
which made it so cardinal a matter of policy
whether the national domain was to be free land
or not; and that was the land question..
Whatever might be said for the several
modes proposed for the settlement of the
domain, the great hope lay. Grow was con
vinced, in the homestead principle, so formu-

MAN'S RIGHT TO THE SOIL 75
lated that we should allow all land classified
as agricultural to be entered, make fraud and
speculation impossible, and get immigrants
upon the farms. When he made his entry
upon the cue the great playwright. Fortune,
had provided, Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee,
held the floor defending a homestead bill he
had proposed six months after Douglas's
broad measure in the House,
In the name of the common man, Johnson
had come forward to ask recompense for the
services of him who by his labor quietly and
effectively contributed to the aims of govern
ment. Episodes attending the measure's pro
posal displayed Johnson's skill at parliamen
tary tactics, which procured consideration of
his plan despite the adverse tactics of foes of
the policy. Submitted as a homestead bill,
objection was raised when it was moved to
send it to the Committee on Public Expen
ditures, and it was finally, after the fashion
of unwelcome proposals, allowed to languish
in the Committee on Public Lands. So he
shrewdly changed its title, re-introducing it
as a "bill to encourage agriculture and for
other purposes," then adroitly added its
homestead description, a roundabout pro-

76 GALUSHA A. GROW
cedure which, when realized, was hotly re
sented by an array of important-looking men
with prominent "speaking parts."
To involve only those lands open to private
entry, the measure Johnson offered provided
that every man or widow over twenty-five
years of age should be entitled to receive free
a quarter-section of that limited amount of
land "open to private entry" upon condition
of continued occupancy.^ At first the bill
read so that immigrants might have benefited,
but later Johnson asserted that his aim was
solely to alleviate poverty among American
workingmen. He restricted its application to
those already in the country at the time of
passage, which rendered the scope of the
measure's operation narrow if beneficent.
Even with this change, the Southern dele
gation was not attracted by Johnson's angle
of presentation. Johnson was not of the type
to find favor among the aristocratic planta
tion men. He did not represent them. He had
been driven from his native State of North
Carolina by want of opportunity, and, with
only a trade and a self -administered education,
' No lands were subject to private entry until after they
had been surveyed, brought into market, advertised, and
offered for sale at public auction.

MAN'S RIGHT TO THE SOIL 77
had won his way up. He held his seat as the
honored representative of the un-landed and
less affluent whites of the upland districts.
Naturally, his point of view so differed that
his Southern colleagues instinctively distrusted
his leadership, and, challenging, were not re
assured to find that Johnson had in his mind
something not unlike our modern idea of
redistribution of property. To this end he
thought the division of some part of our gov
ernment lands among actual settlers would
be an excellent means. Some of his Demo
cratic confreres laid hold of any convenient
means to combat the bill.
f Grow, determined to speak first upon this
great issue, was destined first to talk upon
another matter. Fate, or his whole-hearted
humanity, caused him to come to the defense
of the Hungarian patriot, Louis Kossuth.
The latter had been imprisoned in an Aus
trian dungeon because he had attempted to
relieve his country from oppression. Escaping,
he had fled with comrades to Turkey, where
they underwent terrible hardships, ended only
by the United States giving them passage to
America in a national vessel in the belief that
they wished to adopt our land as a home.

78 GALUSHA A. GROW
In reality, Kossuth wished to awaken sym
pathy for his unhappy Hungary and to in
duce both England and the United States
to put themselves on record as against the
intervention of Russia in Hungary's affairs.
A resolution was offered late one night in the
House extending a welcome to Kossuth and
proposing his introduction to that body.
One of the notably interesting figures among
Virginia's Representatives, Fayette McMul-
len, opposed its adoption on the ground that
it was a piece of impudence for a foreign rebel
to come here and ask for sympathy, and that
it was totally contrary to all precedent for
the United States to take a stand protesting
against international affairs on the Continent
in which she had no immediate concern.
Grow was stirred. He was sitting but a
short distance from McMullen. On hearing
the argument, he rose, impetuously.
I cannot refrain from replying [he said as soon
as he could obtain the floor] . . . He [Kossuth]
comes here advocating the rights of crushed hu
manity and the cause of his native land, and asks
the American people for their aid against the
despots of his country. He asks them, as men
standing in the shadow of Washington, to consider
the cause of humanity, and for this he is charged

MAN'S RIGHT TO THE SOIL 79
with "impudence." ... If this be impudence, ia
what way would you have an apostle of liberty
appeal for the sympathy and aid of a people whose
country has drank the life-blood, not only of its
own martyrs, but of every clime? Is it "impudent"
to stand up in the face of nations and advocate the
conscious rights of nian? Is it "impudent" for the
representative of a brave people to present the
claims of his fatherland, and to the sympathy of
the descendants of Washington, Franklin, and
Jefferson? — to a country that in its hour of peril
received the aid of Lafayette and DeKalb, and
whose soil holds the ashes of Kosciusko and
Steuben? So generously did he urge that the decision
of the House be based on humanities rather
than on precedents of our international policy,
and press the claims of Kossuth to consider
ation as a private citizen, that his defense
was the occasion of many private congratu
lations and of a general recognition of his
ability. Benton, Wade, Giddings, and many
other men of power sought him out, and
the resolution passed by a substantial major
ity. He had used the psychological moment
promptly and well, prompted by sheer good
feeling, and the pretty incident entitled him
to sure attention in the Chamber on his next
address.

80 GALUSHA A. GROW
In the Senate, Seward similarly defended
Kossuth, who was accorded his reception in
both chambers. Grow was gratified to see him
conducted with honor down the center aisle of
the House to a place inside the bar, where he
delivered an eloquent address received with
enthusiasm by the Northern members. The
man of the hour for a time, Kossuth's fervid
appeals, his quaint Shakespearian diction, his
whole personality, fascinated. Several days
after his reception a banquet was tendered
him at the National Hotel, which was one of
the gala events of the year. Vice-President
King presided with Kossuth on his right and
Webster, then Secretary of State, on his left.
Grow was honored by a seat at the speakers'
table, and his long remembrance of the fact
testifies that it meant much to him.
Grow had his first big scene in the Home
stead play, when (March 30, 1852) he deliv
ered his keynote address — his first planned
effort, to which he always therefore referred
as his "maiden speech," It constituted a con
troversial lead to his ardent and finally suc
cessful fight for the establishment of an equit
able policy of land distribution. Involving
many questions to be decided for the country.

IMAN'S RIGHT TO THE SOIL 81
the policy so far was hall-marked neither by
party nor by sectional bias. The lawyers'
question of constitutionality was of first
moment in all issues at this time. Advocates
of the homestead had particularly to fight a
lack of precedent for direct federal grants.
Free grants of sorts had been awarded to
settlers since the earliest times, and in the
Oregon Land Act of 1850 were again offered
through state channels. Among members from
all sections and all parties there was difference
of opinion on the proprietary rights of the
Government in land "acquired of Jthe blood
and treasure of all the States," as well as the
power of Congress to give it away.
Furthermore, the South was in^something
of a corner. Consistent protest was impossible
because she had succeeded in passing within
five years an act which ceded back to the
Central and Southern States 27,300,000 acres
of overflowed lands, worth at that time
$25,000,000. Granted because of the need of
reclaiming surrounding property, — in other
words, for the purpose of internal improve
ment, — this act served as slight but distinct
precedent. If alienation of federal lands for
such an object was feasible, grants for other

82 GALUSHA A. GROW
worthy reasons were feasible. If Congress
could benefit a small group of States while,
as a Southern member protested, "the other
nineteen States did not receive enough soil
on which to sprout a pea ! " then there was no
merit in the idea that the Government had
no power to dispose of lands. Bounties to
soldiers, grants to railroads and insane asy
lums, strengthened the case.
On the great constitutional question Grow
recited the authority of the Government to
dispose of the domain; th^_clause which pro
vides that Congress shall have the right "to
dispose of and make all needful rules and
regulations concerning the territory and other
property of the United States." This, he held,
imposed as a duty upon Congress "to pro
mote the real and permanent interests of the
United States." It was certainly important
economic work to secure actual settlers at a
price barely sufficient to cover the cost of
survey and transfer, with such limitations and
restrictions as to prevent the land falling into
the hands of speculators. Occupancy, not sale,
was of supreme importance, he argued effec
tively, pointing out that the settler performed
invaluable labor for which the Government

;man's right to the soil 83
could not afford to do otherwise than pay
justly by title to the land. He looked upon
the soldier of peace, foregoing his native en
vironment to join the economic army, as serv
ing his country in no less immeasurably fine
a way than the soldier who went to battle.
Principle, expediency, protection, and ul
timate increase in revenues demanded thfs
policy. Receipts from the direct sale of public
lands. Grow showed, were already in excess
of what they had cost us originally and the
States had no ground for complaint. Whereas
Johnson put the homestead plan forward as a
measure of paternalistic welfare work. Grow
asserted that men had actual right to com
mon lands. Bitterly controversial argument
was contained in his broadly stated general
belief in the inherent rights of man to the soil.
Beyond the expediencies and forms of civiliza
tion, by the fundamental values of the mat
ter, the use and occupancy of land alone
should give a man, to use the language of
Blackstone, "an exclusive right to retain in a
permanent manner that specific land which
before belonged generally to everybody but
particularly to nobody"; and he quoted from
the same source, "There is no foundation in

84 GALUSHA A. GROW
nature or natural law why a set of words on
parchment should convey the dominion of'
land." Or, as Jefferson stated it from another
angle, "the earth belongs in usufruct to the
living." Throwing himself into his humanitarian
plea. Grow urged that happy firesides would
follow the liberal policy of providing farm
steads, and that "as the means of sustaining
life are derived almost entirely from the soil,
every person has a right to so much of the
earth's surface as is necessary to his support.
To whatever imoccupied portion of it, there
fore, he shall apply his labor for that purpose,
from that time forth it should become appro
priated to his exclusive use; and whatever
improvements he may make by his industry
should become his property and subject to his
disposal. For the only true foundation for
any right to property is man's labor."
Heterodoxy itself could not have been re
ceived with more derision than this coura
geously applied doctrine ! Socialism never had
a harder road to travel. Attack was instan
taneous. A humanist idea, whatever its merits,
it represented honest belief that labor, once,
in the words of Adam Smith, the original pur-

MAN'S RIGHT TO THE SOIL 85
chase money paid for all things, should serve
in place of currency. The progressivism of
the hour, it received the traditional quota of
stormy protest.
Grow accepted attack stanchly and receded
not a point. Backing came to him slowly.
Most of the dramatis personce of the Home
stead play at this time made their bows to
the audience. Notably several men appeared
as friends of Johnson, Grow, and the bill, who
became, as the action developed, hidden or
open enemies. Two important characters of
this ilk were Robert W. Johnson, of Arkansas,
and Cobb, of Alabama, both pledged knights
of a landed aristocracy. Yet Johnson declared
that he deemed giving land to the landless
glorious in itself, while Cobb announced that
he had promised his constituents to introduce
the homestead measure himself if Andrew
Johnson did not do it!
When the many players in this spectacular
show had spoken introductory lines, the action
began to quicken. There were sharp incidents
like the conflict between McMullen, now
standing on common ground with Grow and
Johnson, and his two Virginia colleagues,
Averett and Millson, who at this early day

86 GALUSHA A. GROW
were irrevocably opposed to the measure.
The South was in a predicament of incon
sistency, because of the Swamp Lands Bill.
Averett deliberately turned his back on his
own vote and declared the proposed donation
would be in violation of all our principles.
Millson, on the other hand, acknowledging
the mistake (from the States' rights angle) of
the Swamp Lands Act, invited and received
Johnson's sharp rebuke for commenting that
he had looked upon this new land bill as a
"practical jest, a burlesque upon those extrav
agant propositions which sometimes reached
the House."
To this controversy members from Maine
and Massachusetts added their voices — the
East was strongly inclined to be jealous of
the West and so stood with the South — plead
ing that the domain constituted a fund from
which each State should receive an equitable
portion. One Massachusetts member even
introduced a counter-measure intended to
force the constitutional issue, providing that
the Government should repay to his Com
monwealth her share of expenses in the late
war with Great Britain. So ardent was the
argument that Alexander Stephens, who, un-

MAN'S RIGHT TO THE SOIL 87
like most Whigs, did not strongly uphold the
constitutional power to appropriate lands and
money for internal improvement, predicted
that this issue would soon become a control
ling factor in politics,
Johnson, expounding and defending his own
measure, kept pretty well in the center of the
stage. Not realizing that the weakest point
of his plea was the benevolent argument for
alleviation of poverty, he emphasized that
"it had long been near his heart to see every
man in the United States domiciled." He in
telligently urged the authority of Congress to
act and pictured the ultimate great revenue
which must be derived from increased imports
once the land was populated by producing,
spending workers. He had both sentimental
and economic appeals in his favor. The word
"home" had a pull. Good business reasons
tempted sane expenditure of public terrain
as business investment. Johnson avowed that
it was his "one great object to pass the bill
in form acceptable to the country."
The thrilling moments of this first period
of action occurred after the bill had progressed
almost to a vote. Out of hosts of minor ones,
an unprecedented amendment was offered by

88 GALUSHA A. GROW
Brown, of Mississippi, which was to change
the bill altogether and create a tenancy sys
tem for preemptors, affording them a right
to purchase after a period of years of free
occupancy. In reality this proposal would
create a pernicious government vassalage.
Not so much because the idea was popular as
because it offered a diversion from Johnson's
scheme. Brown executed a clever maneuver.
At a time when there were but few members
in the Chamber, he pushed his amendment
as a substitute for the body of Johnson's bill
and secured a vote in his favor of 67 to 56,
entirely annulling the homestead plan.
This was profoundly serious. Homestead
advocates bestirred themselves. A member
who had not had a chance to vote charged
a mistake in counting. A recount was de
manded, and wrangled over with much con
sumption of time, to be finally refused. Mean
while hasty scouring about for absentees went
on. By the time the Chairman had succeeded
in getting his position upheld, Johnson was
in a position to end the suspense. He had
enough votes to displace the amendment and
secure the reinstatement of the body of his
bill as a new amendment, the vote being 97

MAN'S RIGHT TO THE SOIL 89
to 77. Shortly after, in May, 1852, his bill
passed the House with more than 261 majority,
owing to the popularity of the idea alone.
The Senate presented a different situation
The upper and lower Houses were distinctly
opposed. Southern Senators — landlords all —
stuck together in their dislike of the propo
sal and were determinedly obstructive. Also,
reasons of expediency caused those in charge
of the Pacific Railroad Bill to hold back any
other measure in which a grant of land was
involved until their own avaricious demands
should be satisfied. Being in the majority, the
Democrats contrived to give the Homestead
Bill short shrift, A substitute for the Johnson
Bill was tacked on the railroad measure, but
was not accepted. Johnson's sympathizers in
the Senate had no confidence of success at
this session.
In general, failure to conceive the stupen
dous nationalization we must undergo was the
serious fault in Congress, Population was a
national need; development a national de
mand; the pressure of industry a national
condition. If ceded back to them. States
could not uniformly and competently handle
the domain so effectively as could a central

90 GALUSHA A. GROW
government, were federal powers assured. It
was plainly a common job, better done by the
agent of all the States in common, the Gov
ernment to which the people had delegated
their natural rights and conferred authority
over the soil. Yet those jealous of States'
rights (which Hamilton had declared would
more easily encroach on national authorities
than vice versa) persistently contended that no
adequate authority existed for federal action.
Men willing to work for some broad plan
were not lacking. And there was no more
serious advocate than Grow, rising in emi
nence and beginning to feel versed in legisla
tive custom. None could have had at heart
more closely the interest of the pioneer of
whatever degree or nationality. Added force
at the service of the nation, represented by
the symbolic, willing shoulders of all settlers,
alien or native, generously treated and pro
tected, was the end to which he was looking,
and already he strove earnestly to perfect a
new bill which he hoped would do broader
constructive work than the proposal which
had now gained recognition in one House.

CHAPTER V
NEW relationships
Grow's appreciation of the new world which
he had entered could scarcely have been ex
ceeded. He was vastly interested in every
phase of congressional action and life. The
manner of procedure, his friendships, the
standards of conduct, the organic life of
Washington, all opened new and fascinating
doors to him, whose experience to this time
had been built on the simple customs of a
well-to-do countryside where real American
abihty was the main gauge of men and
women. The House of Representatives from 1851
to 1863 was the scene of many memorable
conflicts, or "personal uprisings," as Grow
called them. When he first entered Congress,
until he became accustomed to the rough-and-
tumble debates on the slavery question, he
was amazed at the free use of epithets and
other unparliamentary methods of gaining
one's effect. The acrimonious discussions on
questions of expansion gave rise to passions

92 GALUSHA A. GROW
which required more control than certain
fire-eating members possessed. Grow had
hardly taken his seat when Albert G. Brown,:
of Mississippi, a States' rights member, def
nied that the South was in favor of secedi
sion. Whereupon John A. Wilcox, a Unioli
Whig from the same State, intimated in plain
language that a certain congressional district
in their State was against the Union. Brown
denied this, and Wilcox challenged: "What
you say is false." Brown rushed i at Wilcox
and dealt him a blow in the face. A hand-
to-hand combat ensued in which chairs and
desks were overturned, and when the fight
was closed by the interference of other mem
bers, the area covered by the conflict looked
as though an earthquake had occurred.
Grow could not sympathize with this sort
of thing, although later he was to have ex
perience which taught him that it was not
easily avoidable. What was more, he warmly
deplored the slavery discussion, which per
sisted,' Trusting calmly in the efficacy of the
Clay Compromises, young at politics, believ
ing in the comparative quiet, he detected but
scouted numerous symptoms of danger ahead
plainly to be seen, and in this he had much

NEW RELATIONSHIPS 93
company among men who had every reason
to be considered astute.
Franklin Pierce, achieving the nomination
for the Presidency, seems to have had decid
edly more caution, not to say misgivings,
which were at variance with his public utter
ances. Before the election he was desirous
of ascertaining the present condition of the
pohtical weather and a forecast. He wrote to
Governor Bigler, of Pennsylvania, requesting
him confidentially to get Wilmot's views as
to the way the Free-Soil element would vote
for President in the northern counties. The
Governor enclosed Pierce's letter with a con
fidential note to Wilmot asking him to write
a private letter that he could forward to
Pierce. In compliance, Wilmot predicted that the
vote of the Free-Soilers in the northern tier
would probably be cast with the two parties
of their own affiliations; that while the Com
promise measures passed in 1850 had produced
a lull in the slavery agitation it would break
out again, but in what form he could not
foretell. The Whigs [wrote Wilmot, in an interesting vein
of analytical prophecy showing acumen concern-

94 GALUSHA A. GROW
ing the false serenity which veiled the serious dis
orders of the time] are now substantially a Free-
Soil party and would resist any further aggression
of the slave power; but if they succeed in electing
a president they would be pro-slavery, as is the
Democratic Party. So long as they are out they
will be an anti-slavery party. Thus , , , there will
be an organized political nucleus for the Free-Soil
elements of the free States to fall back upon in this
contest. We Free-Soilers of the northern counties
will therefore probably vote for Pierce in this elec
tion, not because we believe in him, but because
in our judgment it is the wisest course to prepare
for the conflict which must come upon the exten
sion of slavery in this country.
Grow, returning home, was renominated
without serious difficulty, although the de
bates in his own county were very warm and
the day was not past when rough handling and
liquor were resorted to by an aggressive oppo
sition. He threw himself into the canvass,
making speeches as he did everything else,
with a vim and a will ; driving good horses,
which he loved, to the various rallies. Be
tween times, he could take off his coat and
take hold of plough or axe, " which gave him
bone and muscle and left hii? republican prin
ciples uncontaminated," This energy marked
the difference between a "working and a

NEW RELATIONSHIPS 95
talking politician." Not especially a "mixer,"
he won the good wishes of his public by his
consistent, active, conquering certainty. He
vigorously advocated the Homestead propo
sition and he asserted his devotion to the
pledge adopted at the Baltimore Convention,
" to resist all attempts at renewing, in Con
gress or out of it, the agitation on the slavery
question, under whatever shape or color the
attempt may be made."
Called by his constituents in homely, affec
tionate parlance the "Bark-spudder," his vic
torious campaign had its solid satisfactions.
This election, in which Pierce also was suc
cessful, brought back to the House friends
of particular importance to Grow. Giddings,
who had greeted Grow with the greatest
cordiality upon his entry into Congress, a
celebrity because of the Creole case and the
fight he had made in connection with it upon
slavery while Grow was in college, had proved
sympathetic upon the land legislation. He
was more than willing to support Grow, as
was Lovejoy, the brother of that Elijah Love
joy whose tragic death at the hands of a mob
had so stirred Grow's indignation long before.
Owen Lovejoy was an anti-slavery man, and a

96 GALUSHA A. GROW
natural agitator, anxious to leave no task un
done which would help to block the lodgment
of that terrible institution in our free territory.
Salmon P. Chase was a good friend, too, and
his sympathies were to be depended upon.
Grow looked upon him as one of the mighty
in those days. A Democrat who had acted
with the Liberty Party and the Free-Soilers,
Chase was sent back to the Senate by that not
infrequent but still interesting coalition of the
Free-Soil men and the Union Democrats, In
that time of political flux Chase loomed a large
and able figure, and served as a stimulus to
Grow, Ben Wade, who had entered the Senate the
year that Grow entered the House, bluff in
manner and rugged in character, was very
comradely. Although Grow never became re
signed to Wade's vocabulary of profane words,
which was both unique and startling, he said
that his robust and hearty use of them seemed
somewhat to lessen their profane effect. They
were most often used in connection with
his profound contempt for artifice and sham.
This Grow shared.
Unmarried, with none to do the honors for
him. Grow lived very obscurely in Washington

NEW RELATIONSHIPS 97
in a boarding-house, partly because, as he ex
pressed it, "Speaking in the open air a great
deal superinduced a pestiferous bronchial af
fection which finally clasped hands with an
old-fashioned dyspepsia, and the two together,
in spite of my six-foot-two and strong wiry
frame, forced me to live like a monk all through
my life there. This led some to believe I was
odd and in a way affected. But, after all, my
absence from society was not a great depriva
tion, for I never liked those social functions
which seemed to lack real sincerity. Wade
once said to me, ' Grow, this society business
amuses me. They send a servant to drop a
pasteboard in your card-basket as a visit when
you are living and send a negro with an empty
carriage to your house when you are dead ! '"
Wade's comments were a source of much
delight. In conversation his repartee was de
lightful. "Tall, clean, amiable-looking," as
one commentator describes him, he was feared
in debate because of his biting sarcasm and
fierce invective, and he was desperately frank.
His combination of qualities was to be of the
greatest use to Grow later.
The changes in the House and Senate were
not less significant to Grow's future than were

98 GALUSHA A. GROW
the retentions. Two leading land advocates
dropped from the field. There was better op
portunity for new figures to be seen. Andrew
Johnson, of Tennessee, did not come back to
the House, and the great agitator on the topic
who held over from that epoch of big debates
in 1830, Thomas H. Benton, contemporary of
Webster and Hayne, was no longer in the
Senate. Benton was a figure of national interest.
Missouri had sent him to the Senate for thirty
years. Being defeated at last in the senatorial
race, he had come as Represent9,tive when
Grow entered upon his second term in the
House; but he had become unpopular in his
own State — where there were twenty-five
thousand bondsmen — because of his opposi
tion to slavery extension, and in the next cam
paign he was again defeated. Deeply imbued
with the land passion, associate of trappers,
traders, and explorers who gave him a pro
found knowledge of the Northwest, he left a
very great gap in the ranks of the men who
were particularly identified with the land in
terest in Congress.
Benton returned to Washington, however,
after his defeat for the governorship of Mis-

THE rxiTED STAT^ Of MlElSWA,

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»-'-./ ^'.-^ *.«:.. ,,^.^kV,. I
T*'™-' """"«• ".™»^. . ,

THE FIRST HOMESTEAD PATENT

A..**as,y^

NEW RELATIONSHIPS 99
souri in 1856, and lived there till his death in
1858. Attracted to Grow from the first time
he voiced his theory of man's right to the soil,
himself standing for the freedom of the do
main and clearly seeing new fields which the
American pioneer must attack, he encouraged
Grow, doubtless accepting him as an admir
able instrument of accomplishment. His quar
ters were near Grow's lodgings and they were
in daily communication with each other. Ben
ton had settled down for the purpose of hav
ing easy access to the records of the Senate
and House while writing his "Thirty Years'
View." He felt the burden of his task and
expressed it to his young friend. "Grow, I am
in my seventy-third year, and I must labor
hard and swift to complete the task I set out
to do. I can't get up to Congress very often to
take in the news and gossip of the day, and if
you will call now and then and bring all the
information of interest you can gather, I will
be very grateful to you."
Because Benton understood the things
which were next to Grow's heart and valued
his judgment, and because Grow had always
looked upon Benton as one of the country's.
great men. Grow found him a thrilling com-

100 GALUSHA A. GROW
panion and invaluable teacher. He looked to
the older man for analysis of men, motives,
and affairs then and later, appreciating his
great qualities as a statesman no less than
his shrewd insight and keen humor, occasion
ally touched with malice.
Benton was a Jeffersonian Democrat, a
strict-constructionist, a vigorous defender of
his convictions, a lifelong friend of the Union,
and a most intense hater of his political foes.
An early encounter with Andrew Jackson, an
other with Foote, in the forties, and his con
tinued opposition to the great triumvirate who
dropped out about the beginning of Grow's
time. Clay, Webster, and CaUioun, marked
him first of all as a formidable fighter. He
nevertheless displayed the most chivalrous im
pulses and fine feeling. Calhoun, one of his
bitterest foes, had seemed to enjoy stirring
Benton to passionate outbursts in the Senate.
Yet it is typical of the old Missourian, broad-
minded and kind at heart, that when the great
slavery leader lay dying and some one broached
the subject of his relations with Benton, the
latter threw up both his hands in remon
strance, saying, "I won't touch that theme.
John C, Calhoun is marked for death, and when

NEW RELATIONSHIPS 101
Death puts his hand on a man, I take mine
off." Grow testifies that he never saw Benton
idle a moment in all the association which fol
lowed, and to the end of his life spoke grate
fully and admiringly of him. Indeed, he quoted
Benton so frequently that it was obvious that
the influence upon him of the older man's
liberal and broad ideas of public service, at
the stage of his life when he was malleable and
questing for determinant standards, was ex
tremely powerful. He certainly enjoyed the
first few years of his life in Washington, the
period when Benton was there, much more
than the later ones.
With these personal relationships began
friendships which widened to a large circle.
Grow gained quickly in general esteem because
he could always be counted upon, even to the
point of obstinacy. He was of homespun sim
plicity, he always spoke directly, his convic
tions were well, known, and he was always
dynamic. He learned a great deal from his
associates, and a happy self-directing ability
made it possible for him to see quickly what
he wanted to do in Congress and how to do it.

CHAPTER VI
THE DOMAIN AS A SOCIAL QUESTION
When the curtain rose on the second act of
the Homestead drama at the beginning of the
session in 1853, Grow launched his own meas
ure on the billows of congressional opinion.
To have a stormy passage before reaching its
port of final destination as a statute, it entered
upon its devious voyage inauspiciously.
The situation was complex. Two meas
ures besides Grow's were put in: the first by
Cobb, of Alabama, the second by Dawson, of
Pennsylvania. Cobb's bill significantly marked
the period of Democratic change. The issue
has been adopted by both parties. The Free-
Soilers, mainly Northern Democrats and
Whigs metamorphosing into something new,
several months after Grow made his first land
speech in the House had inserted the following
plank in their party platform and featured it:
(^ That the public lands belong to the people and
should not be sold to individuals nor granted
to corporations, but should be held as a sacred
trust for the benefit of the people and should

THE DOMAIN 103
be granted in limited quantities to landless
settlers,"'^ The Democracy resisted this broad
stand; its progressive faction left it to Cobb,
their representative, to protect the South's
interest in the commonage. Only a smaller
group of Southern stand-patters did not sus
tain him.
Of course the ultimate question before Con
gress had a far deeper significance than the
disposition of so much territory; in its essence
it was whether the ideal of liberty on which we
founded the nation was to find justification in
greater industrial freedom. A progressive land
policy which should favor the agricultural
laborer, white or free black, and give stimulus
to the greatest of our industries at the moment
we promoted human welfare, would open the
whole domain. Freehold would confer the
greatest economic advantages upon the masses.
The Democracy, afraid of loss of power, could
not ignore this altogether because of agitation
and unrest: but the party offered compromises
which were extremely questionable.
The South, not having the same angle on
freedom as the North, was concerned with
the immediate issue; whether, if the domain
were to be disposed of, allotment should be

104 GALUSHA A. GROW ;
based on sale at a modified purchase price,
preemption, which was practically leasehold,
or, if nothing less than freehold would do,
what portion of the commonage to surrender.
They viewed as the ultimate question whether
lands unsold should pass into state control.
Upon our decision between compromise with
the old or adoption of a new policy rested the
future homogeneity of our people.
Cobb was an exceedingly earnest, shrewd,
and tenacious man, brief in speech, markedly
practical, and an excellent leader. He had
narrowly missed the Speakership the previous
Congress, and his political turns were those
of a well-poised weather-vane. His following
was organized and powerful, while his skill
in manipulating legislation was extraordinary
because he had qualifications of experience,
parliamentary knowledge, and daring — a
triple alliance of no mean value. Naturally
this proposal of his had peculiar importance.
Curiously possessed of what might be termed
a double personality — part homestead and
part anti-homestead — the bill provided that
one hundred and sixty acres should be avail
able to all free white male persons aged
twenty-one in that limited area of land which

THE DOIMAIN 105
was "open to private entry"; but the rest of
the domain was to be sold at graduated and
reduced prices. All lands which had been in
the market for ten years or over should be sold
to "actual settlers" at a price of one dollar an
acre; those fifteen years or over, at seventy-
five cents; twenty years, at fifty cents; and
thirty years, at twelve and one half cents.
This modification was not to be construed to
apply to reserved areas or to lands granted
to railroads or for internal improvements.
(The proposal of graduation measures, the
South's checkmate to the small-farm move
ment, was mere practical expedient. All sale
plans had failed to prevent speculation. It
was neither good business principle nor was
it advantageous public policy to establish
the precedent, as all these bills did, that the
longer common land remained in the market
the cheaper it became. Competent proof of
settlement could not be exacted when the
transaction was sale, not gift, and modi
fied prices were only additional inducements
to speculation.^ Cobb's so-called homestead
scheme excluded all not native-born and the
reduced-price sections committed the nation
to continued sale, fundamental objections. It

106 GALUSHA A. GROW
was reported favorably from the Committee
on Agriculture, and Cobb felt that he had his
weapons ready for an anticipated fight.
Grow's bill and that proposed by Dawson
went to the Committee on Public Lands.
Dawson was its chairman and managed to
get prior consideration for his own measure
by reporting it out without loss of a day. In
comparison to Cobb's bill it was less danger
ous to the country. Limited to private en
try land also, it at least allowed immigrants
already here to benefit. It was, however, an
immature bill, so loosely worded that only six
weeks' residence on the land at stated peri
ods was required. It did not attempt to lay
out a general policy for the whole common
age, and what was serious, mineral lands were
not excluded from the tracts offered for set
tlement. Vast tracts must have been opened
to the capitalist speculator thereby.
Grow's was the only measure of the three
essentially broad: it was the Homestead Act
essentially as passed eight years later. No
more of the domain was to be sold. It out
lined as its primary policy that all land not
set aside for special purposes was to be opened
to entry by bona-fide settlers when surveyed.

THE DOMAIN 107
There was no distinction between classes or
peoples. All heads of families twenty-one
years old were eligible, not only those then in
the country, but those to come, provided that
upon filing they declared intention of citizen
ship and received naturalization papers before
patent was issued. Further than this. Grow
had taken particular care to safeguard filing,
residence, and proof so that continuous occu
pation for five years would be inescapable.
This worthy measure, modestly brought for
ward, unheralded, waited humbly for a chance
at consideration. Dawson had so laid the lines
that the Homestead, like a leading lady, en
tered first in the costume he wanted her to
adopt. Grow, not losing sight of his ovm meas
ure, was nevertheless so in love with free grants
and so eager to secure some permanent recog
nition of federal power that he gave Dawson's
work what loyal support he might. He be
lieved that the essential now was to get the
principle on the statute books, and that before
the bill was passed much amendment might
be possible. Cobb had given notice of his
intention to submit a substitute. Grow did
likewise. Conservative Democrats, looking critically

108 GALUSHA A. GROW
at the handiwork of the North, viciously at
tacked Dawson's proposition because of its
proletarian color; the charge of "agrarianism"
and "leveling" was laid at his'door. Early in
the discussion Grow was up with a defense,
pointing out that our whole history had been
that of a distinctly democratic movement to
ward equalization, a leveling which was ad
mirable. Agreeing with Grow, Dawson called
it the sort of agrarianism which levels up, not
down, the kind which every patriot and phi
losopher in dreams of love for his race have
longed for and labored to see established
among men. He added that the gentlemen
who opposed the policy reminded him of those
early navigators who forever hung around the
coasts of the Mediterranean and western
Europe, afraid to launch forth on the broad
ocean which waited to bear them to a new
world. Of course the proposition was not
agrarian in the old offensive sense of taking
from those who possess for those who do not
possess. We were dealing with unoccupied
lands which were a common fund, without
intent to interfere with individual property.
The atmosphere of the Chamber during the
House debate was by no means consistently

THE DOMAIN 109
controversial, Cobb, Dawson, and Grow were
all Democrats, but Cobb led the faction of
greatest solidarity. Usually he worked genially
in an apparent endeavor to better Dawson's
measure, with no suggestion of ulterior design,
Dawson was watchful and objected to his
amendments; for instance, one that Cobb sub
mitted which would change the beneficiaries to
any man or widow, free, white, and twenty-
one, Dawson protested that this might en
danger the passage of the bill and that it was
bad policy so to enlarge the application of the
measure, Cobb, however, in a mood of chivalric jocu
larity and sly badinage, insisted that he had
been hoping that his friend Jones, of Tennessee.
a bachelor (distinguished as the "Cerberus of
the Treasury"), would have done even better
than he did by bringing forward an amend
ment proposing to extend the privileges of the
bill to unmarried females, Jones thereupon
came in for many pleasantries upon his lone
state, and created much laughter by taking up
Cobb's dare. He moved to change the phrase
to read, "any head of a family or eighteen
years of age." This passed.
In the discussion of this same clause the

110 GALUSHA A. GROW
temper of the House changed tempestuously
when Lawrence M. Keitt, later to have a note
worthy encounter with Grow, entered the
action. Consistently, the first occasion of his
appearance was to strike the color note, in
regard to the word "citizen," He belligerently
demanded of Dawson whether he regarded the
free black in any State a citizen. Dawson, see
ing danger, warded off: the mere mention of
"Uncle Tom" was serious, while Uncle Tom
going West (unless his master took him) was
a revolutionary idea to uphold, inviting terri
fying disquisitions. Yet some mischievous soul
temeritously taunted Keitt and his sympathiz
ers, jocularly submitting that any individual
should be eligible to a homestead who "was
more than half white!"
Straight economic reasons replaced the sen
timental alleviation-of -poverty plea that John
son had urged as argument for this policy.
Grow drew this distinction: —
I do not understand the principles of this bill to
be based on almshouse bounty or that the Govern
ment is to be converted into a bounty-dispensing
machine to relieve the wants and distresses of the
country. I understand that it is a policy which
will furnish the best facilities for cultivating the
wilderness, to make it answer the happiness and
welfare of the race. ... In this country the con-

THE DOIMAIN 111
trolling interest now and ever must be agriculture.
What promotes that by giving permanency and
security to it promotes either directly or indirectly
every other industry, , , . It is agriculture which
is of permanent and lasting interest. This bill is to
secure settlement by , . . men who desire to cul
tivate; to secure it [land] to them free from the
extortions and exactions of capital of the country,
which has been permitted to take from their hard-
earned savings too large an amount.
This attack on capital roused the stand-pat
wing of the Democracy, Millson, the spokes
man, gave battle at once, asserting that Grow
seemed to be enamored of the homestead in
whatever aspect it appeared. He tried to
make out that the bill now applied only to the
rich. One of his sallies was that "Like Sir Hu-
dibras, the gentleman from Pennsylvania can
" ' Confute, change hands, and confute again . , .' "
Grow retorted that he was opposed to any
restrictions on applicants who would honestly
occupy the land, either of birth or of property,
and returned Millson's fire by accusing him of
objecting to the homestead because the meas
ure would draw off population from the old
States and so change representation. Grow
believed that the law ought to benefit and
would benefit chiefly the poorer people.

112 GALUSHA A. GROW
The constitutionalists (Millson's stamp) be
came increasingly scornful. They said that
the new States favored the bill because they
preferred that the National Government should
bear the cost of surveys and management.
It was no use talking of the obvious uncon
stitutionality because, they intimated, the
Chairman would manage to gag them some
way. They took out their spleen in offering
amendments to add a low price to the lands
" to bring the bill within gunshot of the Con
stitution. " They heaped ridicule upon it by
moving to add to the section which specified
"free of cost," that those making entries be
provided with "one rifle-gun each," or that
they be "furnished with one copy of the Con
stitution of the United States," These motions
being rejected as not germane, it was suggested
that the title of the bill should read, "Land for
those who have plenty of land already, a farm
for him who has a dozen farms now, a home for
him who has no home," It was charged that
homesteads were a bribe to the lazzaroni of
Europe to come here, "Buncombe" was the
most popular term of abuse,
Dawson, defending the measure, quoted that
champion of Southern rights and strict consti-

THE DOMAIN 113
tutionalist, Calhoun, who had advocated the
policy and power of the Federal Government
to grant alternate sections to railroads, but
Dawson was so partisan that he fell into an
error against which Grow's good sense luckily
always protected him: he spoiled his effect by
vaunting the superiority of Northern energy
and initiative.
Cobb's temper apparently sharpened under
this sort of thing, and he made a pointed and
just attack on the inclusion of mineral lands
in the area to be disposed of, Dawson, wary of
Cobb and his purposes, was unwilling to yield
a hair's breadth, but still found himself at a
loss to defend the provision, Cobb thereupon
served warning that if the proposal was not
largely amended, he would press as a substi
tute his own bill, already printed.
Dawson naturally wanted to avert the pro
posed substitution. He was quite amiable
when Cobb offered another amendment, to
the effect that the bill should apply to persons
who did not own one hundred and sixty acres
— that any person might enter a quantity
which would bring the amount in their pos
session up to a quarter-section.
All the signs were such as to cause Grow to

114 GALUSHA A, GROW
become decidedly uneasy. He knew that the
threat of the South's checkmate was not idle.
Amending and mauling grew determined and
ominous. In the hope that a stronger bill
might procure more votes. Grow tried to call
up his own substitute. The Cobb amendment
had precedence.
Cobb did not want to see Grow's broader
measure have a real chance. He evidently con
sidered well and laid his lines. He let his own
measure come up, but then he declared him-
seff. He preferred the Dawson homestead
measure as it stood to his own, despite the
clause which permitted immigrants already in
the country to benefit because, he said, it pro
vided for females and all persons having less
than one hundred and sixty acres. Since Cobb
did not urge his substitute, it was not accepted.
This left the path apparently clear for Grow,
who offered his bill, with no intent to embar
rass Dawson or to retard progress on the first
measure, but because it contained practically
every pertinent change proposed. He pointed
out that it provided safeguards against fraud,
stipulated continuous occupation, prohibited
alienation of the tract after title was perfected,
guaranteed the inheritance by children in case

THE DOMAIN 115
of death of parents, but most important of all,
that it was the only proposition to reserve all
the rest of the domain to settlers. These differ
ences were exactly those between an honest
and comprehensive and a doubtful and limited
measure still embodying a desirable principle,
Cobb bent himself to defeat Grow, and
managed it. This settled Grow's chances for
the time, since he could not again propose the
same substitute, but he worked harder than
ever in an attempt to graft his provisions on
the Dawson bill in the little time remaining,
with indifferent success. Keitt at this point
tried to strike out the enacting clause; that
failing, he moved to strike out the first section.
Cobb did not support him, but Grow was not
clear why; and although the measure was not
what he wished it to be, he was genuinely glad
and relieved to see it pass the House very
soon, in March. His hopes were high of seeing
it driven through the Senate.
Grow was elated because he thought of the
act as a precedent from which to work out the
best social purpose of the time, A new and sig
nificant human theory had hung in the bal
ance between those who had desired to see our
land system shaped upon some established

116 GALUSHA A. GROW
property plan redolent of European landlord
ism and those who had a determination that
we should carve it out on new lines, bravely,
to make possible some fundamentally demo
cratic division between individuals.
Duganne, the poet, had sung the progressive
social purpose: —
" A biUion of acres of unsold lands
Are lying in grievous dearth,
And millions of men in the image of God
Are starving all over the earth.
Oh, tell me, ye sons of America
How much men's lives are worth ?
"Those millions of acres belong to man!
And his claim is — that he needs!
And his title is signed by the hand of God —
Our God, who the raven feeds.
And the starving soul of each famished man
At the throne of justice pleads !
" Ye may not heed it, ye haughty men.
Whose hearts as rocks are cold;
But the time will come when the fiat of God
In thunder shall be told.
For the voice of the great 'I am' hath said
That 'The lands shall not be sold!'"
But Grow's elation was premature. The
fight was not yet done in the House. Cobb was
waiting to make good his warning that he
would amend the bill, and he did it in a man-

THE DOMAIN 117
ner to make it a veritable coup. He secured a
ruling from the Speaker that in spite of the
fact that a Homestead Act had been passed,
his proposal was still pending. The Home
stead Bill, under the rule prevailing, was open
to amendment, although by agreement debate
on the subject was closed beyond five-minute
speeches. In a word, there was neither a
chance to debate on the construction of the
measure nor to defer action, Cobb had had
time to align in favor of his own proposal a
number of Representatives who had voted for
the Homestead Bill. He occupied a command
ing position.
Cobb immediately moved that the home
stead provisions be stricken out and the gradu
ation clauses alone of his substitute stand as
the main measure. On his part this was arrant
desertion, in toto, of the original idea. Whether
from private conviction or for political rea
sons, he was suddenly only wiUing that the
country should be committed to modified
prices, not donation. He lived up to what the
South had looked to him to do.
Grow and the other friends of the homestead
were in a maddening predicament. The parlia
mentary situation was far worse than at the

118 GALUSHA A, GROW
previous session when Johnson had to defeat
Brown's maneuvers. All that Dawson and
Grow could hurriedly do was to scout for votes.
Seeing more clearly than ever that it was
supremely necessary to our national welfare
that recognition of federal rights be gained to
undertake any essential system of internal
improvements. Grow was thoroughly exas
perated. The reason that Unionists, just when
they had had another smell of victory, were
facing frustration of their work was of course
that it involved old questions of States' rights
and new questions of human rights. The
Union depended upon the adoption of some
policy so big and generous that there could
be no question of federal authority. Thus the
Union would go forward to her best fulfillment
— but perhaps not yet!
Deeply afraid. Grow moved an amendment
to Cobb's bill that no lands hereafter surveyed
should be exposed to sale, hoping so to limit
the operation of the Graduation Act that it
would do the least possible harm. Forecast of
disaster, this amendment failed. Although the
homesteaders defeated an amendment to cede
all the lands back to the States, dissent reigned
concerning the main proposal. The Home-

THE DOMAIN 119
stead Act was stricken out; Cobb's graduation
measures were left as the operative part. Grow
had his first bitter legislative disappointment.
He had fought sturdily to be rewarded only
by defeat. Robbed of its short-lived triumph,
giving Grow and his associates a serious set
back, the homestead proposition was placed
in another of those dramatic situations which
attended its whole career. The first true
Homestead Bill had gone to the Senate; but
what would be the effect upon it now that this
other, masquerading under the same name,
had received support at its expense in the
House?

CHAPTER VII
THE SENATE TAKES A STAND
The scene shifted to the Senate. There was
still hope that the upper House might favor
the simple homestead idea. The House bill,
without Cobb's amendment, was reported back
from the Committee of Public Lands in Feb
ruary but slightly changed. Spectacular, acri
monious debate signaled a new defiance which
indicated the lines the sustained fight was to
follow. From this time on the history of the
bill is intricate. Shuttled back and forth from
House to Senate, from committee to commit
tee, it was a plaything of rules and altogether
a most interesting figure.
Early in the day Cass sounded a clear note
in his strong declaration favorable to the
proposition. In his opinion it was "the great
measure of the session . . . provision for the
settlement of a world"; and he asserted that
we might now, in tribute to the value of free
institutions, perform a new and noble function
in the operations of government through the
power of distribution, granting to each a part

THE SENATE TAKES A STAND 121
of what belongs to all. "I can conceive of
nothing in the progress of human society,"
he averred, "better calculated to add to the
strength, the resources, and the moral power
of the country than this plan of justice and
equity." Chase also ardently acclaimed the public
lands as "the estate of the people," He main
tained that they individually were its proper
beneficiaries. The homestead plank which had
appeared in the Democratic platform in 1848
was his work, and he consistently adhered to it.
Also, he ably stated his view, when section six
was under discussion, that there was no prin
ciple in discriminating between Americans and
incoming foreigners who would naturalize.
This part of the bill read : —
And be it further enacted that any individual
now a resident of any one of the States or Terri
tories and not a resident of the United States, but
at the time of making such declaration of inten
tion as required by the naturalization laws of the
United States, and who shall become a citizen of
the same before the issuance of the patent as made
and provided for by this act, shall be placed upon
an equal footing with the native-born citizen of the
United States.
Controversies raged over this section. Al-

122 GALUSHA A. GROW
though many of the best men of the Senate
were for the immediate definition of a land
policy which should bring about settlement, it
immediately became clear that the Southern
members and the pro-slavery Democrats of
the North had formed a powerful combination
unalterably opposed to a straight grant with
out price or to any plan wherefrom foreign-
born people might benefit. The senatorial
sponsor for the measure at this time. Dodge,
defended the policy with regard to aliens. It
was already established, since the preemption
laws already permitted any foreigner fresh
from Europe to make entry. He complained
that the bill was misunderstood and abused,
and that all sorts of "raw-head and bloody-
bones arguments" were being raised about it.
Thereupon came an attack typical of com
bative factional feeling within the party. A
Senator from Alabama, Clay, accused Dodge,
whose career was fathered by the Democracy,
of being unfilial to his political faith. " It ap
pears to me that, repudiating the Scriptural
injunction, 'Hear the instruction of thy
father,' he is a perfect illustration of the self-
sufficiency and impiety of progressive young
America, kicking off swaddUng clothes, ' Dodg-

THE SENATE TAKES A STAND 123
ing Daddy,' and going it on his own hook. "
He declared that the bill was an infraction of
the rights and would degrade the dignity of
the land States, work serious harm upon land
holders, and inflict serious injustice by divid
ing the common treasure, "Wrongs so serious
and iniquitous could hardly be endured by
stoic or by saint!" he cried passionately, and
asserted that if the proposal passed, its effect
would be something he had never expected
to see, a Know-Nothing or Native-American
Party in the South.
The Know-Nothings, just coming to power
ful organization, were of course entirely in
sympathy with the South in opposition to the
measure. National character was in the mak
ing, and the pressure of alien ideals was acting,
in general, counter to certain influences of the
old colonial stock. The effort to found a na
tional party to resist racial and political pre
dominance of the newcomers received merited
ridicule from the homesteaders,
Seward, took occasion, because the Home
stead Bill was being fought, not on principles
of pohtical economy, but on blind prejudice,
to read the creed of the exclusionists printed
by a Massachusetts journal. In its sixteen

124 GALUSHA A, GROW
articles there werie just a half-dozen founded
on sound American principles. The rest of it
was an intensely bigoted, anti-Romanist, anti-
alien declaration. Although Seward had not
named the strange secret organization so mys
teriously pervasive at the North, a Southern
Senator, Dixon, of Kentucky, — he who was
later instrumental in precipitating the repeal
of the Missouri Compromise, — demanded in
cautiously if Seward meant to say that these
were the principles of the Know-Nothings,"
Seward retorted, "I know nothing of the
Know-Nothings ! "
"If the Senator knows nothing of the Know-
Nothings," contended Dixon facetiously, "it
seems to me very strange that he should here
pretend to state what the principles of the
Know-Nothings are, I should like him to ex
plain, if he knows nothing of the Know-Noth
ings or their principles, how he reads here
the principles of the Know-Nothings?"
The Senate, in high glee at this exploitation
of the foibles of its secret fraternity, redoubled
its merriment when Seward, in full enjoyment
of the opportunity for badinage, replied, "If
my excellent friend had paid close attention
to what I said he would have learned that I

THE SENATE TAKES A STAND 125
said nothing of the Know-Nothings. My rea
son is that I always say nothing of that of
which I know nothing! Again, the Honora
ble Senator will excuse me from answering
his question because it is my purpose to say
nothing of the Know-Nothings, because of the
Know-Nothings, as I have already stated, I
know nothing at all!"
Making his effect, Seward continued seri
ously that it was sufficient for him to say that
everything is un-American which makes a dis
tinction of whatever kind in this country be
tween the native-born citizen and him who
renounces his allegiance to a foreign land and
swears fealty to us. He pleaded for the neces
sity of foreign labor to satisfy our great na
tional wants in industry, commerce, and agri
culture alike. He pointed out the diminution
of the cost of labor due to the influx" of for
eigners and declared that their exclusion from
homestead benefits would act injuriously; that
farm labor would be high, that we should be
interfering arbitrarily with the laws of supply
and demand, and that the population of the
States would be prevented.
When it was not the immigrant, it was the
negro who was perpetually in the woodpile.

126 GALUSHA A, GROW
However much Mr, Grow and his senatorial
friends wished to avoid it, the sixth section
was bound, with the South in this temper,
repeatedly to be made the excuse for connec
tion between the slavery agitation and the
homestead policy. Like Keitt in. the House, one
Southern Senator felt serious alarm because
the words "individual," "person," "head of a
family," or "citizen" did not specify color or
citizenship, and therefore might include ne
groes; he advocated in the course of rabid
debate that the sixth section be struck out
altogether. Chase, faithful suitor for a free folk-land,
showed that even under the laws of some of
the Southern States — for instance, Virginia
and North Carolina — there was no objection
to a negro holding land; that there were negro
property owners in those States. Southern
Senators retorted that Pennsylvania courts
had at this time declared that the negro was
not a citizen, and suggested that the Senate
thereupon as a body settle the status of the
negro — meaning, of course, that he should be
declared not eligible to citizenship.
It was obvious that the South was sparring
for time while deciding on some definite plan.

THE SENATE TAKES A STAND 127
Much that was extraneous but extremely
flavorful occurred in debate. For instance,
a Kentuckian thus caricatured Senators with
presidential ambitions (such as Cass and
Seward) who were in favor of the bill: "The
presidential aspirant starts out a-demagoguing,
and although his father might be Irish while
his mother was Dutch, drawing himself up in
true American style, he then, of course, offers
all the land to men promiscuously, just as the
Wicked One of old offered to our Saviour the
kingdoms of the world if he would fall down
and worship him, when the old scoundrel had
not an inch of terra firma in all creation to put
his foot upon!"
Exampling upon such ridicule, other Demo
cratic members offered numerous and sundry
reactionary amendments, including one which
provided that any mechanic unable to comply
with the provisions of the act was to receive
one hundred and sixty dollars in cash from the
Treasury; the preemption substitute proposed
by Brown in 1852 was again introduced; they
wrangled over the age of applicants; indulged
in asseverations that public lands should all
be reserved for military bounties; attacks
on the wording of the bill were frequent —

128 GALUSHA A. GROW
nothing likely to harass its friends was too small
to delay action. The Pacific Railroad Bill was
fought against it.
Reviewing some of the objections, one of its
few Southern defenders summed up with con
siderable feeling: "Never since I have occupied
a seat on this floor have I seen a measure so
assailed as this has been. They have fought
this bill as Christian and Infidel fought in the
days of the Crusaders, They have gone into
the most ultra-guerrilla warfare I have ever
witnessed in civilized society. Have they
attacked the principles of the bill? I think not.
They urge objections!" It might have been
Greeley complaining again.
The tournament of opinion at lance grew
hotter. Wade, Seward, Dodge, and Chase,
were the homestead's most strenuous knights.
Splendid forensic fireworks were displayed on
all sides. Feeling waxed so high that personali
ties marked the last weeks of the session. An
unprogressive Democrat named Clayton, who
had been waspishly persistent in his attempts
to annoy homesteaders, and who obviously
was bent on making political capital out of
anti-alien agitation, changed his jousting
weapon from the knightly lance of opinion and

THE SENATE TAKES A STAND 129
set upon the ardent group of supporters of the
bill with verbal sandbags. He attacked Wade
principally, and provoked him to answers
heated and none too wise, resulting finally in
Wade flatly giving him the lie. Seward to the
rescue ! He interposed with flashing argument,
took the brunt of the onslaught, and came out
of the recurrent wordy skirmishes with flying
colors. By this time it became clear that behind the
scenes all was in readiness for coherent counter
action by the Democrats. Some sort of alter
native would be adopted. It was Robert W.
Johnson, whom we saw in the previous ses
sion favoring the homestead, who acted now
as spokesman for the entrenched, stand-pat
Democracy. His dictum was in the nature of
a climacteric stroke. The bill, he now opined,
was "so strongly tinctured with abolitionism
that no Southerner could vote for it,"
The dubious uneasily shifted their position.
Counting noses, the homesteaders found them
selves sure to be outvoted. Therefore they
had patiently to endure while various compro
mises were discussed: a nominal price, or a
simple modification on a graduated scale. But
the forces of power were plainly behind a

130 GALUSHA A. GROW
pernicious substitute offered by Hunter, of
Virginia, which proposed to connect a sys
tem of graduation similar to Cobb's (only appli
cable to private entry areas) with a permanent
system of preemption comprehensive of the
whole domain. It contained dangerous States'
rights doctrine. Power was conferred upon the
States themselves to preempt land, which they
might then offer to "settlers" at a higher price
if they chose. Excess above sales was to vest
in them, and the Federal Government would
be denuded gradually of all the commons.
The opposition was crippled; the coalition
of Southern and Northern Democrats was
sufficient to put the bill through. It passed
and was sent to the House for consideration,
while the advocates of the homestead raged.
They preferred Cobb's act to this, and that
had meanwhile come up from the House; but
even if that were passed, it was evident that
full recognition of the principles and liberties
in which they believed would probably be
denied them.
In August the Senate was again debating
land policy, and Chase and other homestead
ers threw themselves into the fight in a gritty
effort to change the tenor of Cobb's bill. Chase

THE SENATE TAKES A STAND 131
proposed the straight Homestead Bill as an
amendment-substitute. This move caused as
tonishing controversy which emphasized the
wide differences of procedure between the two
Houses of Congress. The presiding officer
declared that putting one bill as amendment
to another was contrary to parliamentary
law! He would not allow it to be done.
Seward and Chase both debated the point
bitterly. The Senate at that very session had
decided this issue otherwise! In vain they
argued. That it had been entirely legitimate
to substitute one bill for another in the House,
as had actually been done with the very
measure under consideration, had no weight
with the Chair. That it was the restoration of
the original bill of course had no bearing! He
stubbornly held his ground. Southern Demo
crats applauding. Chase made an appeal from
the decision of the Chair: it failed. The Cobb
Bill passed, becoming a law.
Two rivals had displaced the original Home
stead Act, One now already occupied an as
sured position as a statute. But the other was
on the table of the House awaiting action.
This other consisted of the enacting clause
of the original homestead measure, its body.

132 GALUSHA A. GROW
however, barbarously superseded by a rival of
worse character even than the Cobb Bill — a
body which threatened not only to usurp the
homestead's immediate functions in "private
entry" lands, but to block its way for good by
involving the nation with a plan of state con
trol of all territory.
This aim was not to be achieved with ease,
however. Homesteaders in the House rallied.
When the Hunter substitute was pushed for
ward, the indomitably hopeful group, having
seen the trick twice turned against them, now
made a concerted attempt to kill the Hunter
provisions by moving the original Homestead
Bill as a superseding amendment — in other
words, restore the bill to its original shape by
the same method Cobb had successfully used,
Cobb, guardian of all such measures, and pos
sibly not himself in favor of the Hunter plan,
defeated three distinct attempts to reinstate
the Homestead Bill, but protected his own
measure by not permitting action on the
Hunter substitute, and adjournment settled
the matter.
In the subsequent session this bill was not
pushed. When the Graduation Act was to be
slightly amended in 1855, again the home-

THE SENATE TAKES A STAND 133
steaders made a determined effort to tack their
bill to Cobb's measure and reverse its effect.
Although he had calmly displaced the Home
stead Bill in this manner, Cobb protested
forcibly at the persistent attempt to turn ta
bles, and defeated it. By no means all the
homestead men in the House felt that it was
wise further to jeopardize its chances, and the
Graduation Act, only slightly changed, was
signed in March.

CHAPTER VIII
THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE
Before the homestead measure had been
finally dealt with that other great battle, sub
plot of our drama, was begun, the smoke and
thunder of which obscured so many other sig
nificant events of the day. The proposal to
repeal the Missouri Compromise was not ex
pected. The subject sprang up like a confla
gration which, smouldering under control, sud
denly gains headway and will not be stopped.
It was all the more startling because Pierce,
beginning his administration, had called at
tention to the prevailing tranquillity. Grow,
playing a modest part which in several years
was to develop generously, was suddenly
brought to a new sense of the epoch in which
he lived.
The Missouri Compromise of 1820 distinctly
gave the right to keep the slave system out of
the territorial dominion. Yet the South was
restive under its agreement. Woodrow Wilson
effectively phrases it : —
Slavery within the States stood sufliciently pro-

THE COMPROMISE REPEALED 135
tected by every solemn sanction that the Consti
tution could afford. No man could touch it there,
think, hope, or purpose what he might. But where
new States were to be made it was not so. There
at every step choice must be made; slavery or no
slavery? — a new choice for every State; a fresh
act of organization to go with every fresh act of
organization. Had there been no Territories there
could have been no slavery question except by
revolution and contempt of fundamental law. But
with a continent to be peopled, the choice thrust
itself insistently forward at every step and on every
hand. This was the slavery question. " Not what
should be done to reverse the past, but what
should be done to redeem the future." We must
not mistake the programme of the anti-slavery
society for the platform of the Republican Party,
or forget that the very war itself was begun ere any
purpose of abolition took shape amongst those
who were statesmen in authority. It was a ques
tion, not of freeing men, but of preserving a free
soil. Most of the time from 1789 down to 1854
in the House the anti-expansionists could, by
certain combinations, control all efforts to
extend the slave system to the free States and
Territories, but it was different in the Senate,
which was constantly opposing the admission
of free States without the admission of an
equal number of slave States, This gradu
ally developed on the part of the South the

136 GALUSHA A. GROW
position that slavery was essentially righteous,
and that Congress had no right to restrict it in
the Territories, which in turn resulted ulti
mately in the Nebraska Bill in which Douglas
laid the mine which was to explode in frat
ricidal war.
Repeated attempts had been made to se
cure a territorial government for Kansas, but
Southern votes persistently negatived this
proposal, ostensibly on the ground that the
Territory could not be opened to settlement
without interference with Indian reservations
secured by "definite and solemn treaties."
A bill to organize -a territorial government for
Kansas and Nebraska, introduced by Willard
P. Hall, of Missouri, had passed the House
in the Thirty-second Congress. It practically
covered all the Platte country. Kansas was to
include those regions in the latitude of Mis
souri and west of that State and Nebraska was
to have the remainder. In order to carry into
effect the principles of the Compromise meas
ures of 1850, the act provided that the ques
tion of slavery should be left to the people.
The questions as to title to slaves were to be
left to the local courts with the right of appeal,
and the fugitive slave laws were to be opera-

THE COMPROMISE REPEALED 137
tive. Nothing was said in the bill about the
Missouri Compromise.
During the last hours of the session the bill
was taken up in the Senate and talked to
death by its opponents, notwithstanding the
apparently earnest efforts of Senator Douglas
to secure its passage. During the discussion
many Democrats felt convinced that Senator
Atchison, of Missouri, was right when he said :
"It is evident that the Missouri Compromise
cannot be repealed. So far as that question is
concerned, we might as well agree to the ad
mission of this Territory now as next year or
five or ten years hence,"
Of the surprising subsequent events. Grow
chanced to be in a position to have special
direct information.
Senator Dodge, of Wisconsin, in the next
session, 1853-54, introduced an organization
measure for Nebraska in the same form as the
one which had previously passed the House,
and it was referred to the Committee on
Territories of which Douglas was chairman.
A substitute emerged and Douglas's report
contained this reference to the Missouri Com
promise : —
Your committee do not feel themselves called

138 GALUSHA A. GROW
upon to enter into the discussion of these contro
verted questions which produced the sectional
strife and the fearful struggles of 1850, so your
committee are not now prepared to recommend
either the affirmation or rejection of the eighth
section of the Compromise Act of 1820.
This famous section, fought over in 1820,
provided for the prohibition of slavery, but
the return of fugitive slaves above the bound
ary of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes,
north latitude, in the Louisiana Purchase.
As soon as Senator Douglas had made his
report. Senator Dixon, of Kentucky, gave no
tice that when the Nebraska Bill came up for
consideration he would offer an amendment
for the repeal of the Missouri Compromise Act.
This proposition was a great surprise to Senator
Douglas, who went at once to Senator Dixon and
earnestly appealed to him not to offer his amend
ment [testified Mr, Grow]. On the 23d of January,
1854, to the surprise of many Senators, Douglas
reported a substitute for his original bill, making
two Territories instead of one, with a section re
pealing the Missouri Compromise Act.
In the interval between the reporting of the
original bill and the substitute, Senator Douglas,
Senator Slidell, and myself dined at the house
of James Campbell, of Pennsylvania, who was
Pierce's Postmaster-General. After dinner Douglas
and Slidell entered into a lively conversation about

THE COMPROMISE REPEALED 139
the proposed legislation, during which the latter
in a very earnest manner said, "Douglas, you
ought to make one Territory and repeal the
Missouri Compromise."
I mentioned to Benton that I had dined with
Douglas the night before, and that he seemed
undecided as to which position he should take in
the Kansas and Nebraska Bill, and was fluctuat
ing in his views about slavery expansion. I added
that I believed that Douglas was inclined to lead
the Democracy away from its moorings.
"My God, Galusha!" cried Benton, "have you
the faintest idea that Steve Douglas is leading the
Democracy anywhere? Why, the Democracy has
led him around by the nose for years, and he's got
so that he would follow it to hell if the majority
went in that direction."
His bitterness toward Douglas arose from the
latter's compromising tendencies, and Benton in
sisted he ought to have been a milliner, as " trim
ming was his chief vocation!"
That same day Senator Douglas, with John C.
Breckinridge, of Kentucky, and Philip Phillips, of
Alabama, both members of the House, called on
Pierce for a private interview relative to the re
peal of the Missouri Act. In a conversation with
Douglas afterwards, he told me that the President
was very emphatic in expressing his opinion that
the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional
and ought to have been repealed in the struggles of
1850 when the Clay Omnibus Bill was passed.
Douglas said that he suggested to the President
that he pencil the form of an amendment for its

140 GALUSHA A. GROW
repeal to be added to the pending Nebraska Bill,
The President then wrote in pencil the amendment
and handed it to Senator Douglas. As Douglas,
Breckinridge, and Phillips were leaving the room,
the President stopped them and said, " I wish you
would go and see Marcy."
They agreed to this and went to see Marcy at
the Department of State, He was out, and as
there was no certainty of the time of his return they
hurried back to the Capitol, The amendment, as
the President had written it, was, in a day or two,
presented to the Senate, Douglas told me that he
kept the penciled amendment so that there should
not be any misunderstanding about it afterwards
with the President,
This account is particularly valuable be
cause it is made by one who was sufficiently in
touch with Douglas at that time to hear his
side of the incidents which made so great a
change in the spirit of Congress, and it differs
in some degree from others; for instance, the
account given by Seward's biographer, Lo-
throp. Grow, not at all in favor of the repeal,
but giving this interesting side-light on Pierce's
hand in the beginning of the matter, would
completely refute the common charge of col
lusion between Seward and Dixon.
Faithful to his constituents and his con
science. Grow fought the repeal with all the

THE COMPROMISE REPEALED 141
energy and eloquence he could command, and
as he was effective and ready in debate, on
his shoulders fell a fair share of the burden.
Although he was a Democrat, his consistent
stand against the expansion of slavery was to
his mind entirely harmonious to the best, al
though the minority. Democratic feeling. In
stating his position, he asserted that the Com
promise had in the first place been accepted
by the South; that no injustice had been done
to her by it; and that her voting to extend
slavery would be the breaking of faith. As an
early and constant friend of the Administra
tion, and as an earnest and devoted Democrat,
he announced himself as desiring the defeat
of the repeal. Being one of the opponents of
the measure within the ranks of the party, he
was urged to compromise his beliefs to party
policy; the leaders argued that if party men
did not stand together they would be voting
with abolitionists,
" Is there any man upon this floor so craven,"
Grow challenged with strong feeling, "that he
will refuse to utter his deep convictions and
vote the sentiments of his heart because he will
stand on record with some man whose opinion
on other questions he does not approve? If

142 GALUSHA A, GROW j
the representatives of the South would strike
down true men of the North forever, they have
but to force upon them the passage of this bill
as a political issue. Its passage will be a vio
lation of a compact of freedom which is the
last breakwater between them and the surges
of Northern abolitionism," Referring to Clay's
stand at the time of the Compromises, Grow
had quite obviously the purpose to turn the
broadest-minded of the Democrats back to
that position, or to Benton's, which was sim
ilar. It seemed only to madden Southern
Democrats when he quoted Clay's response to
Jefferson Davis, "Coming from a slave State
as I [Clay] do, I owe it to myself, I owe it to
the truth, I owe it to the subject, to say that
no earthly power could induce me to vote for
a specific measure for the introduction of slav
ery where it has not before existed, either South
or north of that line [36° 30'], I am, for one,
unwilling that the posterity of the present in
habitants of California and New Mexico shall
reproach us for doing just what we reproach
Great Britain for doing for us," Grow finished
an able speech by scoring the fallacious faith
the Southern States were reposing in the pro
posal to find relief from political strife by dis-

THE COMPROMISE REPEALED 143
solution of the Union. Disunion was in the
air, and he uttered strong protest against the
security Southern advocates expected to find
in it — " the security of despair," he called it,
" enveloped in darkness and woe."
No one could stem the tide. The repeal
passed the House by a small majority. It had
been plain that the fight was hopeless in the
Senate, and the leaders there had been bent
mainly upon a desperate effort to prepare the
issue for the House and the country. Seward's
resigned exclamation was echoed in the House.
"Heaven be thanked," he said, "that since
this cup of humiliation cannot be passed, the
struggle of draining it is nearly over."
The scene in the upper Chamber upon that
famous night when the bill passed the Senate
Grow described as very impressive.
Just before midnight [May 25, 1854], the lobbies
were crowded with excited spectators who had
gathered to witness the finale of this act, and many
members of the House were among them. A mo
ment before the final vote was taken, Seward rose
and faced the Southern Senators and uttered his
memorable words: "The sun has set for the last
time upon the guaranteed and certain liberties of
all the unsettled and unorganized portions of the
American continent that lie within the jurisdiction
of the United States. To-morrow's sun will rise in

144 GALUSHA A. GROW
dim eclipse over them. How long that obscuration
will last is known only to the Power that directs
and controls human events. For myself I know
only this, that now no human power will prevent
its coming on, and that its passing off will be has
tened and secured by others than those now here,
and perhaps by only those belonging to future
generations." Amid profound silence David R, Atchison, Presi
dent pro tempore of the Senate, arose and pro
claimed that the repeal of the Missouri Compro
mise had been adopted by a decisive vote. In an
instant the devotees of slavery passed into a delir
ium of joy over what they thought was the final
and lasting triumph of slavery. Cannon boomed
from the Maryland and Virginia heights surround
ing the Capitol and reverberated along the banks
of the Potomac, where, within six years, the men
of the North were to meet the men of the South
in a deadly combat that was to cost ten billions of
dollars and nearly a million of precious lives.
The following incident occurred after the bill
passed which made Nebraska and Kansas slave
territory, George W, Kittredge, a member of the
House from New Hampshire, in my presence dur
ing a conversation with Senator Dixon said, " When
you threatened to offer your amendment to repeal
the Missouri Compromise, had you any idea it
would pass?"
"No," replied Dixon, "I did not think it would
be possible, but I always believed the Compromise
unconstitutional and that it never ought to have
been enacted, and as we Whigs were in a minority.

THE COMPROMISE REPEALED 145
Senator Jones, of Iowa, agreed with me that I
should offer the amendment and that we both
should speak on it; but Douglas, getting the en
dorsement of the President, stole a march on me
and will get all the glory there is in its passage!"

CHAPTER IX
RESULTS OF THE REPEAL
While the repeal of the Missouri Compromise
was pending, anti-Nebraska Democrats and
anti-Nebraska Whigs each separately held a
number of special conferences, uncertain what
position to take if the repeal were accomplished.
When it was evident, ten days beforehand,
that the repeal would occur, they hesitated
no longer, A joint conference of all anti-
repealers was held in one of the parlors of the
National Hotel, Senator Solomon Foot acting
as chairman, and Reuben E. Fenton, of New
York, Grow's best friend, as secretary.
This meeting Grow attended and called
it the "seminal beginning of the Republican
Party," He had come to feel that his friend
the blacksmith's diagnosis was at last thor
oughly right — that he did not belong in the
Democratic Party, if it stood for what it now
appeared to, and could not stay in it. The
wave of indignation meetings which swept
over the North, at last aroused by the repeal,
testified to the widespread antagonism created.

DANIEL FREEMAN, THE FIRST HOMESTEADER, AND
GALUSHA A. GROW, FATHER OF THB HOMESTEAD
LAW, AT THE GROW WELCOME HOME IN MONTROSE,
PENNSYLVANIA, 1903

RESULTS OF THE REPEAL 147
That strong feeling practically dismembered
the old political parties as they existed before
May 30, 1854.
The great mass meeting which was held at
Jackson, Michigan, composed of citizens be
longing to all the anti-expansion parties, was
the next marked step toward new organization.
At this meeting Zachary Chandler was a con
spicuous figure and many others subsequently
prominent in national affairs. The repeal was
roundly denounced and the calling of a state
convention of all citizens opposed to the ex
tension of slavery decided upon.
There was no hall large enough to accom
modate the crowd which responded to the
invitation to meet to "take such measures
as shall be thought best to concentrate the
popular sentiment of the State against the en
croachment of the slave power," so the meet
ing was held in a grove of oaks, and in conse
quence the meeting-place of the convention is
known to-day as "under-the-oaks." It was
here that the name "Republican " was adopted
for the new party whose cardinal principle
was to be "no further extension of slavery."
Horace Greeley had suggested the name
"Democratic-Republican," but the convention

148 GALUSHA A. GROW
omitted the word " Democratic," the general
sentiment being that the party of Jefferson dur
ing his administration was called "Repub-
hcan," and, as the new party was to adopt his
policy of slavery prohibition in the Territories,
that name would be most fitting. Grow ac
credited to the meeting in Jackson, Michigan,
in name and in fact the birth of the party.
There were other meetings held prior to
the one "under-the-oaks," but proof does not
appear that they were more than pohtical as
semblages mainly representing the vicinage.
None of them seem to have been fully author
ized delegate conventions representing public
sentiment of the State. So, while Amos Tuck,
chum of Lincoln from 1847 to 1849, may have
suggested the name at Exeter, and while the
Saratoga and Friendship conventions may
have talked of this name. Grow considered
these previous signs as constituting merely a
period of political pregnancy.
Owing mainly to Grow's stand on the re
peal, his constituents elected him unanimously
to his third term, and when President Pierce
signed the bill he went over to the Republi
can Party. It is striking that, although Grow
had been elected in the first instance because

RESULTS OF THE REPEAL 149
Wilmot's views were too radical, he was re
elected repeatedly on a platform far more ad
vanced than Wilmot's.
Grow found himself in a small but distin
guished company, to which he brought very
welcome qualities. Hale and his followers also
entered the ranks of Repubhcanism; Chase,
Sumner, Seward, and Wade, together with
most of Grow's best friends, were whole
heartedly in the new organization, first im
portant result of the Repeal.
One of the first issues which this ardent
group had to deal with was another territo
rial matter, fostered under Southern care.
Buchanan, Secretary of War in Pierce's Cabi
net, directed by private letter Romulus W.
Saunders, then our Minister at Madrid, to
find out, in a quiet way, whether the Spanish
Government would sell to the United States
the island of Cuba at a price not exceeding
a hundred million dollars. In this letter
Buchanan said, "Do not send any written
notes, because they might bind the next
Government against us, but make the sugges
tion." The territory looked especially attractive to
the South because Cuba would naturally be

150 GALUSHA A. GROW
annexed as a slaveholding State, and the addi
tion of two Democratic Senators was a desir
able achievement. Forcible seizure was urged
by some Congressmen, while others pleaded on
various grounds for purchase, Cass, Northern
Democrat, urged that it was unwise to allow
a foreign power to own territory so near our
coast. Grow and all Republicans stood with Hale
against annexation and considered Hale's re
tort to Cass particularly happy. "The Senator
from Michigan favors the annexation of Cuba
because its proximity is a constant menace to
our welfare, yet every night of his life, while
he is at home in Detroit, he can throw a
stone into British possessions from his bed
room window!"
By the end of that session Grow's political
convictions had become settled and in that
hour when every strong man counted because
parties were convulsed. At this time the half-
liquid qualities of his youth seem to have
become crystallized. The needs of that war
which had already begun, although without
guns, deepened the initiative, boldness, and
forthrightness of his nature and habit to
sound, balanced maturity. A fine adminis-

RESULTS OF THE REPEAL 151
trative quality began to appear as he worked
efficiently for the party to which he had com
mitted his hopes of service.
In the new alignment of men and parties he
felt a keen ambition to make at least some
slight study of other governments and their
institutions, and as a result, in the inter
mission after the adjournment of Congress in
March, 1855, Grow went to Europe with some
of his colleagues, among whom were E. B.
Washburne, of Illinois, B. Pringle and E, D.
Morgan, of New York, Besides their observa
tion of such political and economic affairs as
were comparable to our own, they had beguil
ing and more or less significant experiences.
They reached Paris during a week of great
interest and not a little importance in the fu
ture history of England and France. It was
the first time in almost five hundred years that
the reigning sovereign of England had visited
France as a guest. Queen Victoria arrived in
Paris accompanied by Prince Albert, the Prin
cess Royal, her eldest daughter, and the Heir
Apparent. Great preparations for flattering display of
grandeur were made for the reception. The
streets from the railroad station to Saint-

152 GALUSHA A. GROW
Cloud, a distance of seven miles, were lined on
each side with soldiers in full uniform, both
horse and foot, numbering about ninety thou
sand men. For the whole distance flags and
buntings were suspended along the streets.
Paris poured its inhabitants forth into the
avenues, furnishing to Americans of those
days a novel sight, for it was Uterally a sea of
faces. Even the roofs were populous.
Grow had a window fronting the railroad
station to see the royal cortege of six car
riages, with four horses each, and two pos
tilions, two footmen, and two outriders, start
on its way. From the carriage up to the steps
and through the station was spread a fine
carpet for their Royal Highnesses to walk on.
It was a gala spectacle to watch them come.
Our Americans were just in time. The Queen,
Prince Albert, the Princess Royal, and the
Emperor entered the first carriage and drove
off, followed by notables, the Imperial Guards,
and equipages of other guests.
The party shared in the festivities of this
week, and George Mason, the American Minis
ter, secured them an audience with Emperor
Napoleon and Empress Eugenie. Grow records
in an interesting autobiographical note: —

RESULTS OF THE REPEAL 153
During the conversation, the Emperor, who was
at one time in this country, asked Washburne in
what part of the United States he resided. Wash
burne replied, " Galena, Illinois."
" Oh, yes," said the Emperor, " there is a great
deal of lead in that region. What do you Americans
do with all that lead?"
"We sell it to our friends and give it to our
enemies!" Washburne answered, at which the Em
peror laughed heartily.
After a long and interesting talk with His Maj
esty we were conducted by Minister Mason into
the audience room of the Empress, who looked
very beautiful and received us most graciously.
She spoke English with a pleasing accent and di
rected her questions to one and then another of the
party, touching many subjects and seeming well
posted on them all. When she came to me she
remarked, —
"The Emperor has told me much of your coun
try, the grand scenery and the vast extent of terri
tory. You seem to have more land than you know
what to do with."
I began, " Your Majesty, we have sixteen hun
dred millions of acres of unsettled lands — "
She naively interrupted, "Yet there is a little
spot you want very much — " (meaning Cuba).
" What are you going to do with this unoccupied
domain?" " We are going to give it free to your countrymen
and others when they come to live among us," I
answered. "Ohl" she exclaimed, "how wonderful that a

154 GALUSHA A, GROW
young nation can do such generous things for its
people!" After a lengthy audience, Mr. Mason, who was
an elderly gentleman with white hair, turned grace
fully to the Empress, " Your Majesty, we must go
now, for I see that these young gentlemen are fall
ing in love with the first lady of France."
She shrugged her shoulders and smiled, "I
should be only too proud if I knew that I had
inspired them with respect."
Later they were escorted by Donn Piatt,
then Secretary to the American Legation in
Paris, to a grand ball given in honor of Queen
Victoria, the Prince Consort, and those in
waiting. But ten Americans were invited.
Court dress, composed of a military coat with
gold lace around collars and sleeves, black and
white trousers with yellow lace around the
sides, white vest and cravat, sword and cha-
peau, was imperative. Grow wrote : —
I engaged my suit, and if some of my bark-
peelers could have seen me with that uniform on
they would have wondered who I was! I hardly
knew myself when I had it all on at once. But
there was no admittance without a " wedding gar
ment," as Washburne called it, and I was bound
to go, for it was the only royal ball I ever expected
to attend, and a bachelor like myself would have
had a cold heart indeed to decline an invitation to
attend a ball graced by the Queen of England and

RESULTS OF THE REPEAL 155
the Empress of France. Since meeting the Empress
in private audience I felt that if she should appear
as well in the ballroom as she did in private con
versation she would be the center of attraction, for
there could be no more fascinating person than
Eugenie in those days of her glory.
It was not disappointing — a very brilliant
affair, and every conceivable uniform from the
Orient and the Occident was on parade. If the
gowns of the ladies were as high in the price as low
in the neck, the cost must have been staggering.
On the whole, my colleagues and I were enter
tained by the splendor and gayety the scene pre
sented, Grow's "on the whole" suggests that they
found the clothes or the ceremony somewhat
trying, but at least the experience was a very
rich one for recollection.
The party went on in a few days across the
Alps, from Geneva over the Mont Cenis Pass
to Milan and by Genoa to Rome, which they
reached in time to witness the annual illumi
nation of St. Peter's and the Vatican. The
Pope was then recognized as the temporal
sovereign, and the affair was novel and enter
taining to strangers. Going from Rome by
diligence to Naples, they climbed Vesuvius to
see a sunset from its ashen summit. After
examining the ruins of Herculaneum and

156 GALUSHA A. GROW
Pompeii, instead of going to the Crimea as they
had planned, they returned to Rome because
cholera was prevalent in the peninsula. There
is a true American enthusiasm in Grow's state
ment that they "took in" Venice, Florence,
Lake Como. They recrossed the Alps with
visits at Zurich and Lucerne.
Grow seems particularly to have enjoyed
the lake at Altdorf, finding the little temple
where it is said that Tell, after he had shot the
apple from the head of his son and threatened
the tyrant Gessler with another arrow, made
his escape in a boat while the lake was in the
throes of a violent tempest. Also he was
highly amused, after asking the guide to act as
interpreter while he asked the captain of the
httle steamer about the historic places on the
lake, to have the heretofore mute master of
the vessel speak up in very good English, "I
was raised in Vermont and ran a steamboat
on the Hudson River from New York to Al
bany for eight years!"
After a stop at Basle, interesting because of
its immense wealth, they entered the Rhine
Valley, stopping at Baden-Baden. There they
saw something of the peculiarities of the coun
try. The gambling-house was even then one of

RESULTS OF THE REPEAL 157
the finest buildings of the place, fitted up in
good style with a large ballroom, and open
at all hours, — "Sundays same as any other
day." They were greatly struck by the sight
of well-dressed ladies at the gaming-table bet
ting largely from morning till as late at night
as the party stayed.
The fact that there were no Sabbaths on
the Continent, that the day was devoted to
pleasure and amusement, that there were no
more people to be seen in the churches, seems
to have astonished Grow. "State religion had
a class set apart to attend to such affairs," he
writes. "Just as there was a class to govern,
there was a class to worship, and the people
seemed to think it was their business, that
they were paid for it and should attend to
it. They left religion to women and children
largely." j
Equally bewildering to him, who instinc
tively cherished old-time American reverence
for women, was the want of courtesy toward
ladies. That they were paid no deference, that
men did not offer their seats or make room
seems to have made him feel shame for his sex.
You could see anywhere, especially in Italy,
ladies carrying the carpet-bags, with shawls.

158 GALUSHA A. GROW
umbrellas, and one or two children to care for,
elbowing their way through a crowd while their
husbands or the gentlemen accompanying them
leisurely picked their way along where it was most
convenient without offering relief, . . . The more
an American sees of Europe, unless wedded to
antiquity or dazzled by the glitter and pomp of
royalty, the more strongly attached does he be
come to the institutions of his own country. There
was no spot I saw after leaving New York that any
consideration would induce me to make my per
manent home.
The institutions and the character of the Amer
ican people were at that time just beginning to be
understood in Europe, Our steamers were making
the fastest trips across the ocean. Our yachts were
beating the fastest of the English clubs out of
sight in a few hours* sail. Our agricultural and
labor-saving machines were taking the first pre
miums in world exhibitions; and our commerce
was not much less than that of England and rap
idly increasing. Reflecting men inquired, "How
has all this been accomplished in a half -century?"
and " What will Americans be, at the rate they are
going, at the end of fifty years?"
I found that national pride was markedly
wounded that Commodore Perry should have suc
ceeded in accomplishing two years before what
they had failed in centuries of accomplishing, a
hurt not softened by the fact that Japanese officials
had informed Commodore Perry, after the conclu
sion of negotiations, that it had been their design
that their first treaty of commercial intercourse

RESULTS OF THE REPEAL 159
with any nation should be with the people of
Washington, That they knew Washington's his
tory, and were well informed about almost every
thing relating to America, was the secret of our
success where others failed.
Going from Mayence by steamer to Rotter
dam, where the great German river loses itself
in the sea near Delftshaven, the party all
agreed that some fitting memorial should be
erected by the descendants of the Mayflower
to mark the historic spot from which the Pil
grims departed in the Speedwell to join their
Mayflower companions at Plymouth on their
eventful voyage to the New World, In the
stirring events which followed their return the
patriotic project was never carried out. Am
sterdam, The Hague, Brussels, the field of
Waterloo, Paris, England, Scotland, and Wales
took the remainder of the time until October,
and they made some survey of the old systems
of land tenures.
Then they returned home to find the United
States still in a turmoil over slavery, "but
nevertheless a delightful country in which to
have our being. The truth is it makes an indif
ferent American a good one to see Europe with
its civilization, habits, and customs, for he

160 GALUSHA A. GROW
then fully realizes the blessings of free govern
ment and the marvelous heritage our fore
fathers left to us and future generations," con
cluded Grow, Certainly by new contacts he
himself escaped many provincial contractions
of view.
The period to which they returned was most
interesting, for the fledghng Repubhcan Party
faced its most important fights. Upon the
convening of Congress occurred probably the
most exciting contest for the Speakership
which ever took place. Nathaniel P. Banks,
the "Bobbin Boy" of Massachusetts, was the
first Republican nominee. William Aiken, of
South Carolina, was the Democratic candi
date. Perhaps it was partly the fact that
Banks was a Know-Nothing as well which
made the election so thrilling.
Public sentiment had given the anti-slavery
men an opportunity to secure control of the
House. The classification of members was.
Democrats, 79; Anti-Nebraskans (including
all anti-slavery expansionists), 117; 37 WTiigs
and Know-Nothings inclined to favor slavery.
The loss of Democrats from the previous ses
sion was 78, Beginning December 3 the fight
for the Speakership lasted two solid months.

RESULTS OF THE REPEAL ' 161
until February 3. Balloting for Speaker was
all the House did, practically, except to in
dulge in acrimonious discussions under the
five-minute rule concerning the influence and
effect of the Repeal.
After one hundred and twenty-three ballots
the country grew very restless and weary at
the prolonged contest. A general cry arose
for the House to elect a Speaker and do busi
ness or to adjourn without delay. Whereupon
Cobb (personified Democracy!) offered a re
solution declaring Aiken Speaker, describing
it as "an olive branch of peace."
Forthwith Elihu Washburne, to the great
delight of the Republicans, moved to "lay the
olive branch on the table!" The balloting
went on. After one hundred and thirty ballots,
the House finally declared by resolution that
after three more ballots without choice the
candidate who received the highest number of
votes in the next division would be declared
elected, regardless of the absence of the ma
jority of the whole vote.
The RepubUcans, Grow among them, were
wild with excitement. It meant a signal success
to the new party if they could elect their choice.
On the next three ballots Banks received 102

162 GALUSHA A. GROW
votes; Aiken, 93; and the other candidates, 30.
The clerk called the roll of the one hundred
and thirty-third ballot, which would be deci
sive. The tally was: Banks, 103; Aiken, 100.
Banks was declared elected. Enthusiasm
reigned in the new party. Some of the Demo
cratic members attempted to question the
legality of his election, but Aiken magnani
mously declared that it was fair, and forced his
colleagues to accept defeat with such grace as
they might command.
Declaring that such an exhibition of fanati
cism would never again be heard of, the Demo
crats grudgingly gave way, refusing to recog
nize this first victory as the beginning of a
great political revolution in the land, fruit of
that Repeal which in the long run was to ad
vantage the North.

CHAPTER X
KANSAS: AND KEITT VS. GROW
After five years in Congress it had become
fully recognized that land was Grow's medium;
he worked in land as a sculptor works in clay.
"Grow's got an idea about the West and a
feeling for it," was about the way his associ
ates phrased it. His training in the Indian
Affairs Committee had made him familiar
with the "hither edge of free land," — the
successive frontiers, — and had brought him
along the road of his absorbing interest, giving
him an understanding of transmontane condi
tions. His promotion to about as important a
place as Banks had in his gift, where matters
of land policy and slavery must necessarily
focus, gave him an enviable post from which
to watch all the fascinating aspects of migrant
America, to hear the steady tramp of oncom
ing Europe, and to study the curious "cross-
fertilization of ideas and institutions." Here,
dealing with partition of territory, he had to
scheme out the fundamentals of a formative

164 GALUSHA A. GROW
society; determining the civil relations of in
habitants. Kansas, focal object in the national brain in
1856, had been one of Grow's chief concerns
since the repeal of the Missouri Compromise.
Slavery was never forgotten. The invasion of
the State the previous year, when Missouri
tried to usurp her rights, had resulted in the
Republican Party declaring for "Free Kansas,"
and Grow felt deeply on the subject. On the
opening of the session, he led a fight which
prevented the seating of the Kansas delegate,
Whitfield, the House deciding after his arraign
ment that no election had been held.
Then the assault on Sumner occurred, on
May 22, close on the heels of his bitter speech
on the "Crime against Kansas." Lawrence
M. Keitt was Preston S. Brooks' companion
when the latter struck Sumner over the head
with a heavy bludgeon, not only sending him
unconscious and bleeding to the floor, but
crippling him for three years, Keitt, who at
first kept back all who came to the rescue,
was out of the jurisdiction of the Senate. The
House, however, to Mr. Grow's entire satis
faction, censured him severely. Keitt, of whom
we shall hear more later, was nevertheless

KANSAS — KEITT vs. GROW 165
promptly reelected. Grow had no faint con
ception at the time of this incident that the
day would come when Keitt would lie prone
upon the floor battered by a blow from his
good right arm.
The acridity of spirit between slaveholder
and abolitionist was not one whit greater than
that between pro- and anti-expansionist, and
in both Houses there was constant clash on
the rights of Kansas. Grow aroused particular
antagonism by introducing, a few weeks after
the assault on Sumner, a bill for the admission
of Kansas as a free State, a step he considered
her only possible relief. In the closing debate
upon it he protested the outrages and wrongs
that had been committed, — freedom of speech
denied; printing-presses destroyed; incendia
rism; persons stopped and searched; papers
seized without legal process, — all because the
citizens declared that slavery was an evil and
objected to its introduction.
He continued his aggressive policy by con
troverting Alexander Stephens, who attrib
uted these troubles to causes other than the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise; Grow said
that the repeal was for the purpose of opening
the way to make Kansas a slave State, that it

166 GALUSHA A. GROW
was a conspiracy from the start and had been
carried out with violence and brute force. He
made a strong appeal to the South to restore
peace and harmony to the Republic by admit
ting Kansas with a free constitution and de
sisting from the attempt to nationalize the
institution of human bondage.
The battle on the bill, which passed the
House but was tabled in the Senate, and on
the Douglas-Toombs measure for the "pacifi
cation" of Kansas, cleared the way for titanic
work which the party had on hand. On the
Douglas-Toombs Act Grow made a direct,
forceful, nobly spoken attack, and although
this speech was made when he was ill, it was
free from a certain floridity and repetition
which sometimes marred his utterances. He
revealed the faults of the measure, showing
that if the bill passed Congress would recog
nize slavery as legally established in the Ter
ritories. It provided for the appointment of
commissioners to take an enumeration of the
people who should vote and to apportion the
members of a convention to form a constitu
tion for Kansas which they were not compelled
to submit to a vote of the people. It relieved
the inhabitants of none of their grievances.

KANSAS — KEITT vs. GROW 167
nor were any of the many laws legalizing and
sanctioning slavery changed.
This able speech had a personal reaction
on Grow. Feeling went higher every moment.
Frank and courageous, moved fundamentally
by large purposes, he was conspicuous in the
House. Southern antagonism localized against
him. Furthermore, he persisted in his effort
to clear up this matter which was making war.
It essentially affected the land, and he hoped
that, once settled, the way would be clearer for
other policies he was bound to propose again.
He answered President Buchanan, who in his
Annual Message had defended the border ruf
fians. Buchanan had written: —
If the passionate rage and fanaticism of partisan
spirit did not force the fact upon our attention, it
would be difficult to believe that any considerable
portion of the people of this enlightened country
should have so surrendered themselves to fanatical
devotion to the supposed interests of the relatively
few Africans in the United States as to totally
abandon and disregard the interests of twenty-five
million Americans,
Grow retorted from the floor of the House : —
The men of the North have not surrendered
themselves to " the supposed interests of the rela
tively few Africans in the United States," The

168 GALUSHA A. GROW
rights of the citizens of Kansas are the rights of
twenty-five millions of Americans, and the wrongs
of one should be adopted as the wrongs of the
other. If the rights of one man in this country can
be trampled by legislative enactment, the rights
of all may be. When men are disfranchised by law
and the law rests upon the Government for validity
and sanction, it comes home to every person, no
matter in what part of the Republic he lives; and
he who would sit quietly down and permit wrong
and injustice to be done to a citizen of the country
when he can prevent it is guilty of a dereliction of
duty. The supervision of all their legislation being
under control of Congress, let it remove from the
people these odious enactments which the Presi
dent has declared must be enforced and secure
them the free and undisturbed exercise of their
civil rights and privileges,
' Nor did he cease his activities here. He
brought in a measure to authorize the payment
for property taken or destroyed under color of
law. This he followed by a bill for the repeal
of the existing statutes in Kansas. His persist
ence made him obnoxious to the rabid among
slavery men. His sincere hard labor for some
settlement, in face of their disapproval, fur
nishes at least partial refutation of the charge
that Republicans wished "to keep the wounds
of Kansas bleeding while their adversaries
wished to bind them up."

KANSAS — KEITT vs. GROW 169
Urged to be a candidate for Speaker in 1857,
Grow refused because he did not think his
chances especially good. James L. Orr, of
South Carolina, got the place, defeating John
Sherman. That year in the hot debate on
whether or not it was expedient to hmit the
African slave trade. Grow was unlucky enough
further to augment antagonism. When South
ern men proposed to "postpone" a vote, he
repeatedly interposed objections. The reso
lution passed stating clearly the opposition
of Congress to any reopening of the slave
trade. In constant opposition to Democratic tac
tics, his persistence was maddening, his oppo
nents thought. On the offensive his personal
force was like a powerful projectile; on the
defensive he had a resistance which was im
mense because he never lost his head. He had
not great rhetoric, or, as they used to say in
those days, "metaphysics," but his skill was
ample. "This being objection day ..." he
would begin and prevent the introduction of
pet Southern measures. His manner was quiet,
but on occasion aggressive, and he reaped hos-
tihty that his friends sowed because of his
loyalty to them.

170 GALUSHA A. GROW
One of these friends, Owen Lovejoy, speak
ing on slavery one day could not refrain from.
caustic and bitter remarks, which acted like a
royal bread poultice that draws infection to
an inflamed head. Potter, another friend, of
different cahber, but withal a brave, stable,
faithful fellow, upheld Lovejoy when the pro-
slavery radicals attempted to silence him.
Roger Pryor, member from Virginia, able
lawyer and debater, took exception the follow
ing day to a remark of Potter's which was pub
lished in the "Globe," "The Repubhcan side
of the House shall be heard from, let the con
sequence be what it may!" Pryor declared
that Potter had not used the words as recorded,
but had doctored them for the printer, and
therefore he had them erased from the records.
Potter said that he had them inserted because
they had been inserted by the reporter and
that Pryor had erased them without his knowl
edge, which he had no right to do.
Whereupon Pryor challenged Potter to a
duel. The choice of weapons lying with Potter,
he named bowie knives. Pryor immediately
rejected this proposal as barbarous. Lander,
Potter's second, immediately challenged Fry
er's second to fight with any weapons he chose.

KANSAS — KEITT vs. GROW 171
This offer was also rejected and the affair blew
over without a duel. "
Although they never fought, the incident
made Potter popular throughout the North,
especially in his own State, the general hys
teria of the time being such that people North
and South were glad their representatives
showed spirit even to the point of personal
combat when what they considered their per
sonal rights were assailed.
Grow hated such rows, but he greatly en
joyed the stories of the day which hinged
on the episode. An old German member was
asked, while both Potter and Pryor were
absent from the House, conferring about the
duel, " Where is Pryor? " " Oh," he replied, " I
dink he iss in der hands of der Potter." And
when some one inquired where Potter was, he
answered, "He has dot Pryor engagement!"
There was very little fun in the general sit
uation, however. Rancor gained on both sides.
Keitt roused the ire of Grow and all Republi
cans by repudiation of the name "National
Democrat," giving as his reason, "... because
I hold the Constitution to be a treaty between
sovereign States and that this Government is
not a Nation." When one considers the strife

172 GALUSHA A. GROW
and turbulence of the hour and sectional feel-i
ing at high tide, one cannot wonder that the
moment for personal encounter should again
arrive. This time Grow himself was involved.
The occasion arose during a debate concern
ing President Buchanan's Message of 1858 on
the Lecompton Constitution, that pro-slavery
instrument foisted, against the majority will,
upon the people of Kansas, who had just
elected a legislature which refused to recognize
the illegal act. President Buchanan, dominated
by Southern Democratic influence, favored
the Lecompton document, but there were
sufficient Northern Democrats opposed to it
to compass its defeat. Fresh bitterness was
engendered by the audacity of the Lecomp-
tonites, and fierce words were constantly being
passed. During the afternoon of Friday, February 5,
1858, Alexander Stephens, of Georgia, moved
to refer the Message to the Committee on Ter
ritories. Two other proposals were up, one to
refer it to a special committee of eleven and
the other insisting upon a larger committee of
fifteen, A filibuster began which continued
throughout the night, and by the time the
session was encroaching on early morning the

KANSAS — KEITT vs. GROW 173
members, fagged and weary, were in an ugly
mood. Grow, the whip of the Repubhcan Party,
watched every move. When a Mississippian,
Quitman, asked unanimous consent to make
a suggestion, which meant a speech. Grow
objected. He wanted voting, not talking. He
passed across the Chamber to the Democratic
side to confer with Hickman, of Pennsylvania.
Lawrence Keitt was unable to control his
quick-boiling anger. He cried out indignantly,
"If you want to object, go back to your side
of the House, you black Repubhcan puppy!"
Grow defiantly rephed, "I will object when
and where I please!"
Keitt instantly arose, and followed by Jeff
Davis's brother Reuben, approached Grow
threateningly. He demanded, "What do you
mean by such an answer?"
"I mean just what I said," Grow replied
stoutly. "This Hall belongs to the American
people. I shall stay in it where I please and
no slave-driver shall crack his whip over my
head," Stung by his reply and urged on by Davis,
Keitt made a lunge at Grow's throat, and
catching hold of his old-fashioned choker,

174 GALUSHA A. GROW
was about to strike him when Grow, in self-
defense, pushed him back and landed a bark-
spudder's blow under Keitt's right ear which
sent him limp and whipped to the floor.
Great commotion followed, and the entire
House was involved at once in a rough-and-
tumble fight. Instantly the center aisle in
front of the Speaker's desk was packed with
an excited crowd. Mob spirit descended; each
lawmaker struck a lawless blow wherever op
ponent could be reached. Republicans rushed
to the defense of Grow and Democrats of
Keitt. John Covode, of Pennsylvania, marched
down the side aisle with an old earthen cus
pidor in his hand.
As he passed Richard Mott, a peace-loving
Quaker from Ohio, Mott cried out, "Whither
goest thou. Brother John, with thy earthen
spittoon?" "To fight for Grow with this weapon!"
shouted Covode, waving the cuspidor on high.
"Peace be with thee, brother," counseled
Mott, "but if thou must fight for Galusha, aim
thy spittoon well, John, and hit the mark!"
And with this he followed Covode into the
fight and got badly damaged !

KANSAS — KEITT vs. GROW 175
Southern leaders — like Barksdale, Davis,
Quitman — rushed up to succor Keitt. Barks
dale caught Grow in both arms and "Bowie-
knife" Potter, moving through the crowd,
striking out right and left, saw Barksdale
chnched with Grow, and hauling off, delivered
a fierce blow on Barksdale's back. Grow threw
off Barksdale, who, recovering, saw Elihu
Washburne handy and grabbed him around
the waist.
At this moment Cadwallader Washburn,
spying his brother in the arms of Barksdale,
struck the Mississippian a glancing blow on
the back of the head, knocking off his ponder
ous wig, which fell to the floor.
The mdlee had reached the danger point.
Barksdale, who was sensitive about his hair-
lessness, grabbed up the wig, and in his haste
clapped it on bottom side up! The moment
the wig landed on the Barksdale pate a roar
of laughter burst forth. Every one stopped to
look for the cause. The unwigging of Barks
dale saved the Chamber what might have been
a bloody scene. If the fight had not paused,
the bitterness of those days might have led to
the production of those firearms which made
the House nothing but a concealed arsenal.

176 GALUSHA A. GROW
In the lull in the rumpus Speaker Orr called
loudly for the Sergeant-at-Arms, who had just
put Keitt into one of the cloak-rooms. He
came, holding his mace above the combatants,
and finally restored comparative order; after
which, with traces of confusion, the House
adjourned. The next day Keitt apologized to the
House : —
It is due to fair dealing that I should assume all
responsibility for the act involving a violation of
the House, its dignity, and decorum, I was the
aggressor and whatever responsibility attached to
the act, it properly belongs to me alone. It was,
however, casual, sudden, accidental. It is due to
justice that I should make whatever reparation is
in my power, , , , I do that in the expression of my
profound regret at the occurrence. Personal col
lisions are always unpleasant, seldom excusable,
rarely justifiable, and never in a legislative body.
If any blow was directed at me I am at least utterly
unconscious of having received any.
Before the statement was delivered, Keitt
had a mutual friend explain to Grow the pur
port of the last sentence. Grow was informed
that the disclaimer of any knowledge of receiv
ing a blow was simply intended to satisfy the
code which required a challenge from a man

KANSAS — KEITT vs. GROW 177
if he acknowledged receiving a blow. Grow,
regretting the affair and wishing the incident
closed, accepted the explanation. He often
said laughingly afterwards, however, "I won
der what it was that made Keitt drop!"
As soon as Keitt had made his apology.
Grow took the floor and closed the incident: —
... At the last sitting of the House I found my
self unexpectedly engaged in personal conflict. To
the House I tender, most cheerfully, whatever
apology is due for this violation of order and de
corum. Northern papers praised Grow for his plucky
stand, while Southern journals made excuses
for Keitt, The Kansas Free-State settlers, in
their enthusiasm at Grow's championing the
right to free speech, presented him with a solid
gold medal bearing on one side the figure of
an uplifted arm with clenched fist, bearing the
caption, — " The First Blow for Freedom"
The European press discussed the incident
at length and in various ways, and "Punch,"
of London (March 6), published the following
verse popularly attributed to Oliver Wendell
Holmes, at that time in England: —

178 GALUSHA A. GROW
A Fragment from the Great American Epic
The Washingtoniad
Sing, oh. Goddess, the wrath, the imtamable dander of
Keitt,
Keitt, of South Carolina, the clear grit, the tall, the
undaunted.
Him that hath whopped his own niggers till Northerners
all unto Keitt
Seem but as niggers — as well as small bits of potatoes.
Late and long was the fight on the constitution of
Kansas.
Daylight passed into dusk, and dusk into lighted gas
lamps —
Still on the floor of the House the heroes continued their
fighting, —
Dry grew palates and tongues with excitement and
expectoration;
Plugs were becoming exhausted — and Representatives
also.
Who led on the war? The Lecompton phalanx?
Grow, hitting straight from the shoulder, the Pennsyl
vania slasher;
Him followed Hickman and Potter, the Wiry from
Woody Wisconsin;
Washburn stood with his brother, Cadwallader with
Ehhu;
Broad Illinois sent the one and Woody Wisconsin the
other.
Mott came, mild as new milk, with gray hair under his
broad brim,
Leaving a first-class location and water privilege near it
Held by his fathers of old on the willow-fringed banks
of Ohio.
Wrathy Covode too I saw, and Montgomery ready for
mischief —

KANSAS — KEITT vs. GROW 179
Who against these to the floor led the Lecomptonite
legions?
Keitt and Rube Davis, the "raal hoss" of wild Missis
sippi;
Craig and "Scorny" McQueen, and Lucius Quintus
Lamar —
These Mississippi sent to the war, "Tri-partite in
uno."
Long waged the warfare of words. It was four in the
morning.
Whittling and expectoration and humor all were ex
hausted
When Keitt tired of talk; bespoke Rube Davis; "Oh,
Reuben,
Grow's a tarnation blackguard and I'm going to chuck
him!"
Thus said, up to him sprang and loosened his choker;
Squares to go in like a b'ar when the varmint is cornered.
"Come out. Grow," he cried, "you black Republican
puppy;
Come out on the floor like a man and darn my eyes but
I'U show you!"
Him answered straight-hitting Grow, "Wal, now, I
kalkillate, Keitt,
No nigger-driver shall leave his plantation in South
CaroUna
Here to crack his cowhide round this child's ear if he
knows it!"
Scarce had he spoke when the hand, the chivalrous fore
fingers of Keitt
Clutched at his throat! Had they closed, the speech of
Grow had been ended:
Nevermore from a stump had he stirred the free and
enlightened;
But though smart Keitt's moulies, the moulies of Grow
were still smarter.

180 GALUSHA A. GROW
Straight from the shoulder he shot. Not even Swift or
Ned Adams
Ever put in their right with more delicate feeling of
distance.
As drops the hammer on anvil, so dropped Grow's right
on Keitt
Just where the jugular runs toward the base of the right
ear!
Prone like a log sank Keitt; his dollars rattled around
him
Forth sprang his friends o'er the body; flrst Barksdale
the wigwearer,
Craig and McQueen and Davis — the "raal hoss" of
wild Mississippi,
Fiercely they gathered round Grow, catawpously, as if
to chaw him!
But without Potter they reckoned, — the Wiry from
Woody Wisconsin, —
As, striking out right and left like catamount, varmint
and vicious.
He dashed to the rescue, and with him the Washburns,
Cadwallader and Elihu.
Slick into Barksdale's bread-basket walked Potter's five
knuckles.
Barksdale fetched round in a trice, dropped Grow and
let out Elihu,
Then like a fountain did flow the claret of Washburne
the Elder;
But for Cadwallader's care, — Cadwallader, guard of
his brother, —
Catching at Barksdale's knob into Chancery soon would
have drawn it.
Well it was then for Barksdale the wig that waved o'er
his forehead
Off into Cadwallader's hands came; and the wearer re
leasing

KANSAS — KEITT vs. GROW 181
Le't to the conqueror naught but the scalp of his worthy
opponent!
Meanwhile, hither and thither, a balm on the waters of
trouble.
Moved Mott, mild as new milk, with gray hairs under
his broad brim
Preaching peace to deaf ears and getting considerably
damaged.
Cautious Covode in the rear, as dubious what it might
come to.
Brandished a stone-ware spittoon "'Gainst whoever
might seem to deserve it."
Little mattered to him whether pro- or anti-Lecompton
So he found in the Hall a foeman worthy his "weepon."
So raged this battle of men all into the thick of the m^lee,
When, like the heralds of old, stepped the Sergeant-at-
Arms and the Speaker.
Then order was found and the warriors ceased fighting.
The only description Mr, Grow himself ever
wrote of the episode was the following, found
in a letter to a relative dated February 9,
1858: —
I wrote you this morning about the trouble in
the House, I enclose a " Globe," by which you will
see that the fight is ended and the books are closed.
The telegraphic reports first sent to the Associ
ated Press were substantially a correct statement
of facts. The free fight that ensued after the first
encounter cannot be described. It was the first
free fight that ever came off in Congress and the
alacrity with which Republicans rushed to the en
counter took Southern men entirely by surprise.

182 GALUSHA A. GROW
They have labored under the delusion that North
ern men would not fight, but when they saw them,
almost en masse, rush from one side of the Chamber
to the other and join the affray with fists clenched
and arms flying, they came to the conclusion that
Northern men will fight in a just cause and that
with some effect.
Until the admission of Kansas as a free
State in January, 1861, five years after the
first bill passed the House, Grow earnestly
championed the cause of the "Garden State
of the West."

CHAPTER XI
ORGANIZING THE FARMERS' FRONTIER
The realm of adventure in those days was
the great empire outside the organized States.
Congress, trustee for this romantic domain
whither went the energetic and aspiring, was
at much pains to determine how to govern
properly, from such distance and without suffi
cient machinery for the direct administration
of the law vast areas to which every type of
worker^ was on his way. Civilization went
forward in single file and not too peacefully.
Partition of the area into Territories and
States must be effected; local government
must be set up in place of the too short arm
of the federal law, and other aids secured.
Grow devoted his best energies to this con
tinental work which was part of the develop
ment of the third act of the Homestead drama.
It correlated directly to his main passion, the
building of the whole expansion policy upon
the democratic farm unit. His dynamic force
disciplined of some of its crudity. Grow had
» Turner, The Frontier in American History.

184 GALUSHA A. GROW
evolved into an admirable helmsman for "the
purpose which seems half unconsciously to
have dominated the people and their rulers"^
— a purpose which pushed the frontiers on into
the wilds in "one masterful, irresistible expan-
sion. The heroic pioneer strain in humanity ap
pealed to him more and more strongly, and the
farmers' frontier, ever advancing fluidly, wave
upon wave, drew upon it. Who, among Ameri
cans with native ancestors, does not know by
family tradition what frontier life demanded of
endurance and red courage? The tale of the
grandfather who crossed the dangerous moun
tain pass to establish a home; of the grand
mother who barricaded the stanch log house
and defended her babies from the Indians in
the absence of her husband by firing from one
loophole after another in rapid succession; or
of the great-uncle, perhaps, whose amazingly
quick, competent organization protected not
only his own but community property from the
onrush of the prairie fire; — these are our com
mon heritage. They were Grow's actual knowl
edge. In isolated regions outbreaks of anar
chy, bloodshed, and cruelty were not infrequent,
* Colquohoun, Greater America.

THE FARMERS' FRONTIER 185
where men were tempted "to ride the range
in glorious indifference to law." ^
Grow set himself to do what he could at the
difficult task of finding means of protection for
these brave spirits in the unorganized domain.
Believing the establishment of overland mail
routes to be one cheap and good means, open
ing surer and quicker communication, he made
a strong fight for them. Concentrated settle
ment, however, was the main desideratum to
assure defense, the centers of organized govern
ment offering a natural stronghold, Minne
sota, Oregon, Utah, New Mexico, and Wash
ington, and the States of California and Texas
were already on the map. The rest of the
exhaustless West was just being measured up
and platted, and Grow, the surveyor, good at
"metes and bounds," entered a familiar field.
Besides three additional Territories blocked
out he personally reported bills for four more:
Chippewa, which was to have been cut out
along the northern route where the Blackfeet,
Sioux, and other Indians menaced the mouth
of the Yellowstone; Dakota, Idaho (this name
to replace its nickname "Pike's Peak " and sig
nifying "Gem of the Mountain"), and Arizona.
1 Emerson Hough, Esau in Search of a Home.

186 GALUSHA A. GROW
These he regarded as infant States; they were
to be equipped with constitutions and provided
with laws.
The opposition to the further formation of
Territories was very strong. Reactionaries
held that dependencies. Territories, had no
business under the Stars and Stripes. One of
the gentlemen who frequently led in obstruct
ing Grow at this time was the chairman of the
Committee on Public Lands, Thayer. He
believed only in the formation of sovereign
States; whenever territorial measures were up
there was tit-for-tat between him and Grow.
On one occasion the Dakota organization bill
was under discussion. Thayer's private busi
ness was in railroad equipment. Unexpectedly,
he moved to lay the measure on the table.
"Not so fast!" protested Mr. Grow. "The
gentleman from Massachusetts is so used to
carry his engines into these new countries that
he is all for locomotion ! "
Later Grow put through the bill which cre
ated the Territory of Nevada. By 1859 Oregon
was admitted as a State and the eastern part
attached to Washington as a Territory; the
State of Minnesota was formed, and Nebraska,
Kansas, and Indian Territories recognized.

THE FARMERS' FRONTIER 187
Before he left Congress all but four of our
present States were cut out by boundaries.
But it was not only lack of organization
which was crippling the West, Grow watched
speculation, his bete noir, go forward more and
more successfully. The Commissioner of the
General Land Office reported that a very con
siderable portion if not the greater part of the
entries for cultivation and settlement under
the Graduation Act of 1854 had been made by
unscrupulous individuals in direct contraven
tion of the law. The Secretary of the Interior
prophesied that the act would become a fruit
ful source of annoyance and loss. Cobb's sub
stitute for the Homestead proposal was thus a
complete failure.
Not only did speculative capitalists buy
outright, but they pushed forward "colorable"
settlers into the lands which had not been
offered for public sale and later bought them
out. Either by the misrepresentations of spec
ulators or the inadvertence of authorities pub
lic sales had been ordered before the line of
settlement had fairly reached the land, and
thus the speculators had been able to keep in
advance, picking out choice lands in quantities
to retail at a largely advanced price or to hold

188 GALUSHA A. GROW
back from improvement for years. This was
the result of our mistaken policy of allowing
land to be sold at auction to the highest bidder.
The speculators preyed upon squatters who
were forced to leave. With ready cash they
bought the cream of the areas offered — until
preemptors began to rebel.
The organization of this rebellion was pic
turesque enough. In various parts of the West,
wherever enough settlers had congregated,
they spiritedly formed township associations
which were offensive and defensive leagues.
They proceeded to make their own rules for
the auctions. First they registered all the occu
pied tracts in the name of the men entitled to
them with their association secretary, listing
doubtful or fraudulent holders as such. Then
the whole membership of the association turned
out at the sales, fully armed. The crowd
bristled with pistols and bowie knives. The
spokesmen intimated to land-grabbers, on pain
of physical damage, that honest applicants
were to be served first when they bid upon
land. Under the circumstances, second choice
being preferable to loss of life, the hint was
usually effective.
After the settlers were through, the land-

THE FARMERS' FRONTIER 189^
pirates took their turn, however. The old
saying, "This will be a great country when we
get it all fenced in!" was their slogan. They
frequently gobbled up all the "next best"
country, and dealt largely in land warrants
and scrip. Large districts in Iowa, for instance,
swept in by capitaUsts, remained like a desert
waste, in sharp comparison to areas just across
the line in Minnesota where the land was not
brought upon the market, but where the home
stead principle was in effect applied. There
every section had its good citizens upon it cul
tivating. The Middle West suffered greatly.
The longer any new plan could be postponed
the better for the land-grabbers. In opposition
to homestead, they favored reduction of the
requirements of occupancy and procurement
of permission to take up a thousand acres at
minimum cost. The more commonage donated
to old soldiers the better, for that came on the
market cheap. The sentimental "old-soldier"
plea was a wonderful fence behind which to
do almost anything. Paying soldiers' pensions
"in kind" was a favorite dissipation of govern
ment resources and meant invariably a good
big job lot of choice bits on the "land bargain
counter."

190 GALUSHA A, GROW
Mr, Grow once freed his mind vigorously in
regard to the act passed in 1855, He said on
the floor of the House, ungracious as was the
task of refusing a request made in the name of
those who had given valiant service, that while
professing to benefit old soldiers, it was in fact
only speculators who would feel the results of
such legislation, Mexican land-warrants sold
for sixty to seventy-five dollars apiece. Throw
ing upon the market a large territory to be
scrambled for visited consequent evils upon
the new States,
The state of the public mind as to the situ
ation of preemptors was very clear, .The land
was common property belonging to all the
people,^ but it was generally held that each
individual citizen was a joint owner in it. The
popular belief concerning land and labor was
that a citizen going to the commonage was
conferring benefit upon the Government. He
was an asset to the Government merely in his
presence upon the lands. Working the lands,
he was bestowing upon the soil labor which
was his own. This the Government had no
right to sell. They protested the right of the
Government to dispose of their improvements.
• Henry George, Land and Land Policy.

THE FARMERS' FRONTIER 191
They demanded some settlement of the matter
which would afford substantial recognition of
the value of their labor and provide, if price
were to attach, kindly conditions of payment
which allowed for the innumerable difficulties
of acquiring money. The host of pregmptors
were quite generally men of low means.
An extraordinary condition came to pass,
therefore. Millions of acres were not brought
into market at all, even though surveyed, not
because the Government was under any im
pression that the land would hereafter sell at a
better price, but because each year must lessen
(under the Graduation and Reduction Act)
the number of acres which could be subjected
to disposal at the highest remunerative price!
The moment the President ordered lands placed
upon the market moneyless preemptors howled
loudly, for that meant that they were more
than likely to lose their homes on the date of
the auction.
The outcry that honest settlers were being
sacrificed, sold out and turned out by the
Government in favor of capitalists or for the
benefit of the greatest speculator of all, the
Government itself, was megaphoned through
the country, creating an agitation so over-

192 GALUSHA A. GROW
whelming that great bodies of public land had
stood waiting, and from 1856 on the money
which should have come into the Treasury
from sales had not been available. Against
such strong public sentiment any executive
would have been courageous to act; Buchanan
was of no mind to do so.
Against the President's policy of inaction
Grow threw himself repeatedly. He fought
in varied ways, but it was always for a free
folkland. He had persistently iterated two
safeguards for the domain aside from the
homestead; its reservation for actual settlers
(proposed as early as 1836 by R. J. Walker) and
the prevention of the sale of public lands until
they should have been in the market fifteen
years, which would give settlers a favorable
start over land-grabbers. Both were becoming
more patently necessary every day. He tried
the first in a separate bill, which failed. His
persistence was continually tested. If he won
on minor points, — as for instance the exten
sion of the land laws east of the Cascade Moun
tains in Washington and Oregon, — he was con
tinually balked of the essential thing he wanted
— "ploughs, babies, homes, and freedom,"*
* Emerson Hough, Esau in Search of a Home.

THE FARMERS' FRONTIER 193
He again introduced the Homestead Bill in
1856, being so confident of its soundness that
no defeat dismayed him. An effort to side
track it, after he had reported it out of the
Territorial Committee, by sending it to his
other committee. Agriculture, did not succeed.
But when the measure came up for discussion
in the House, hot attacks typical of period and
opponents recurred. Denounced as the crown
of demagogism, the first step to communism
and socialism, as being profuse, indiscriminate,
and likely to stir other classes to demand com
pensating advantages, it had to combat what
was in reality a rampant war spirit. Grow
probably could have put through a limited
bill, but he was not satisfied to propose one
only partially competent; therefore conclusive
action was practically impossible.
There is always a stage when a long-fought
measure, frequently introduced and never
completely successful, has as little appeal as
a troublesome, much-beaten, but "stick-to-it-
ive" puppy who hangs about expecting further
chastisement. Obstinately Grow continued to
propose his plan for "morseling out" the do
main in the following sessions. The homestead
proposition could not be forced through and it

194 GALUSHA A. GROW
seemed to be a forlorn hope, but Grow stuck
by it gallantly — proof that his passion was
both ardent and persistent. He was not to be
discouraged in his attempt to express in his
own way the strong idealistic impulse of the
nation. His fight had another side, defensive. This
period was one of deep financial depression;
labor felt bad conditions painfully; many men
were out of work. To a considerable number it
seemed that the land should be doubly a sol
vent in time of stress and give bread and occu
pation to all. Many expedients were up, to
amend the Graduation and Preemption Acts,
to secure various types of grants, to provide
subsidies for agriculture. From 1856 on Grow
was constantly exerting himself to defeat the
passage of legislation which would tend at best
merely to ameliorate a situation which called
for direct and fundamental action.
With patience and power and judgment he
conservatively and wisely bided his time.
Doggedly watching for a good opportunity to
concentrate on the real thing, he did a good
grist of general business — so good a grist that
one day when he put through six motions it
was petulantly cried that he had had his share!

THE GROW WELCOME HOME AT MONTROSE, PENNSYLVANIA, 1903

THE FARMERS' FRONTIER 195
The House was somewhat at loggerheads;
Grow's party was young and jockeying for
advantage. In 1858, while he proposed the
homestead again, it was obviously futile to
push the House very far toward the accom
plishment of his main project; but he was
there with it, persistently proposing.
Andrew Johnson, elected to the Senate after
a term as Governor of Tennessee, brought an
unlessened enthusiasm for his own sort of land
policy. He realized quite as well as Grow that
the homestead conception was no psychological
illusion, but a real pregnancy of the nation;
upon this pre-birth period depended the char
acter of the legislative offspring of which the
country must be dehvered.
There was the widest difference between
Grow's and Johnson's perceptions, however.
As Johnson's ideas stood there was never a
chance for the vision which Grow saw, of pro
viding for all souls a great homogeneous land
system which would carry down the years,
which would keep the Federal Government
supreme arbiter of the pohcies of the whole
people, and which would serve to spread
throughout the country to its remotest corners
the healthy yeast of a democratic spirit. Grow

196 GALUSHA A. GROW
felt imperatively that the narrow interests of
the States were of secondary importance; that
to plan land disposition to keep these States
distinct and decentralized would be to give
strength to the fast augmenting discontent
among them; and finally, that to leave to the
discretion of each and any Commonwealth
the determination of the fate of that part of
the domain which should fall outside the classi
fication of land subject to private entry would
be a fatal mistake.
Johnson was both earnest and ardent; but
he was a presidential aspirant. Furthermore
his conception had never expanded beyond its
early outlines; in brief, to donate free of cost
only areas subject to private entry among
heads of families, providing they were natural
ized citizens at the time of the passage of the
bill. With his adherence to the politics of the
ruling party in his favor, he again introduced
his Homestead Bill; but, recognizing that the
South had no intention of allowing any meas
ure to go through which cut off revenues, he
narrowed his plan still further and robbed it
of its donation character altogether, adding a
price of forty dollars an acre. At a much later
date he himself affirmed that he had always

THE FARMERS' FRONTIER 197
looked forward to the day when the bulk of
the public domain should be surrendered to
the States, The preemption and graduation
measures were fixed upon the country; the
Homestead Bill was to consummate them; he
stated that he viewed this whole scheme as
mere preliminaries to this surrender.
At this time, however (1858), he did not dis
cuss federal rights or the final disposition of
the domain ; he urged only that Congress should
gratify in a harmless way the popular demand
for homesteads. It was certainly high time for
action. State legislatures and even Congress
itself had been debauched by the prevailing
system of grants; the public lands were prin
cipally prizes for plunder. But the South was
no nearer listening to reason on the matter,
and in the extremely good debate which oc
curred on the bill, the stand-pat Democrats de
veloped a new line of attack to defeat action.
"It is no time to be dispensing revenues,"
said their Senators. " The North wants to give
away the public lands so that federal revenue
will be reduced and the tariff must be raised
to meet the expenses of government." The
inference was that the North being the manu
facturing section, protected industries would

198 GALUSHA A. GROW
benefit. Among Democrats this was discussed
as "a little game," and they were ready zeal
ously to protect the South against such imposi
tion. An ingenious argument. Northern lead
ers showed that it was not water-tight; if
Eastern Senators had favored the bill for such
a secondary reason, it would have been pri
marily too dangerous a way to effect an end.
The South had power to retaliate by placing
a tax on articles on the free list.
Aristocratic Democrats continually attacked
homesteaders with the gloriously long-lived
song of agrarianism, who defended agrarians
as patriots, bold, unflinching advocates of
human rights. "The principle involved in this
bill," said the Repubhcan Hale, "is one that
has divided free democratic principles and aris
tocratic government for all past time. History
has not been written by democrats. . . . Those
agrarians who for thousands of years have
been denounced as foes of property and of
popular right and social order were in fact the
only true friends of conservative popular lib
erty that the Republic of Rome ever saw, and
all on earth they contended for was a fair and
equal distribution of the public lands."
"Postponement," some one remarked, "is

THE FARMERS' FRONTIER 199
the easiest way to kill Senators' pet bantlings."
The South determined upon this, and there
fore encouraged much waste motion. Johnson
chafed: his confreres were by no means over-
polite to him. He had claimed the credit for
having been earliest identified with the home
stead. Clay, of Alabama, deliberately tried to
place him in a discreditable light by asserting
that to General McConnell of his own State
was due the "honor" of having proposed to
give one hundred and sixty acres to every head
of a family in the United States, "man, ma
tron, or maid." Johnson's refutation of his
statements took time, therefore filling with sat
isfaction the majority who intended to defer
action. Adjournment overtook them without
a decision. It was the following Congresses which saw
the most dramatic moments of the homestead
action, in which were involved the most vital
controversies of that fateful period. Grow was
third in the Speakership contest in 1859,
acknowledged one of the strong men of the
House, yet the times were so precarious that
strategy was necessary for nearly any plan in
hand. Public demonstrations were being held
to urge definite legislation. Grow summoned

200 GALUSHA A. GROW
all his forces and launched the Homestead Bill
in the House, combined with his two safeguards
to put an end finally to speculation.
He had a short but strenuous fight. He
found feehng sufficiently averse to the section
he had added providing that the land should
not be sold for fifteen years after survey to
cause him, intent on getting results, to with
draw it rather than expose the whole measure
to defeat. Despite doughty opposition to the
alien proclivities of the bill and keen States'
rights agitation, Grow's tactical skill and man
agement sent the approved bill to the Senate.
Upon Johnson, Grow's bill acted like a chal
lenge, and although he did not obviously pick
up the glove, at this point commenced a tug of
war between the two men which, never point
edly personal, was undisguised. A contest im
pended. Which was to have first chance to
dictate the terms to be discussed?
Johnson reported the House measure out
of the Committee on Public Lands without
amendment. There was no general welcome.
The Cuban Bill was already in, and this bore
an immensely important relation to the Home
stead Bill. Two other homestead bills were
already up, Johnson's, revived after its dis-

THE FARMERS' FRONTIER 201
couraging experience the year before, and one
reposing on a side track in committee. Wade
moved to take up the House measure the 17th
of February. Johnson's own bill was on the
calendar, and he promptly stated that he felt
"its details were better matured," but he gave
way to consideration of the House proposal
because the "idea was more or less similar,"
In reality a bill coming up from the House
was usually given precedence in consideration;
Wade's motion passed by two votes. Johnson
was of no mind to help him, and Democrats,
bent on swift defeat, began to mass against
the bill. After several dilatory motions for
which the South voted almost as a man. Sen
ator Hunter (our old Virginia friend, author of
Hunter's substitute in 1854) proposed that the
Wade mption be set aside. The vote was 28
to 28, whereupon Vice-President Breckinridge,
leaving the chair, voted in the affirmative.
The Homestead Bill was for that day and ses
sion done for, although attempts were made to
resuscitate it.
The Cuban Bill, for reasons both objective
and subjective, obstructed the path of the
homestead measure. It countered in practical
purpose and it expressed one side of the ethical

202 GALUSHA A, GROW
problem. Senator Slidell, of Louisiana, suc
ceeded in getting prior orders postponed on the
25th of February in order that the project to
purchase Cuba for $30,000,000 might be taken
up. At ten o'clock that night Senator Doolittle,
of Wisconsin, moved to set aside the Cuban
measure and consider the Grow bill. In the
skirmish the keynote difficulty was struck
again. Mr. Grow writes: —
I remember well Wade's encounter with Robert
Toombs while this point was being discussed. The
fiery Georgian was supporting it in a long-winded
speech. He denounced the Republican Senators
as demagogues who stood in awe and fear of the
" lacklanders " of the North, This was more than
fighting Ben Wade could endure. He sat near
Toombs and springing to his feet he faced the
Georgian and roared full in his face, —
"Are we afraid, sir? Do you mean to say, sir,
that we are afraid? There is no man or thing on
God's footstool that I am afraid of,"
Toombs paled and said quietly, "I except the
Senator from my remarks."
"If you want to take it back you can," cried
Wade; and then proceeded with a strong speech
using these words, "We gladly accept the issue
which the Senator from Georgia presents and will
go to the people on it: Land for the Landless and
Niggers for the Niggerless!"
The motion to take up the Homestead Bill

THE FARMERS' FRONTIER 203
once more was lost by ten votes and the Sen
ate went on to consider Buchanan's pet scheme.
The Ostend Conference, of which he was head,
had advised forcible seizure of the island if
negotiations failed. Had Cuba been acquired
by the United States at any time before 1860
it would have been followed by the repeal of
the law which made African slave trade piracy.
Said Alexander Stephens, the South "could
not keep up the race with the North in the
occupation of new territory unless they could
get more Africans." The desire for the addi
tional political power of two new Senators
from slave soil made the fight on Cuba bitter.
At this short session, however, the Senate was
impotent alike on Cuba and the homestead.
But once more it was made dramatically clear
how inextricably land and slavery issues were
interwoven.

CHAPTER XII
A states' RIGHTS PLAN PASSES
The pulse of the nation, quickened by the re
peal of the Missouri Compromise, the tariff,
the Kansas fight, the Dred Scott decision, now
beat tumultuously at the mere mention of land.
Yet in land policy lay the last chance of reach
ing a solution of great sectional differences, and
all ardent land men were incited to fresh patri
otic endeavors. The full blast of oratory and
dialectic, covering all the ground ever traversed
in previous Congresses and much that was new
on the homestead, came during that restless,
bitter, hysterical Congress (1860) when the
very heart of the nation was heavy with emo
tion and the body politic strained to the break
ing of endurance. As the homestead theme
evolved, the background became more effec
tive and complex.
At Grow's urging, Owen Lovejoy, who was
now chairman of the House Committee on
Public Lands, reported out the Homestead Bill
early. The House was strongly, in favor of the
measure, but its old foes still tried to table it

A STATES' RIGHTS PLAN 205
at its third reading. They failed and it passed
without debate, the same simple measure em
bracing 1,400,000,000 broad acres, purposing
to encourage and protect settlement and as
suming unquestionable authority in the Na
tional Government to dispose of land for in
ternal improvement.
Grow knew that the test of real principles
was due, for the Democrats in the Senate con
tinued to crack the whip. It was a dilemma
with branched horns that had to be faced.
Upon the upholding of States' rights rested
questions of allowing capitalists to become
land barons, of the maintenance of a traditional
source of government revenue, and of expan
sion of slavery into the new terrain. Upon the
recognition of federal powers rested the estab
lishment of a highly socialized method of land
partition among individuals; of the creation of
a far greater income by investment in popula
tion; and greatest of all. Freedom.
Johnson had introduced his own measure
into the Senate, and debate was somewhat
advanced when the House bill arrived. As
a member of the Democratic Committee on
Public Lands he had influence on Grow's
proposal. By some accident or intention the

206 GALUSHA A. GROW
condition in which this bill was reported out
was obscure. Wade at once asked that the cus
tomary courtesy of immediate consideration be
shown the House measure and gave reasons for
preferring it. Johnson protested, this time at
giving precedence.
Wade did not know it, but he had been fore
stalled anyhow. Johnson, sure that he had the
not entirely disfavoring eyes of Southern Dem
ocrats on his measure at last, since the Senators
from the old States had received specific in
structions from their districts to sustain re
medial legislation of some sort, wished quite
naturally to dictate what compromise, if any,
should be made, and to be identified with the
measure which passed. He was sincerely inter
ested, too, in harmonizing sectional opinions.
He held that the Union was indissoluble, —
a remarkable opinion for a man of the South,
— but he was also convinced that the Con
stitution secured to States certain rights as
well. Asserting that the powers of the Federal
Government must be circumscribed, he natu
rally had no marked sympathy for Grow's bill.
Therefore his committee had emasculated it
before reporting; had struck out the body of
the House proposition and substituted their

A STATES' RIGHTS PLAN 207
own. The two bills were now identical, so that
it would appear that there remained only the
question of order which should first be consid
ered. Wade, when he discovered what had been
done, lost no time in defeating this attempt to
annul Grow's measure. He called the Senate's
attention to the fact that it now became a ques
tion of agreeing to the amendment and that
the friends of the Grow bill, which meant all
Republicans, should vote against it. After a
little discussion he moved, in retaliation, to
strike out the body of the Senate measure and
substitute the House bill.
At this point rose up his colleague and his
pet detestation, George E, Pugh, follower of
Andrew Johnson, to pour oil on troubled
waters — his habit, most objectionable from
Wade's point of view, but in this instance not
unuseful, Pugh thought, by way of striking a
bargain, that it would be better to consider
the Grow bill as it had come from the House,
without amendment, and so leave the Senate
measure in its present status. Upon this con
sideration Wade withdrew his motion.
Always, in this phase of the homestead's
career. Wade and Pugh faced each other like

208 GALUSHA A, GROW
opposing lawyers in a sensational case. Wade
thought Pugh the most noted "doughface" in
the upper House, in constant collusion with
Southern sympathizers. "Old Ben Wade" was
himself as loyal as a watchdog, and he disliked
indirection. Once, when he was particularly
tried with Pugh, he exclaimed to Grow, "When
listening to the Senator from my State I have
wondered why the God Almighty did not make
some persons spaniels instead of men ! "
Pugh's judgment, however colored, was fre
quently astute, and his settlement in this case
made the condition of both bills interesting.
The presiding officer stated that as motions
had now been made to strike out the body
of each bill and amend with the other, both
would be open to amendment before the vote
was taken on substituting one for the other,
Pugh knew that this was Senate practice, al
though not necessarily good, and it had the
advantage of keeping the matter fluid tempo
rarily. In only one particular did Pugh take
exception to the Johnson plan; he said that in
regard to admission of immigrants it was not
even so liberal as the preemption laws; in this
alone did he stand with Wade,
Johnson was roused by Wade's vigorous

A STATES' RIGHTS PLAN 209
leadership, well planned to make him a deal
of trouble. With devotion to his own bill he
declared feelingly that it held the first princi
ples of government, was founded on states
manship, humanity, and even Christianity
itself. From his point of view, as that of the
best States' rights men, it would strengthen,
not weaken, the bonds of the Union! He be
lieved that a limited homestead operation
would secure a better voting population and
that the assurance of land to the hitherto un-
propertied would make a large difference in
the attitude of the country toward slavery,
because "just as soon as men become inter
ested in property so will they become recon
ciled to the institutions of property." He de
clared that all that was really material was
contained in the measure he advanced, and
that any friend of the homestead principle,
when he could get the substance of that propo
sition, was not acting in good faith if he gave
to the bill that direction which would defeat it.
He championed it as a proposal which was not
sectional. He wanted to be sustained in his
proposal to strike out all after the enacting
clause in Grow's bill and substitute his own.
His argument, while charmingly delivered.

210 GALUSHA A. GROW
was, as we have seen, not justified so far as the
true homestead character of the measure and
the basic intent of federal improvement was
concerned. However, at this juncture came a
warning. Green, of Indiana, who was known
to be in touch with the President, declared
that it made no difference which bill was con
sidered, as neither would become a law until
the President had signed it — a veto hint — al
though he disclaimed authority — which was
disquieting to both factions. Green himself
was reactionary, a preemptioner who wanted
strengthening of these laws alone. He said
that the Graduation Law intended to benefit
the new States had proved a curse to all States;
and he fought both homestead propositions,
particularly upon the ground that the Govern
ment had no right to exempt lands from taxa
tion after donation.
Furious discussion jerked the House meas
ure all over the field. "Nationalism is a dis
ease from which we are all suffering!" cried
a Southerner in exasperation. "The Govern
ment should have its patronage and land
offices broken up. Land should be under the
disposition of the States alone!" Upon this
psychological cue a substitute for both bills

A STATES' RIGHTS PLAN 211
was submitted which would have ceded the
lands to the States, reinforcing a resolution
to that effect already in.
Senator Doolittle, of Wisconsin, fatefuUy
dumped much fat on the fire. He blew might
ily on the flaming hatreds which were consum
ing the upper House, He injected red-hot
abolition coals beneath his new fuel. He turned
the attention of the South to the traditional
"cuUud pusson" who inhabit the national
woodpile. He suggested that homesteads be
given to negroes in the South, He blithely sub
mitted his views as to the settlement of the
whole race problem, outlining the three solu
tions offered up to that time. The first was
the unconditional emancipation of slaves "by
force, it may be, to remain on a footing of equal
ity with the white race." The second, which
might be termed "the solution of Southern fa
naticism," looked to the acquisition of Cuba,
Mexico, Central America — in fact, to all
tropical America and the reopening of the
slave trade. So, he said, planned slave propa
gandists or "Knights of the Golden Circle,"
The third, which he deemed the only wise and
practical one, proposed by Jefferson, concurred
in and sustained by Washington, Madison,

212 GALUSHA A. GROW
Clay, and Jackson, looked to the time when
the colonization and deportation of the eman
cipated race should take place.
He used such unfortunate expressions as
that he was "utterly opposed to the amalga
mation of races," and discussing at length the
Dred Scott decision, declared that it did not
establish the right to extend slavery, which was
a Southern claim. Worst of all, supposedly
arguing for the Homestead Bill, he called it "a
measure of empire," maintaining that without
the negro question it must be easily settled.
"A measure of empire!" It was the phrase
of the session. The South caught it up as
a gauntlet flung down. Antagonistic spirits
in the Democratic ranks seized upon Doolit-
tle's haphazard, preposterous, but impressive
speech as the real feeling of the North. It was
Mason, firebrand from Virginia, who flared at
once, replying rapidly that the Senator from
Wisconsin had shed a great deal of light on the
subject when he showed the Homestead Bill
as a means by which the North intended to
assure itself "command and control of the des
tinies of the continent. ... It is part of this
'measure of empire' to connect, as belonging
indissolubly to it, the whole slavery question

A STATES' RIGHTS PLAN 213
with the homestead policy." He boldly inti
mated that the North was trying to sequester
territory so that the South, which would never
learn to farm upon one hundred and sixty
acres, would be defrauded of its share of the
Western land of promise. He apparently
arraigned Johnson as much as Grow, calling
the Tennesseean's attention to the fact that
his bill was being used by the North; and,
exploding with passion, declared that in this
proposal to give land to the landless and pro
viding homes for men "who will never occupy
them" was concealed "a political engine and a
potent one" for a battering attack upon the
very existence of the South.
The air was charged with electrical antipa
thies. Despite the fact that he did not approve
at all of rampant attitudes and bitter speeches,
fearful lest they should react to defeat his pur
pose, Johnson commented tartly: "Round
and round this slavery agitation have we gone
until our heads are reeling and our stomachs
sick. ... If some Senator from the South were
to introduce the Lord's Prayer or . . . the Ten
Commandments for consideration, some one
would find a negro in it somewhere!"
Continuing sarcastically that he was grati-

214 GALUSHA A. GROW
fied to hear the Senator from Virginia confess
that for once at least since he had been in the
Senate he had had a flood of hght shed on
his mind, Johnson devoted himself to showing
that Mason, opposing the homestead now, had
voted without prejudice for a territorial home
stead grant for Kansas and Nebraska in 1854;
and furthermore that he had permitted the act
to pass in bad English. Whereupon Mason,
not denying the impeachment, interjected a
comment that he would admit that the bad
English was a mistake! In a continued en
deavor to undo the evil effects of the Doolittle-
Mason type of speech Johnson made numerous
controversial statements. He quoted the Presi
dent in favor of immigration and regretted
that the measure should be taking a party
direction, declaring that the homestead idea
was Democratic and could not be claimed by
Republicans, The facts did not justify this. The measure
had no party color until 1853; then, as is shown
by Grow's position in the House, it was dis
tinctively Free-Soil Democratic until that fac
tion split from the organization and formed the
Republican Party, after which time the Demo
crats became strongly anti-homestead. Now,

A STATES' RIGHTS PLAN 215
at least, after arduous work to postpone defini
tion of a land pohcy year after year, the dis
concerting success of Republicanism caused
Democrats to see that settlement of the issue
was not only poUtic but imperative. They
must to the rightabout !
The effect, to use Viscount Bryce's descrip
tion of a later parallel situation, was similar
to having the Jews enter singing "Onward!
Christian soldiers!" But the land question
having now become a sectional question, the
Democrats were greatly puzzled. The wise
among them knew that with feeling at heat
it was by no means the best time to demand
the total programme they wished to execute.
They would have preferred partial, temporiz
ing measures; but the situation pressed them
hard. Pugh proposed to try out the sentiment of
the Senate by a motion to strike out the enact
ing clause of Grow's bill. This failed; the con
servative Democrats resolved to take matters
into their own hands, Robert W, Johnson, of
Arkansas, astute politician, now as in 1854,
mouthpiece of the stand-patters of the party,
came forward. He moved that both measures
be referred to the Committee on Public Lands,

216 GALUSHA A, GROW
with definite directions to report back with
recommendations at an early date.
Wade was watching closely: every inch of
congressional rope was under dispute and ev
ery advantage must be conserved. But it was
soon clear that the proposal was made in
good faith, and knowing that the Democrats
had the whip hand anyhow, and that his mi
nority position was only strong enough to ob
struct or eventually perhaps to effect a com
promise, he deemed it wise to acquiesce in
the arrangement.
Promptly the committee came in to report.
Both Johnsons were on it. Andrew Johnson
took occasion to say that the bill which they
were bringing in "had passed through an
ordeal to which in all his experience he had
never seen the equal." They brought back
neither the Senate nor House measure, but a
compromise, Robert Johnson, very proud, stated that he
believed that they had obtained what he had
not thought it possible to attain, a point in
common between the two parties while Gover
nor Johnson preserved his idea; that it would
be satisfactory not only to the old States, but
to the population and those in charge of the

A STATES' RIGHTS PLAN 217
Government itself, since (in distinction from
Grow's bill) it was a measure productive of
order and symmetry in all its connection with
the land system.
There is no doubt that with every sincerity
the two Johnsons had tried to settle this mat
ter, although they could not avoid the twists
of their own bias. Andrew Johnson knew that
the chances of passage were precarious unless
he left the terms of compromise largely in the
hands of the other Johnson, Robert Johnson,
with his convictions, probably could not see
that there was every reason of expediency
and ultimate principle why the measure they
brought in could not be acceptable to true
homesteaders. His own exposition of it showed
that it was a plausible further approach, more
grasping than the Senate bill, to what the
South had most at heart, the strengthening
of States' rights — not even an approximation
of what the House wanted, but a retrogression
from it. The main intent was concealed in its
final section. First a graduation of the price of
lands was maintained, homesteads were offered
only in 60,000,000 acres already surveyed ; a
totally new provision never before incorporated
in any bill required the President to expose all

218 GALUSHA A. GROW
public lands at auction two years after their
survey ; finally, it was provided that title to the
entire remaining commonage was to pass after
thirty years to the States.
Fight was resumed at once. Grow's friends
were astonished and not very hopeful. Amend
ments, however, cut the air Hke razors at a
traditional darky celebration. Circumlocution
prevailed until Republicans could best see how
to move. One of the serious objections on the
score of expediency was that the committee
of Democrats, believing that preemptors had
already been indulged and desiring to show
them no favor, had decided squatters should
pay full price for the lands, although they were
to be allowed a credit of two years. It was in
adequate provision. Hosts were already at the
West. A thousand persons every day crossed
the Missouri to select home spots from the gap
ing lands beyond.
Douglas, true to his instinct, proposed to
take a politicianly middle of the road. He was
in favor of some price attaching, but he sub
mitted an amendment to enlarge the compro
mise to include sale of all lands subject to pre
emption, so that the agricultural section of the
whole domain would be thrown open as needed

A STATES' RIGHTS PLAN 219
and the preemptor might buy on the same
terms as the settler, at twenty-five cents an
acre, something more valuable than "practi
cally worthless knobs and swamps," but the
speculator would still have to pay a dollar and
a quarter an acre.
Johnson of Arkansas, the chief exponent
and defender of his own compromise, fought
Douglas vigorously, displaying the limitations
of his sympathy. A scattering of our popula
tion over an immense surface, an unnatural
stimulus to immigration, a disarrangement of
the progress of public surveys, — these and
many other objections he urged. "What," he
demanded also, "is the responsibility of this
Government when, by this same policy, down
goes the value of railroad grants upon which
the States have contracted heavy debts, and
what assistance will the pubUc lands be to the
Pacific Railroad?"
Jefferson Davis also spoke against Douglas's
plan significantly and brilliantly, defining the
two great principles, as he saw them, running
through our land policy; first to abridge as
much as possible the period within which the
Federal Government should exercise control
over land within the States; second, to hasten

220 GALUSHA A. GROW
the development of the new country. We were,
in his view, about to depart from the principle
upon which the preemption system rested,
reverting to the idea of eventual state owner
ship, which would make the adoption of
Douglas's amendment a fatal mistake! It did
not pass.
In spite of the body of Democrats favoring
the committee compromise. Mason, still ran-
cored, expressed the opinion of the extreme
Southern opposition when he bewailed the fact
that the Senate compromise was only better
than the Grow bill because it preserved "some
wretched form of constitutional right — all
that seemed to be left of the Constitution, as
its substance was gone."
Wade still had it in his mind to call up the
old House bill. A vote was approaching on
the somewhat amended compromise when
he moved to strike out all after the enacting
clause and substitute Grow's bill. Andrew
Johnson appealed to him to withdraw the mo
tion; Senators did not want to put themselves
on record as altogether against the House
provisions, and although personally he would
have liked the compromise to be more liberal,
the thing to do was to get a vote. Johnson did

A STATES' RIGHTS PLAN 221
not ask, "What is ideal?" but, "What are we
sure to get? " Wade insisted, anxious for a test
of strength. The motion failed; but all the
voting about this time was exceedingly close.
An attempt to strike out section eleven,
ceding the lands to States, also failed, but the
South did not feel any too well enforced with
votes. There was an unusual to-do about
absentees. The House has a "call" for occa
sions when the attendance is bad; the Senate
was obliged to move that the Sergeant-at-
Arms "request" the presence of Senate mem
bers. That such a motion passed now was
evidence of sheer nervous tension and deep
watchfulness. Wade once more made a valiant attempt to
get what he called a "homestead" bill, but
unavailingly. Although not very many votes
were needed to carry it and Wade was some
what inclined to fight for a postponement until
the next session, the general opinion was that
the Senate bill had better be accepted even at
its worst because the need for some united
action between the North and South was so
desperate. Although the compromise was not
satisfactory, the anxiety concerning peace and
incidentally the modicum of actual relief for

222 GALUSHA A. GROW
settlers caused many Senators to feel that it
was best to vote in favor of it.
The compromise passed. Jefferson Davis
made clear acknowledgment that the measure
had become almost devoid of its homestead
idea. He suggested that the title be changed to
"A bill amendatory of the several acts for the
disposal of the public domain and to perfect
the existing system thereof." Andrew John
son, however, wished to retain the homestead
caption, and out of deference to him Davis's
exact description was not applied.
The changeling measure went to the House
for action (May 21). There followed an out-
and-out quarrel between the two branches of
Congress. Grow did not wish to submit to this
successful maneuver by the opposition, and the
House returned the bill to the Senate amended
to its original form. It was kept waiting some
little time, and then the Senate refused to con
cur. "You shall take what we sent you!" said
they. The House still refused, and on May 30
sent a message to the Senate that they insisted
on the amendments, but asked for a committee
of conference. The Senate retorted that it in
sisted on its disagreements, but appointed the
two Johnsons and Harlan as conferees.

A STATES' RIGHTS PLAN 223
Grow, Thomas, and Lovejoy were the three
appointed by the House. The resulting meet
ings were not marked by harmony! Andrew
Johnson quite well understood the attitude
of the Repubhcans and was temperamentally
suited to arbitration. But Johnson of Arkan
sas, the framer of the States' rights substitute,
had no sympathy whatever with Grow, and
to him the demands of the House members for
their own sort of a measure seemed entirely
exacting and intolerant. He declared with
the injustice of heat that they must have the
intent of coercing the President to veto the
measure for its political effect. This was not
true, but Grow was not happy — Robert
Johnson was always getting in his way !
Possibly personal contact made the tug of
war between the two ideas at stake unbearable.
Grow reported to the House, at any rate, that
after "full and free " conference the committee
had separated without coming to any agree
ment. In the Senate Andrew Johnson did like
wise, stating that if the House wanted another
conference they must ask for it. Thereupon the
House, insisting on its disagreement, did ask
for another conference, and Grow significantly
suggested the appointment of new conferees.

224 GALUSHA A. GROW
The second delegation still could not reach
an agreement, and June 15 again so reported.
With the exception of Andrew Johnson the
personnel of the conference committee was
once more changed, and the third conference
sat. After twelve meetings of three different
excited conferences, Colfax reported to the
House and Johnson to the Senate on June 19
that the committee had finally agreed.
In brief, the Senate yielded only in minor
matters, although some of these were impor
tant. The upper House maintained its position
in regard to the ultimate absorption of the
domain by the States and the graduated price
of lands. The main concessions which the
Senate yielded were the enlargement of the
scope of the area to include all odd-numbered
sections of the surveyed domain which had
not been open to public sale. Heads of families
after five years' occupancy were allowed to
purchase quarter-sections at twenty-five cents
an acre. Instead of the full price of lands,
preSmptors were to get them at half price —
sixty-two and a half cents — after free ten
ancy for six months. The clause which made
it imperative upon the President to expose all
unsurveyed lands to sale within two years

A STATES' RIGHTS PLAN 225
after survey (which would have been particu
larly advantageous to experienced buyers with
cash and eventually to the States) was struck
out. "Half a loaf is better than no bread," said
Grow resignedly. He had to remember that
bills are usually sad compromises; but he was
very emphatic to his friends, when the House
consented to pass this tmsatisfactory substi
tute, that he would have the measure up for
amendment if the President signed it.
Nor was the Senate content! Johnson of
Arkansas protested that he would never have
voted for it if it had been proposed as amended.
Because the House got its half loaf thereby!
It went to the President. Here lay a chance
to heal the breach. Everybody waited anx
iously. As usual it returned with Buchanan's
veto. As Green had intimated, the President
probably would have negatived it in any shape.
His timidity in doing even that which his party
approved is characteristic. On the same
grounds that he had earlier objected to the
turnover of swamp lands, he opposed this. The
present transfer of twelve million acres of the
domain to the States and the involved further
transfer of much more later disquieted him.

226 GALUSHA A. GROW
Grow, analyzing the President's veto, found
that in general none of his reasons for refusal
were well taken. Constitutional reasons were
outworn traditions. Buchanan charged that
the bill would prove unjust and unequal in op
eration among the actual settlers themselves,
yet the only support for his argument was his
belief that the Government might not reduce
the price of property without refunding to the
first buyers. There was no defense for his plea
of injustice to old soldiers; warrants had been
made assignable and the Government's obli
gation was practically void. Equally his pro
tests against class legislation, injustice to me
chanics, and discrimination between persons
claiming the benefit of the preemption laws
were insupportable in fair argument.
His idea that the bill would open a vast field
for speculation while laying the axe at the
root of "our present admirable land system"
— when one knows the facts about that land
system — was not destined to increase one's
admiration for the logic of him who advanced
it. The remaining criticisms were no more
competent: that the bill was not consistent
with the duty of maintaining perfect equality
between the native-born and the naturalized

A STATES' RIGHTS PLAN 227
citizen, and that it would have a restrictive
effect on public revenues. Even the enemies
of the act had shown that direct revenues must
increase, since land was not to be a gift but
simply reduced in price, and to be abandoned
to the States as worthless at the end of thirty
years if it was not then sold. The truth was
that Buchanan was unwilling to act at all. His
alignment with the most reactionary among
the Democrats made him blind to the last real
opportunity to call a halt in the ominous
march of affairs by effecting a change in the
land situation,
Andrew Johnson, in the Senate, in his usual
calm way declared that his opinion upon the
measure was not in the least affected by the
decision of the President and that he stilll be
lieved in the bill. Wade attempted to bring
the proposition up for another vote so that it
might be passed over the veto, but he was
defeated by Johnson of Arkansas, who could
prevent a two-thirds vote.
In retrospect it seems marvelously lucky
that Buchanan did not see his blunder. It was
only by so narrow a fluke that the South lost
this trick and we were spared acknowledgment
of States' rights. Repeal or amendment after

228 GALUSHA A. GROW
a law is once through is not always possible
with party changes, and this act would have
been particularly difficult to alter in principle.
Circumstanced as we were, no general land
system favorable to federal development could
have grown from it, and what little tempo
rary good could have been derived would have
been heavily overshadowed by the harm to
our developing democracy.

CHAPTER Xra
MEN AND MEASURES
These were years of ripening friendships for
Grow, despite the bitter antagonisms engen
dered by measures. He numbered among his
good friends sundry Southern leaders as well
as some of the most bitter of abolitionists
— Benjamin, Houston, Crittenden, Stephen
MaUory, Hamilton Fish, James Harlan, and
Charles Sumner.
"Judah P. Benjamin was one of the ablest
lawyers I have ever met," runs an autobio
graphical note. "His powers of persuasion
were very great. He and Jefferson Davis and
Robert Toombs, the 'Big Three' of the South
ern Democracy, led the entire Senatorial force
hither and thither just as they desired," Grow
considered Benjamin the brainiest man from
the South while he sat in the Senate, Toombs
the most irascible and vindictive, and Davis
sly as a fox and smooth as silk, brilliant and
in some ways a very strong man despite a
supercilious manner which drove men from

230 GALUSHA A. GROW
him so that he lived without many warm and
genial friends.
In the House, the coming back of Thaddeus
Stevens, the great commoner from his own
State, meant a great deal to Mr, Grow, whose
especial group immediately surrounded him.
In spite of the fact that he entered Congress
at a time when strong men were plentiful,
Stevens won fame and became a leader
quickly, and later, through innate ability and
remarkable personality, rose to mastership.
His keen wit served him equally well in argu
ment or emergency, and his remorselessness as
an antagonist caused his sarcasm to be ever
dreaded by his opponents. Grow long after
wards used to tell of the famous occasion when
Kellian V. Whaley interrupted Stevens in the
midst of an important argument and Stevens
turned fiercely on him, saying, "I yield to the
gentleman from West Virginia for a few feeble
remarks." The general uproar which followed
this sally drowned Mr. Whaley.
Stevens was feared by many, hated by some,
loved by a few; but a little band, Elihu Wash
burne, Owen Lovejoy, John A. Logan, Henry
Winter Davis, Anson Burhngame, Francis E.
Spinner, Roscoe Conkling, Reuben E. Fenton,

MEN AND MEASURES 231
John Sherman, Justin S, Morrill, John Covode,
and Horace Maynard were as devoted to him
as any knights ever were to their king, Ver-
monter by birth, he possessed aggressive power
and sterling qualities of frankness and honesty.
A graduate of Dartmouth, he practiced law
and served in the Pennsylvania Legislature
before coming to Congress, Originally a Whig,
he joined the Republican Party early and be
came a violent radical, moved to extremes be
cause he abhorred weak-kneed conservatism.
Grow himself, less radical, was still likely
to engage in controversies. Upon one occasion
in 1859 when the Senate added to the post-
office appropriation bill a new provision regu
lating the rate of postage, voicing the feeling
of many members who considered this an in
fringement of the right of the House to origi
nate all revenue measures. Grow took a strong
stand. The House sustained him and the bill
failed. At the following session L, O, Branch,
of North Carolina, whose antagonism had long
been unconcealed, charged Grow with killing
the post-office bill in order to compel an extra
session of the Thirty-seventh Congress, which
would give the Republicans control of the
House,

232 GALUSHA A, GROW
Grow took the floor on the 29th of December
in answer to the charge. He sharply chal
lenged: "Had the gentleman from North
Carolina been as familiar with constitutional
law and parliamentary procedure as his long
experience in legislation would have led us to
suppose, he could have found sufficient and
abundant reasons to justify my conduct and
that of a majority of the House without vio
lating all parliamentary and gentlemanly cour
tesies that are recognized in all deliberative
bodies by impugning the motives of his peers,
and charging sordid and selfish considerations
as the moving cause of our actions."
Branch sprang to his feet and cried, "Does
the gentleman's language impute to me any
conduct that is not gentlemanly? "
Grow arose amid profound silence. The
crowd in the packed galleries leaned forward
to catch his words. He remained thoughtful
for a moment and then, in a firm voice, said:
"What I said is plain English and there it
stands. Impugnment of motives in a legisla
tive body is everywhere regarded not only as
unparliamentary, but as ungentlemanly,"
"I shall take your words as an affirmative
answer," cried Branch,

MEN AND MEASURES 233
"The gentleman from North Carolina may
take what he pleases, but I shall take nothing
back!" retorted Grow, resuming his seat.
Branch paled with anger at this reply. In
a moment he motioned his colleague, Warren
Winslow, to his side and requested him to take
a challenge to Grow. When the challenge was
presented. Grow promptly replied, "Regard
ing dueling as at variance with the precepts
of the Christian religion and the sentiments of
a Christian people, and it being prohibited and
declared a crime by laws enacted by the body
of which we are members, I cannot recognize
it, even in cases of unwarranted provocation,
as a justifiable mode of settling difficulties
among men. But my personal rights and the
freedom of debate guaranteed by the Consti
tution I shall defend whenever they are as
sailed." With this flat refusal. Branch had a right
under the code to attack Grow at any time
or place, and the latter's friends felt certain
that an encounter would ensue, as the South
erner was fearless, vindictive, and a devotee
of dueling.
At this time Grow lived on Seventh Street
and took his meals at the National Hotel, then

234 GALUSHA A. GROW
called Brown's Tavern. His intimate friends,
fearing he might be attacked on his way to
breakfast the next morning, assembled at his
rooms to escort him to the hotel. Among them
were Ben Wade, Lyman Trumbull, Reuben E.
Fenton, and John F. Potter, Grow entered his
parlor half-clad, surprised to see so many call
ers at such an early hour, and asked, "Gen
tlemen, what does this mean? "
Senator Wade replied, " We have come to
escort you to breakfast and to protect you from
North Carolina lead,"
Grow laughingly retorted: "Why, gentle
men, I do not need an army to take me to
coffee and bread. Give me John Potter. He
has killed his grizzly and is a battalion in him
self. We can take care of the enemy whenever
and wherever he may attack."
Potter agreed to act as bodyguard and the
rest left. Then arm in arm Potter and Grow,
both armed with revolvers and Potter with
his traditional bowie, set forth down Seventh
Street, On the way to the Tavern Grow in
quired, "Potter, what does your wife say of
your volunteering to protect your friends from
assault? "
"Oh," replied Potter, "she told me the other

MEN AND MEASURES 235
day that if some one is to be killed in this cause
it might as well be me as any one!"
They entered the tavern and from there
went to the House, but neither Branch nor his
second was in evidence, and in a short time
the atmosphere of immediate uncertainty and
danger cleared, and Branch was again on
speaking terms with Grow.
One of Grow's homely sayings shows his phi
losophy in all such dilemmas. "You've got to
keep your spine right!" he would comment,
when stanch, resolute adherence to a position
was called for.
Of the other men of Grow's immediate group
none played a more important part than Cor
win, whose sterling qualities and fearlessness
Grow greatly admired. He had come to Con
gress in 1859, having previously served in the
House and Senate, where he had exercised a
marked influence on legislation even as early as
the Mexican War against which he made a cele
brated speech.
Grow, whose own mind was of something
of the same bent, considered Corwin's kind-
heartedness and sympathy somewhat excep
tional. "I have seen him," he recounted, "step out

236 GALUSHA A. GROW
and roundly lecture a man who was beating
his horses. He was against whipping-posts,
and while he was in the Ohio Legislature he
spoke in favor of repealing a measure in which
the sheriff was authorized to punish certain
prisoners for minor offenses by 'putting thirty-
nine lashes on the back of the culprit.' An old
Connecticut Yankee who had settled in the
Western Reserve objected to the repeal on the
ground that in Connecticut a similar law ex
isted and when applied resulted usually in
driving the offender from the community.
Corwin retorted: 'I have often tried to find
out why there had been such an influx of Con
necticut Yankees into this State. The gentle
man, formerly a resident of the Nutmeg State,
has explained it to my complete satisfaction.' "
With the best of good humor between the
two friends, that dark chapter of history which
preceded Mr. Lincoln's accession to the Presi
dency, since effaced from popular memory by
the mighty events which followed it, brought
a strong need of mutual support. Corwin was
the drafter of an amendment to the Constitu
tion which passed Congress in the last days
of Buchanan's term, providing that slavery
should never be interfered with in any State

MEN AND MEASURES 237
where it then existed. Grow naturally did not
favor this final peace offering to the South,
but in view of the terrible, dissentient state of
public feeling considered it justified.
The Democratic split, which resulted in the
Northern wing putting up Douglas and the
Southern Breckinridge for President, had lost
them the election. Lincoln, Republican candi
date, had a large plurality of both the electoral
and popular votes, but the two Democratic
factions combined polled nearly four hundred
thousand more votes than he, while over a
haff-million votes were cast for Bell, the candi
date of the old Know-Nothings and the Whigs
who had not yet allied themselves with either
Republicans or Democrats — a state of affairs
which prompted the charge that Lincoln was
a "minority President," and led secessionists
to call him even a "usurper." Called to the
chief magistracy of the nation on the issue of
"Free Homes for Free Men," no sooner was
his election assured than a convention was held
in South Carolina to pass an ordinance of se
cession. Intense excitement prevailed through
out the country: every one felt the stress of
coming storm.
President Buchanan's hopelessly unsatis-

238 GALUSHA A. GROW
factory Message when Congress convened in
December, the utterance of a halting, unde
cided man, was significant only in its final, de
spairing appeal for conciliation. Committees
in both Houses were formed to frame compro
mise measures, with a Democratic member
ship of thirteen in the Senate (to represent the
original thirteen States) and one of thirty-
three in the House (to represent the number
then in the Union), and of the latter Corwin
was chairman. The Senate committee failed
to agree; but Corwin reported a scheme pro
viding, among other things, for the abolition of
personal liberty laws of the Northern States;
for the admission of New Mexico as a State;
for the amendment of the fugitive slave laws
so that the right of freedom of an alleged fugi
tive should be determined by a court of the
State from which he was fleeing instead of by
a tribunal of the State where he was caught;
and for the amendment, which Corwin drafted,
declaring that "no amendment shall be made
to the Constitution which will authorize or
give to Congress the power to abolish or inter
fere in any State with the domestic institutions
thereof, including that of persons held to labor
or service by the laws of said State." And this

MEN AND MEASURES 239
was to be the Thirteenth Amendment of the
Constitution !
The bill was passed by the House, where
there was a Republican majority, by a vote of
133 to 65 on the last day of February in 1861.
Grow, indignant at the attempt to take Wash
ington and declare Jefferson Davis President
for the time being; also at other exposed
intrigues and the conspiracy against Lincoln
which had made the President's journey to the
Capitol perilous, still supported the bill. At
heart he would have preferred that the North
should not bend its back in obedience to be
lated pacific motives, but it seemed to most
Repubhcans that the war must be stopped at
price of any reasonable compromise; and Cor
win's influence on Grow was strong.
Fort Moultrie had already been evacuated;
insurrection had already begun. He supposed,
however, in spite of this, that the Southern
leaders might accept the advantage so oppor
tunely given them; in his eyes if the South did
not, it would be making a grave tactical blun
der. By acquiescing promptly in this settle
ment they would secure an advantage of con
clusive value and confirm, past all possible
chance of future disturbance, the existence of

240 GALUSHA A. GROW
slavery in all Southern States. They might
have perpetuated the institution without firing
a gun if they had improved the opportunity
thus presented.
But the poison of secession had laid hold of
them. The compromise came too late. The
Buchanan Administration, apparently dream
ing on in treasonable repose, had mysteriously
moved men and munitions. The army had
been scattered as far as possible so that they
were unavailable in an emergency. Ships had
been ordered to distant points where they could
not be of immediate use. The Treasury had
been depleted; arms stored for national defense
had been secretly disposed of. Yet, believi..^
Buchanan paralyzed by vacillation and indif
ference, the North was not yet aroused to the
true condition of things.
The Senate, during the night preceding
March 4, adopted the Corwin measure, and
the President signed it only an hour before
the inauguration of his successor. Grow was
deeply concerned, but fortunately the pro
posed surrender of all the principles for which
the North was soon to fight was not consum
mated. Only two States ever took action on
the matter, for there the undertaking was

IMEN AND MEASURES 241
stopped by the war. Instead, troops were hur
ried into the field and the clash of arms silenced
politicians who were willing that "slavery
should become immortal." For the first time
"the oppressors and not the oppressed re^^
belled." Lincoln, assuming control of national affairs,
warning seceding States in his famous inaugu
ral address against further violence, was an
swered by Sumter, where the flag, fired upon,
went down in ruined battlements. He called
for seventy-five thousand volunteers and three
hundred thousand responded. The voluntary
military organization known as the "Clay
Brigade" was armed to protect the capital.
Grow, with many other Northern and Western
members of Congress, joined it and served
until the Massachusetts and New York vol
unteers, under General Benjamin F. Butler,
arrived by way of Annapolis and took charge
of Washington.
Then events absorbed Grow: the Sixth
Massachusetts in trying to pass through Bal
timore was mobbed; Ellsworth, the brilliant
commander of the Zouaves, was assassinated
while trying to haul down the rebel flag in
Alexandria; the battle of Big Bethel was fought

242 GALUSHA A. GROW
and lost; and at last the country awoke to
the realization that "the irrepressible conflict"
had arrived, and grim determination seized
the North that come what might the Union
must be preserved. Troops began to move
faster. A regiment from Pennsylvania came to
Washington. Grow took a company from his
own district up to see the President. Lincoln
came out, busy as he was. He stopped, looked
about, put his hand behind him and said,
"When I get this handkerchief out of this coat-
tail pocket, I intend to shake hands with you
boys!" After something of a tussle he found
the handkerchief and genially took them in
turn. There never was a time in our history when
policies and men meant so much, and Grow
put every bit of his dynamic force into effort
to help where he might. Information coming
his way which he felt might aid the Adminis
tration, he felt it was a duty to pass on to the
proper authorities. He knew Simon Cameron,
from his own State; had been thrown some
what closely with him, Cameron's term in the
Senate would expire several years later, but
Lincoln had taken him from the Senate and

MR. GROW READING HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY ON HIS VERANDA AT GLENWOOD

MEN AND MEASURES 243
made him his first Secretary of War. From the
first Cameron seemed to have misfortune: he
could not bring about results. The lagging
condition of affairs seemed to augur disaster
to the Government, Grow felt constrained to
write him frankly, and sent the following letter,
which was fraught with many results for its
writer: — Glenwood, Pa., May 5, 1861.
Hon. Simon Cameron,
Secretary of War.
My nEAR Sib: —
Reached home last night by way of New York.
You have no conception of feeling, universal in the
Northern mind, for the prosecution of war until
the flag floats from every spot on which it had a
right to float a year ago. If the Administration
fails to prosecute the war to that end, it will sink
in the popular heart below that of the Buchanan
Administration. There is but one feeling with all
classes, parties, and sects — that is, that the rebels
must lay down their arms everywhere and the
Union of the States be restored before this conflict
closes. There is great dissatisfaction in New York
at the ordering of General Wool back to Troy,
instead of acknowledging his services at the very
critical point of time when all communications
with Washington were cut off. For four or five
days they heard nothing from Washington and no
one received any orders. It would be well if you
could devise some way to have all men that offer

244 GALUSHA A. GROW
their services received, but detained, however, in
the States until they are called for. The men who
have left their business cannot wait long without
pay from some source. In my judgment the enthu
siasm of the hour ought not to be repressed by flat
refusals on the part of the Government. Let the
men be held in the States. The people of New
York and other cities are very impatient for Bal
timore to be opened, and on the rumor that the
Government would not invade Virginia they were
perfectly indignant, and I wish to say to you that
if the Government adopts that policy a universal exe
cration will go up from the North and you will he
as powerless in thirty days as you are now powerful.
I saw many of the solid men of New York, and
they will embark their all ia this contest provided
the Administration will prosecute it to the bitter
end if need be, to quell the insurrection so that no
madcap will ever try the experiment again.
I beg your pardon for trespassing so long upon
your attention. My object is briefly to assure you
that any measures if efficient, no matter what the
cost is of prosecuting the war, would be more satis
factory if they had the foregoing results.
Most truly yours,
Galusha A. Grow.

Perhaps Grow trusted to a more complete
understanding of his motives and a more defi
nite friendliness than existed. Prompted purely
by patriotism, he wrote as he always spoke,
directly to the person concerned, and without

MEN AND MEASURES 245
effort at diplomacy. The Republic was passing
through a terrible ordeal. Grow was soon to
know that he had not gauged his man; Cam
eron did not take kindly to his advice. Grow
was to find out that Cameron had a long
memory and forgave slowly if at all.

CHAPTER XIV
the speakership
Lincoln's sublime determination to save the
Union was immediately felt. He called to
gether the Thirty-seventh Congress in extra
ordinary session on July 4, the eighty-fifth
anniversary of the nation's birth. To be a
council of gloom and glory, it had a momen
tous opening: excited multitudes packed the
galleries of both the House and the Senate,
and throngs stormed the doors in vain for
admission. On the floor of the House the men
with whom Grow mingled seemed silent and
awed. If the depression which prevailed there
could have been distributed, there would have
been no cheerful face at the seat of government.
Many Southern Representatives, grown
white in the service of their country, had re
signed and gone sadly from Washington, leav
ing numerous vacant seats. The assemblage
of men was still-notable, although there were
only 178 members of the Thirty-seventh Con
gress as against 237 previously. Among those
who remained were three subsequent Vice-

THE SPEAKERSHIP 247
Presidents, four subsequent Governors, twelve
subsequent Senators; altogether a Congress
of big men met to consider questions of grave
moment. There was the silent and grave John
J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, whose name con
nected the past political struggle of Congress
with the great civil conflict which had just
begun; and courtly Morrill, of Vermont, who
afterwards became the "Father of the Sen
ate." Thaddeus Stevens, who did more than
any other one man to place the common-
school system of the State and Nation on an
enduring foundation; the "Tall Sycamore of
the Wabash," Daniel W. Voorhees; Schuyler
Colfax, later Speaker, and then Vice-President;
William A. Wheeler, also afterwards Vice-
President; William Windom, subsequently
Secretary of the Treasury; John A, Logan,
whose memory is dear to every Union soldier;
William D, Kelley, the tariff leader; Roscoe
Conkling, "haughty and proud, with ambro
sial locks," and a conspicuous personality on
the floor — all these played a strong part in
the Congress, Francis P. Blair, the "bold
trapper of the Rockies"; George H. Pendle
ton, creator of the Civil Service; Samuel S,
Cox, founder of the Life-Saving System; and

248 GALUSHA A. GROW
William S. Holman, afterwards called the
"Burglar-Proof Safe of the National Treas
ury," were also useful and active members.
There was but little formality in organizing
the House. John Hickman, of Pennsylvania,
named Francis P. Blair for Speaker. Thaddeus
Stevens placed Grow's name on the fist. Upon
the ballot showing only forty votes for Blair
he withdrew, which gave Grow a majority
without further ceremony. Without the for
mality of a caucus, at the age of thirty-seven,
to be chosen Speaker of the House was a great
tribute, especially as then — and until 1886 —
the place was only two removes from the Presi
dency. In addition, this was a War Congress.
When the vote was announced proclaiming his
election, the Confederate flag was flying from
the hills of Virginia in full sight of the Capitol.
The actualities of conflict had overtaken the
"doughfaces and copperheads" of the North
who would have been content to cry, "Let the
erring sisters go in peace!" and this Congress
would have to deal with momentous issues.
No wonder Grow's speech of acceptance, well
received, was serious, and soberly spoken! It
would tax any courage to face so broad a re
sponsibility. He confessed that he was "over-

THE SPEAKERSHIP 249
whelmed and depressed," No note escaped
him, however, save one of patriotism, forti
tude, and faith, but he finished his short address
with these words, indicative of his humihty : —
. . . Invoking for our guidance wisdom from that
Divine Power which led our fathers through the
red sea of Revolution, I enter upon the discharge
of the duties to which you have assigned me, rely
ing upon your forbearance and cooperation, and
trusting that your labors will contribute not a little
to the greatness and glory of the Republic,
Then Congress settled to its immensely
trying work. That Congress raised the first
troops, created legal-tender notes as a war
measure, and issued the first bonds. In spite
of the absence of Southern members, the state
of general anxiety made it a session in which
there was much bitterness of debate and now
and then violent expressions of temper. Dur
ing the next five weeks vast plans for the army
and navy had to be adopted, ways and means
provided for their support, appropriations
reaching into hundreds of millions of dollars
passed for war purposes, the policy of the Gov
ernment toward the seceding States defined,
intricate foreign questions adjusted so far as
Congress had power, provision made for the
collection of duties, plans for making appropri-

250 GALUSHA A. GROW
ations for the legislative, executive, and judi
cial departments devised, laws looking to the
confiscation of property used for insurrection
ary purposes and to increase our consular
representation put through. The total appro
priations of the session amounted to nearly
$350,000,000, against $66,000,000 the previous
session. Seventeen days after Grow assumed the
Speakership, eighteen thousand Union soldiers
under the command of General McDowell met
the rebel army at Bull Run. Grow writes: —
When the defeat at Bull Run occurred and the
Union army was thrown into confusion and rout,
Lincoln said to me one evening: "My boys are
green at the fighting business, but wait till they
get licked enough to raise their dander! Then the
cry will be, 'On to Richmond' and no 'Stone-walls
will stop them!'"
The people of the North generally, afforded
a surprising spectacle by that mysterious panic
which seized the Union forces at Bull Run
and hurled them back upon Washington in dis
order, awoke to a realization that the rabid
abolitionists had been false prophets and dan
gerous advisers. Boasts that they could march
a drove of Durham cows into Virginia and
capture the State without the loss of a calf.

THE SPEAKERSHIP 251
because Southerners would not be able to fight
without negroes to carry their guns, were has
tily forgotten, and the "Bluecoats" settled to
their task with the knowledge that the South
was alive with men of invincible courage.
During the excitement about Bull Run and
shortly after the adjournment of the extra
session. Grow wrote to that controversial fig
ure of power. General Butler, requesting that
he be appointed upon his staff so that he might
have actual service in the field before the con
vening of the regular session. The following
was his reply: — Washington, D.C.
Mt dear Sir: —
When I got your note I was about to start upon
an expedition of which you may have heard since.
Having been superseded, being apparently in a
situation which would render the offer of a place
upon my staff as an intended insult, I determined
not to answer it until times changed; and you may
now, without disgrace, take service with me. I
leave for Massachusetts to-day, and shall be again
in the field with a command at once independent
and active. You will need nothing but a blue flan
nel suit made of army pattern for Major, a sword,
shoulder straps, spurs, a belt, revolver, blankets,
and overcoat.
We will have two months before the fifteenth of
November of service or leave Congress without a

252 GALUSHA A. GROW
Speaker. You are at the Springs for your health.
Why not come to Massachusetts and stop with me?
You can get your equipment there and we will
confer upon necessary matters of our campaign.
Do come. You have many friends in the Com
monwealth who will be glad to see you, and none
more than Yours truly, Benjamin F. Butler.
Honorable Galusha Grow,
Shabon Springs.
Owing to the pressing duties of the Speaker
ship, Grow was advised by the President and
many members not to accept service with
General Butler. He was busy enough in Wash
ington during the interim between the extra
and second sessions.
All his free time he spent in the Virginia mil
itary camps or hospitals. His sister-in-law,
who with Frederick Grow had come with him
to live in Washington, accompanied him fre
quently to lend assistance to the suffering.
Besides much general work they looked after
the boys from their own district who were
under the colors. They searched the trains of
sick and wounded as they came in and super
vised the care of many they knew in hospitals.
Some Grow fed from his own table; certain
ones he tended like brothers. He showed the

THE SPEAKERSHIP 253
utmost thoughtfulness, as for instance in one
"head case," who had always to lie motion
less in one position. In order that this protege
might better see and enjoy the flowers they
took in profusion to the hospitals, the digni
fied Speaker painstakingly pinned bouquets to
the counterpane near the foot of the bed!
The Thirty-seventh Congress was epoch-
making for me nation. Not alone the extensive
war measures had to be put through, but most
important economic advances were made. "It
seems," says A. G. Riddle, " to have been pos
sibly the first whose vision and grasp embraced
the continent." The creation of the Depart
ment of Agriculture, discussed for two decades,
but needing the direct cooperation of force
ful men like Grow and Lovejoy, was at last
effected. It had become impossible, as both
knew from personal experience, longer to
handle the immense farming interests of the
country through the Interior Department and
congressional committees. This change meant
that our great fundamental industry, farming,
would receive immense aid.
Looking always, with perceptions sharpened
by deep realization of the difficulties of amal
gamating the interests of the States, to find the

254 GALUSHA A. GROW
ways to link the parts of the continent more
firmly,^ this Congress enacted the Pacific Rail
road and Telegraph Law, fought over since
1850. There was no doubt that it was a life
need of the nation. Grow had consistently
opposed the grants of land, and when the act
was passed in 1862 it was not in a form suffi
ciently liberal to attract capital,^ naturally shy
at that period, — a fact which seems strange
to-day when one considers that the company
was granted ten alternate sections per mile and
bonds to the extent of $50,000,000! But Grow
was eager enough to see the rails ribboning
the way to the Pacific, knowing that a won
derful diffusion of population must follow into
the wilderness. He was roused to submission
as to land by enthusiasm over uniting the
Atlantic and the Pacific by the " mighty lasso"
of the railroad and telegraph.
The Homestead Act was, however, the
greatest test of the capacity of this Congress
for broad action, for it dealt with the high
destiny of the nation. Crown of a group of land
bills, among them that which granted lands
to state colleges of agriculture and mechanics
and another reducing the expense of survey of
' Godkin. ' Haney, Railroad Grants.

THE SPEAKERSHIP 255
the domain, the Homestead Bill was by all
odds the most significant measure which was
brought forward.
Grow faced his opportunity exultantly. In
the last session of the previous Congress he
had re-introduced his own bill and secured its
passage in the House, but when it went to the
Senate Andrew Johnson piloted it into but
not out of his committee. War issues crowding
to climax absorbed every one's attention. But
now the South was no longer in the way. The
President was favorable to the passage of a
proper bill.
But the fifth and last act of the Homestead
drama was not to be simply played out. The
North, it was true, believed that the theory-
would prove expedient in practice. They knew
how essential it was to stop that speculation
and sale of large tracts to non-residents which
had been such a dire curse to the West —
which had retarded the growth of communities,
delayed internal improvements, forbade a gen
eral system of public schools, and hampered
social and moral improvement. But the very
nation was insecure. Even if the principle was
sound, was it expedient? The question was
giving away lands which were a possible source

256 GALUSHA A. GROW
of revenue at a time when the Treasury was
drained by war. The credit of the nation was
based on public lands and it might there
fore be damaged abroad. Congress was by no
means in a happy humor to discuss construc
tive plans. It took considerable courage, while
it was dubious whether the North would hold
the nation together, to ask its Congress to take
this step. It was a test of their faith in them
selves. Grow had no hesitation in demanding action
on what he felt to be a measure observing com
mon interests, conserving social and political
equality, and promoting common hopes. Since
it was not in order for the Speaker personally
to propose bills, Lovejoy and Potter were both
willing agents. Potter, however, had set his
mind most firmly on combining a bounty of
both cash and land for soldiers with the sim
ple homestead proposal, a combination the
Speaker did not at all relish, Lovejoy, there
fore, perhaps at Grow's instigation, introduced
the straight bill and asked immediate action
almost upon the very moment of the House
convening. But Lovejoy made the mistake of doing it
improperly. Potter was on guard to get what.

THE SPEAKERSHIP 257
he wanted, and objected that there had been
no sufficient notice of Love joy's bill, and that
he had not been instructed by a majority of
the committee, facts which Lovejoy had to
admit. The Speaker had, therefore, to sustain
Potter's proposal, comforting himself that,
with the exception of the bounty feature, and
such slight differences as the provision that
eighty acres subject to preemption might be
taken if preferred to one hundred and sixty
acres, priced heretofore at a dollar and a quar
ter an acre. Potter's bill was identical.
Grow left the Chair in charge of Elihu
Washburne to take the floor and assert once
more that which was close to his heart,
"I want the Government to protect the
rights of men, the hearthstones and firesides
of those who have gone forth to people the wil
derness and build up the great empires which
to-day span the continent and have made this
country the wonder and admiration of the
world," he had said not long before, and this day
his message was the same. He called atten-t
tion to the fact that the bill had already passed
the House five times in the last ten years, He|
urged that it should be sufficiently matured for
immediate action. No measure had ever been

258 GALUSHA A. GROW
more emphatically approved by the people,
especially that portion of it which was still
loyal to the Constitution. The contention that
the public land should not be sold when the
Treasury was in bad condition, he dealt with
by quoting from the Commissioner of the
General Land Office, who reported that for
some time the domain had ceased to be a
source of income. Almost all the land for years
previous had been paid for in scrip. He stated
strongly that the credit of a nation was not
standardized by the amount of unproductive
property it might possess, but by the ability
of its people to pay taxes.
His one protest on the form of the bill was
against the issue of bounty land warrants.
This, he said, was surplusage, as every soldier
who wanted actually to occupy land had the
same chance at one hundred and sixty acres
as had every one else. It was sufficient, to his
mind, to provide money bounty; and to give
the land to non-settlers was to repeat the old
mistake of conferring unsubstantial benefit at
the cost of lasting injury to the people. Now,
more than ever, he urged, it was the true pol
icy of the Government to grant the domain to
genuine settlers.

THE SPEAKERSHIP 259
If it seemed a test of faith to ask this Con
gress to pass a measure of such moment at the
very time the Union itself was insecure, it is
certain that in reality the war was the last and
best reason for opening the commonage. Hol
man, of Indiana, concurring in general with
the "condensed and forcible argument of Mr.
Grow," declared that "the policy of applying
the public lands in such a manner as to increase
the number of secure and independent home
steads was of first importance, vital, indeed, to
the ultimate stability of the Republic." Never
theless he begged, with unwise sentimental
ity, that the bill should be recommitted to the
Committee on Public Lands with instructions
to amend' it to extend the bounty land laws
of 1855 to the soldiers of the existing war. He
contended that this would not interfere with
the homestead feature.
To save the domain from just such mis
taken generosity constituted a new phase of
the problem, new because the feeling was sin
cere and not used as a ruse to help speculators,
Holman's plan would have absorbed practi
cally the entire domain. It failed because the
advocates of the homestead, even those like
Potter, who wanted a bounty, felt that this

260 GALUSHA A. GROW
was going too far. Potter, urging his own
land-bounty idea, agreed entirely that settle
ment must be the main end. "Our paralyzed
interests require," he said, "that we do all in
our power to invite immigration and capital
to our unoccupied lands. No wiser policy can
be adopted in the present condition of the
country." The measure passed the House at
last, February 28, upon a vote of 107 to 16,
carrying a bounty of thirty dollars cash for
each three months' soldier, one hundred dollars
for those enlisted for the whole war, and each
soldier was awarded a quarter-section in ad
dition. In the Senate, reported with amendments, it
met comparatively light opposition. The big
gest part of the change effected was to make
the act rebel-tight, — sadly inevitable while
the war occupied the mental foreground, — so
that no man having borne arms against the
Government should be permitted to take land
under it. Wade, acting as he always had upon
this proposal in sympathy with Grow, suc
ceeded in doing that which the Speaker felt to
be essential, and Grow until his death spoke
with gratitude of Wade's part in the matter.
He caused the military bounty clauses, which

THE SPEAKERSHIP 261
were not economic but sentimental, to be
struck out and the title amended to the simple
Homestead. Some minor amendments were
added, the act passed, and the concurrence of
the House asked upon the changes.
The House disagreed at first, being mindful
of its precious dignity, and asked a conference.
Potter hated to see the beloved project shorn
of all that was his. The result, however, was
that Grow pressed gallantly for a settlement;
the House concurred. The act went to the
President, Lincoln signed it the 20th of May,
1862. So the drama happily ended, and the bad
Graduation Act of 1854 was supplanted. To
Grow, the glory of his Speakership was to sign
the Homestead Act for which he had labored
for ten years, for which he had fought as men
fight only for the things essentially close to
their hearts. That original impulse of his boy
hood had carried him through many disap
pointments to positive achievement. By this
act he knew that the national commonage
would go to the toiling millions, where by all
the principles of justice and by the laws of na
ture it rightfully belonged. He had put every
fiber of his heart into this work inspired by

262 GALUSHA A. GROW
the ideal of a greater America, of a well-based
democracy, and his success was largely due to
his singleness of aim.
The law went into effect at the same time
as the Emancipation Proclamation, January 1,
1863. If the Thirty-seventh Congress had per
formed no other service than the passage of
the Homestead Law it would have done
enough. By assuring a system of small farms,
even before the issue of slavery was deter
mined on the battle-fields, — was determined
by blood, — freedom was secured to the entire
domain by law. Nearly half the area of the
country, 1,400,000,000 acres, came under the
mantle of this statute's protection. It laid for
ever the ghost of States' individual rights to
the domain, reinforcing federal authority in a
way which could not be gainsaid. To those
pioneers, from the first heroic wave to the later
sturdy tide which had crept across the country
and dotted settlements like specks on the edge
of the map, the act assured permanent foot
hold. It offered the great heart of America to
the newcomer if he cared to become one of us.
It inaugurated the third great period of land
legislation. ' In this, as in every other difficult problem of

THE SPEAKERSHIP 263
legislation, Grow found Lincoln a wise and
careful adviser. They were frequently in con
sultation, mainly concerning war matters.
Seen from a congressional angle, the war was
a question chiefly of raising hundreds of mil
lions of revenue, of passing measures of expe
diency, and of putting through such acts for
the good of the nation as would tend to stabil
ize conditions, including measures to secure
the freedom of all persons within the Terri
tories; to prevent the army from catching
slaves; to abolish slavery in the District of
Columbia; to punish frauds by officers mak
ing contracts for the Government; to punish
treason; to confiscate property; and to grant
amnesty. Treatment of open wounds, these
measures, although not long in passing, caused
the war to be fought over again upon the floor,
and Lincoln's counsel was invaluable.
He never rubbed Congress the wrong way. He
was masterful in diplomacy as in politics, and with i
the aid of this quality he brought members to seel
his way who the day before were looking in the
opposite direction [wrote Grow]; a power he pos
sessed beyond any man who has appeared in our
public life and which was absolutely essential to
his trying position. I often wondered what would
have happened if Seward had beaten him in the

264 GALUSHA A. GROW
convention, Seward was one of the wisest men in
his generation, but Seward never understood the
art of wise selection and handling of men. It is
a question ff he could have kept such a cabinet
as Lincoln selected in harness two weeks without
broken traces, cracked whiffletrees, and a general
smash-up. But those on the ground knew how
Lincoln managed them and made them do great
work, although Chase and Cameron and later
Stanton tried his masterful patience almost to the
parting of the ways, and did it many times in the
very days when he most needed their loyal sym
pathy and help. To work with them and through
them and get the best out of them was much —
far more than it was in Seward to have done.
Grow at the time approved strongly of
Seward's management of the Trent affair, al
though it put the House, which had promptly
voted thanks to Captain Wilkes, in a some
what unenviable position. He always felt that
it was to Seward's lasting credit to disown an
act contrary to law, especially as he thereby
avoided war with Great Britain. He was in
this instance as outspoken in his approval as
with Cameron he was in making no bones of his
disapproval. Cameron in the mean time had resigned.
No one who knew Simon Cameron well [wrote
Grow] could doubt his patriotism and loyalty to

THE SPEAKERSHIP 265
the Administration, but it was evident from the
first that he was not the right man for the great
task of carrying on the fiercest civil conflict of all
time. No one knew this better than he and he
finally laid down the burden of his difficult posi
tion. If Cameron knew, he was still very proud, for
he cherished deep hurt against those who had
felt it kindest to tell him the truth. He went
home with animus against all who opposed
him, a condition of the highest importance to
the Speaker, since Cameron was head man in
Pennsylvania politics for many years after.
That very year (1861), really but a short
time after his letter. Grow found himself con
fronted by a new condition in his district, A
reapportionment under the Census of 1860 ob
tained, and a new district had been formed
by the powers which controlled the State,
taking away the Republican counties of Brad
ford and Tioga and linking Luzerne to Susque
hanna. The object of the men in power was
obvious; it meant that they could control the
election by transforming the district into a
Democratic stronghold; and this they did, to
the effect that Grow was not elected again. It
was an arbitrary and unjust political act,
plainly revengeful.

266 GALUSHA A. GROW
Although he was facing the end of his period
in Washington an^ was in wretched health,
his last year was by no means dull. His house
was a place where many congenial people met
and over which Mrs. Frederick Grow presided
acceptably. One of his pleasures to the end
of his life was his friendship with John Hay,
begun then.
While visiting Lincoln one evening [Grow nar
rates in a note], I met his young private secretary,
John Hay, who afterwards brought me personal
communications from the White House. In time
we became good friends, and in those early days
I used to say to my political colleagues, "Young
Hay, if he lives, will become a very useful public
servant, for he has the highest and best views of
public Iffe I ever heard expressed by one so young,
and he also has a personality which will be of the
greatest service to him in his career."
John Hay often spent an evening at Grow's
house, and no one was more welcome or more
entertaining. I remember during my Speakership giving a
reception at which the Diplomatic Corps were
largely represented and young Hay took charge of
the details and helped to make the entertainment
a brilliant success. Lincoln was very much at
tached to him, and often spoke to me in high terms
of his ability and trustworthiness. I know of no

THE SPEAKERSHIP 267
person in whom the great President reposed more
confidence and to whom he confided secrets of
State as well as his own personal affairs with such
great freedom.
During this time, with over half a million
men under arms on land and sea, and the
Southern forces giving the army plenty to
think about, Lincoln's faith was uplifting.
Grow records : —
I spent many hours with the President during
the darkest days of the war. He remained always
the same fearless, brave man whose personality
and calm, patient spirit were incomparable. I was
with him often when he was receiving news of some
great battle, and whether our side won or lost his
great heart seemed to shudder at the slaughter of
soldiers. Big events pressed hard upon one another's
heels in 1862 and 1863,
As I recall those hours, spent with our greatest
President, " who stood alone, no ancestors, no fel
lows, no successors " [said Grow], I know why " a
remembering world will never forget that on his
sad and tragic face was deeply graved the divine
patience of destiny. He spoke at times as no
man spoke except the lowly Nazarene, and he
clothed his words with justice and mercy."
Always simple, even in his joking moods never
undignified, he made me feel completely at home
in his presence. With such a beginning as he had

268 GALUSHA A. GROW
to reach the heights that he did was miraculous.
Born in a pitiful hovel, surrounded by squalor and
want, he became the mightiest personality of his
day — homely in body and divine in spirit.
Interested always in the international as
pects of the war, when the Russian fleet mys
teriously visited American shores under sealed
orders in 1863 Grow insisted that the battle
ships had not come here, as the press said and
the people believed, simply from friendship to
the United States. He said : —
The fleet has come because Russia's great com
mercial interests are at stake. She has come be
cause she is unwilling to have France and England
take advantage of our involved position and thus
in the end obtain immense commercial vantage-
ground. She is strictly looking after the interests
of Russia.
In this position he found few sympathizers
at the time, but it is interesting to note that
in 1894 Wharton Barker, who was Grow's
friend, gave an explanation of the incident
which bore out his early sagacious judgment.
The Czar, with whose confidence Mr. Barker
had been honored, had observed to him: —
In the autumn of 1862 the Governments of
France and Great Britain proposed to Russia, in a
formal but not an official way, the joint recognition

THE SPEAKERSHIP 269
by European powers of the independence of the
Confederate States of America. My immediate
answer was, " I will accept the recognition of the
independence of the Confederate States as a casus
belli for Russia. And, in order that the Govern
ments of Great Britain and France may under
stand that this is no idle threat, I will send a
Pacific fleet to San Francisco and an Atlantic fleet
to New York." They were sent out and sealed
orders given to both admirals.
All of this I did for the love of my own dear
Russia rather than for the love of the American
Republic. I acted thus because I understood that
Russia would have a more serious task to perform
if the American Republic, with advanced industrial
development, were broken up and Great Britain
should be left in control of most branches of mod
ern industrial development.
Throughout these turbulent times there is
every evidence that Grow filled his difficult
place as Speaker with tact and a remarkable
sense of fairness. Courage, as well as patience
of the highest class, was required. He was cool
and he was absolutely at home in construing
the rules. The executive of the House of
Representatives who administers that great
office under normal conditions must be wise
and efficient; but while the most fearful civil
war known to history was raging and the life
of the nation hung in the balance, to have pre-

270 GALUSHA A. GROW
sided so satisfactorily that no appeal was ever
made from his decisions from the first to the
final day of three busy sessions was a feat that
proved Grow's statesmanlike metal. By our
system immense power rested then with the
Speaker. Unless otherwise determined by the
House, the Speaker, appointing all the com
mittees, — which have control of the life or
early death of each measure, — had not a little
to say about the chances of any bill. The place
demanded mental and physical force such as is
found only in rare men.
It would be difficult to point to any other
instance where a youth untrained in the art
of government passed with such phenomenal
strides from chore boy on a farm in the back
woods to the desk and gavel of one of the most
powerful of legislative bodies. No Speaker we
have had save Clay, of the number now near-
ing forty, was younger in point of years, and
it has fallen to the lot of few to merit a unani
mous vote of thanks upon retirement, a mark
of approbation for his unfailing courtesy and
skill which was most heartily given to Galusha
A. Grow.

CHAPTER XV
ripe years and a return to action
Through the twelve absorbing years of his
first period in Congress Grow had proved him
self a leader, but although he had won a great
name he faced a difficult political predicament
because he was not content, as were so many
able and public-spirited men of that day, to
take orders from unofficial managers. He was
known not to be malleable in the organization.
He had always been successful in spite of this;
now he was to meet a long period of frus
tration. When Congress adjourned in March,
1863, he returned to Glenwood in exceedingly
bad health and sent a substitute to the field
until he should be physically acceptable or re
called to legislative duties.
He found his mother in extremely delicate
health and arranging her affairs, a business in
which she showed still that dominant spirit
and good judgment which were her first char
acteristics. The joint property was to be di
vided and there was some disagreement as to
portions. Samuel had already had and lost

272 GALUSHA A. GROW
what Frederick considered a full share, but
Mrs. Grow was determined to give him some
thing in addition. It was with Samuel and his
"smart" (capable) wife that she had always
chosen to live on the old farmstead,
Galusha felt that the matter lay entirely
with his mother and stood by her, but Fred
erick insisted that if Mrs, Grow still wanted
to do something for "Sammy," it would be
well to put the money in trust or keep it in
vested so that he could not lose it,
Samuel and his wife finally went to the room
where Mrs, Grow was confined to tell her
proudly that either they wanted the money
without obligation, to manage themselves, or
they did not want it at all. The mother ad
mired their spirit and disposed her estate with
out reference to her eldest son's wishes, with
the result that he flung out of the house and
was absent several days, Mrs, Grow was just
able to be downstairs again, and was sitting
on the little step between the two rooms which
served as the chief stage of family action, when
Frederick returned. He strode in, straight past
the family, to his mother and took her in his
arms and kissed her. It was reconciliation;
both their eyes were full of tears. To "Boy

RIPE YEARS 273
Galusha," as Mrs. Grow still called him, this
ending of strife meant much. He was glad to
have her to the last as she always had been, a
masterful woman, captain of them all. j
After she died he tried going out into his
friendly mountains surveying again, but his
health did not improve as it should. Able to
supervise work, in 1864 and 1865 he was en
gaged part of the time in the lumber trade at
Newton in Luzerne County. He was appointed
delegate to the National Republican Conven
tions in 1864 and 1868, and was chairman
of the State Convention; but reelection as a
Representative did not come to him. Cameron,
still dominant, was irrevocably against him.
He devoted himself during the years 1866
and 1867 to the development of oil properties
in Venango County, and his health not greatly
improving, he went West in 1871, making the
journey, somewhat uncommon in those days,
from California up through Washington to
Victoria in British Columbia, He went to
Texas in the autumn of that year to assume the
presidency of the Houston and Great North
ern Railway Company, a post which he held
four years, during which time the railroad
was extended several hundred miles.

274 GALUSHA A. GROW
During his hfe in Texas he eschewed poh-
tics except that, being an admirer of Horace
Greeley and not approving of President Grant's
Administration so far as it related to the
South, he gave Greeley his moral but not his
active support. He did not approve of the way
Greeley had linked his fortunes with his old-
time foe, the Democracy.
Grow's fight with the organization was re
sumed upon his return to Pennsylvania. Al
ready they had defeated him twice for Con
gress, but in spite of the treatment he had
received from the party he consistently served
it, zealously working for Hartranft for Gover
nor. In 1878 the delegates from a majority of
the Republican counties of the State were sent
to Harrisburg by the people with the under
standing that they were to nominate Grow
for Governor, but once more the organization
set its influence against him. He refused the
Lieutenant-Governorship which the organiza
tion offered him, but with characteristic good
feeling, took the stump for Hoyt and deliv
ered a speech at Oil City which was celebrated
in the campaign as the most masterly analysis
of " Greenbackism " ever uttered.
President Hayes tendered him the Russian

RIPE YEARS 275
Mission, but he refused it, informing the Chief
Magistrate that he had decided in young man
hood never to accept any place not elective.
In 1881 the members of the State Legislature
from over two thirds of the Republican coun
ties were sent to Harrisburg with instructions
to elect Grow to the Senate. Pennsylvania
politics in these years were growing worse
instead of better, however, and there was a
long, bitter struggle again ending in Grow's
defeat. Several of the members were burned
in effigy for their disloyalty to the expressed
wishes of their constituents. This political mis
fortune, although Grow regarded it better to
be honored by defeat than dishonored by com
promise, demanded fortitude in the face of
the ease which had marked his earlier cam
paigns and the honors which had been accorded
him by the whole nation.
He knew that he was practically helpless
against an unseen host. Nearly sixty years old,
and believing that it was futile to reenter pub
hc life, he confined himself to business, but
continued to take an active part in promoting
the interests of the party he had helped to
create. He was consulted about the appoint
ments in his district, and was sent as delegate

276 GALUSHA A. GROW
to the National Convention in 1884; but his
time went, in the main, into the development
of a soft-coal mine at Brady's Bend on the
Allegheny River, He found much pleasure in
the spacious home which he had built in a
most sightly spot after his return from Texas.
Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Grow lived with him
and his friends were most hospitably enter
tained there. He never dropped his Washing
ton acquaintance, and in these years he used
occasionally to go to Brook Farm with Garri
son or Hale. His lines fell in pleasant places.
Not long before the election of 1884, when
James G. Blaine was candidate for the Presi
dency, he told Grow and Reuben Fenton, who
were with him, that his friends wanted to give
him a dinner in New York. Both Fenton and
Grow knew that this dinner would be attended
largely by men who exercised great corporate
power and possessed vast wealth, and that
the opposition would seize upon the occasion
to awaken labor interests against him. Both of
them, being much interested in saving Blaine
from possible blunders, warmly and saga
ciously urged him to decline, as well as to keep
away from New York City during the rest
of the campaign. Said Grow: —

RIPE YEARS 277
Blaine did not agree with our views, and ac
cepted the invitation. The dinner project was
dangerous enough, but a new and unexpected
menace appeared which neither Fenton nor I had
foreseen. While stopping at the Fifth Avenue
Hotel a delegation of ministers called upon Blaine,
and their spokesman. Dr. Burchard, said that
the Democratic Party was the party of • " Rum,
Romanism, and Rebellion." Blaine winced at the
alliteration, but for some strange reason he left
the stupid observation unrebuked. It was claimed
by George William Curtis and Carl Schurz, the
leaders of the Independents, that Blaine would
have been beaten if the incident had not occurred,
but those in close touch with the true condition of
the electorate a week prior to this were convinced
that the three R's caused Blaine's defeat.
It was now more than twenty years since
the Homestead Act had gone into effect. Grat
ifying direct testimony of those who had
taken up land frequently reached Mr, Grow,
About this time he received the following let
ter, which, fifteen years later, was to have an
unexpected sequel: — Beateice, Gage County, Neb.,
December 29. 1886.
Honorable Galusha A, Grow.
Dear Sir, — To-day I send you by express a
cane cut from the N.W, \ section 26 north, Range
5 east, near Beatrice, Gage County, Nebraska,

278 GALUSHA A. GROW
Said land was taken by me at the U,S, Land Office,
Brownsville, under the Homestead Act of May
20th, 1862, about 12.30 o'clock on the morning of
January 1st, 1863, and I have resided on it ever
since. My application for said patent was No. 1, my
proof of residence No. 1, and the patent is recorded
on Page 1, Volume 1, of the records at Washington.
Hence this cane sent you was grown upon the land
first taken under the said Homestead Act.
Knowing well that the zealous and able efforts
put forth by you to secure the passage of said act
justly entitle you to be considered its father; and
realizing that the said act is the greatest that has
ever been passed by Congress, I feel that I, as one
of its beneficiaries, am not overstepping the rules
of propriety in presenting you with this simple
token of my gratitude and appreciation. Begging
you to accept this simple Homesteader's gift, I am,
most respectfully. Yours,
Daniel Freeman.
Such letters showed that Mr. Grow, if out
of pubhc affairs, was by no means forgotten,
and his retum to the stage of national life was
certainly long overdue.
He had entered the third period of his life
when the nation again accorded him deserved
and acceptable recognition. The first occasion
was that of Pennsylvania's presentation in the
House (January 21, 1892) of the portraits of

RIPE YEARS 279
two of her sons. Grow and Randall, who had
reached the Speakership. Grow was invited
to be present on that day and the Speaker pro
tempore, Mr, Milliken, invited him to occupy
the Chair,
As the dignified ex-Speaker arose and passed
down the center aisle, erect and lithe as an
Indian, he looked altogether what he was, a
fine old gentleman. He received an ovation
which might well have roused pride in the heart
of any man, not ending until he took his place
at the Speaker's desk. It recurred when W. S.
Holman, accepting the portraits in behalf of
the House, paid him tribute of which this was
a part: "Mr. Grow as a legislator is most
famous as one of the first if not the first cham
pion of the homestead policy of disposing of
the public lands, the most beneficent measure
ever enacted by Congress."
The following year Wilham Lilly, Congress-
man-at-Large from Pennsylvania, died. Grow
came out as a candidate. Through the accident
of Quay being in Florida tarpon fishing, the
organization did not promptly give orders to
crush him and the announcement received
such state-wide enthusiasm that the party fell
into hne. The majority of 181,000 which he

280 GALUSHA A, GROW
received at the polls in 1894 demonstrated how
gladly the people of Pennsylvania welcomed
him back to public service. The nation had
too long been deprived of a wise counselor and
statesman. When he reentered Congress after an ab
sence of thirty-one years he was to nearly
every member of that body only a faint mem
ory. But he retained a vivid interest in affairs
which kept him young, and a happy discovery
freed him at last from the worst part of a per
sistent ill health. He at once became a noted
and interesting figure in the House, where
every possible consideration was shown him.
He was allowed to choose the seat most agree
able to him — and strange to say he found sit
ting beside him the only colored member from
the South, a man who had been a slave. Owing
to his advanced age. Reed, then Speaker, ap
pointed him chairman of the Committee on
Education, where the work was not onerous,
but of an important nature.
During the next three terms he was renom
inated without opposition, the majorities con
tinually increasing, 246,462, 267,446, 272,409
— the largest majorities ever given any state
candidates at any time. Thenceforward he

RIPE YEARS 281
was affectionately called "Great-Majority
Grow." The House recognized him as one of the
ablest exponents of the basic principles of the
party, especially of sound money and protec
tion, and careful attention was given to what
he said because of his good judgment and fore
sight. He attended even protracted night ses
sions. R. R. Hitt, of Illinois, for many years
chairman of the Committee on Foreign Rela
tions, in speaking of Grow during his last term
in Congress when he was nearing his eightieth
year, said, "He is our oracle and we go to him
freely for advice. In the caucus, on the floor,
and in the committee room he is always in
demand. There is more horse sense in him
than in any man I ever knew."
In this later term of service his old interest
in territorial expansion had much to feed upon.
He spoke on the Hawaiian policy of the Gov
ernment. When he rose in 1900 to repeat his
maiden speech on "Man's Right to the Soil,"
made forty-eight years before, he was greatly
applauded. It was proposed to put under the
Homestead Act all Indian lands acquired by
treaty since 1890, In that year Holman, of
Indiana, had inaugurated a new policy by

282 GALUSHA A. GROW
which settlers paid a fixed price per acre for
such land, in some cases running to three dol
lars and seventy-five cents. Grow believed
that it was still better policy for the Govern
ment to give the land to the present-day home-
seeker, who is also a pioneer — although some
removes from the early type. He urged that
we had still not outgrown our need to settle the
wilderness with individual homes, and that it
should not be a question of whether the Gov
ernment made or lost money directly by the
transaction. The principle was the same as it
had been in the beginning; the ideal of land for
every individual who would give his labor and
love to it was still worthy, and all the more
necessary since we had wastef uUy lavished land
without requiring proper settlement.
The land cry rang out again. It was remark
able to hear the aged champion of "Free
Homes for Free Men," after an interim of
nearly fifty years since his first speech, again
exhorting Congress to uphold the homestead
policy. When the time came for him to retire in 1903
the members of the Fifty-seventh Congress
unanimously adopted resolutions expressing
their appreciation of his value and their regret

RIPE YEARS 283
that he should leave them. At home, too, it
was felt that some signal attention should be
paid to the end of his public service. All the
people of the countryside determined that he
should have a memorable welcome on his re
turn home. On the day he came from Wash
ington eight thousand people crowded the roads
that led to Montrose, the county seat, and both
the preparations and the celebration itself
were such as we seldom see in this country,
reminiscent of the honors that a German com
munity pays to its dignitary — say a Gross-
Herzog — upon home-coming.
When Grow arrived at the station the first
person to grasp his hand was Freeman, from
Nebraska, the first Homesteader! His pres
ence furnished a novel incident which roused
great enthusiasm. As they entered the first
carriage they were given three cheers and a
continuous ovation greeted them all along the
gayly decorated route to the Fair grounds.
From the steps of the court house, where he
had been admitted to the bar fifty years before.
Grow, with Freeman by his side, reviewed the
parade. At the Fair grounds there were ad
dresses, special songs adapted to the occasion,
two sets of artistically engrossed resolutions

284 GALUSHA A. GROW
were presented, and letters and telegrams were
read. Freeman told how he came to secure the
fiirst homestead.
I was stationed at Brownsville, Nebraska, as a
young soldier to do some secret service work. The
town was the seat of a government land office and
the place was filled with prospective settlers who
were waiting for the 1st of February, when the
Grow homestead law was to become operative.
I had, in my several details, seen a good deal of
Nebraska. I liked the soil of Gage County, so I
staked my claim near Beatrice, and waited anx
iously for the time when I could make my filing at
the government office.
The fates seemed against me. I was ordered to
St. Louis and had to leave early January 1st, the
day the Homestead Law went into effect. On the
night of December 31st, the prospective settlers
had a dance. I sought out the assistant registrar
of the land office, who was in the ballroom, and
urged him to let me file my claim at midnight, so
I could leave for St. Louis early next morning. He
agreed to this and we went to the office where the
preliminary papers were made out. Before one
o'clock Homestead Entry No. 1 was signed and I
went away to St. Louis a happy lad.
At the expiration of my service in 1865, I re
turned to Nebraska, built a log cabin and married
the young woman who owned the adjoining claim.
We lived happily on this property for fifty years.
[And turning to Mr. Grow he went on:] And to

RIPE YEARS 285
you, sir, we owe much of our happiness and pros
perity. The cheers were deafening. The whole occa
sion was marked by a charming good feeling,
warm affection, pride, and patriotism. Among
the letters was one from President Roosevelt
in which he expressed regret that he could not
be present. He spoke of Grow's introduction
of the Homestead Bill which had served us
so well, and congratulated his Pennsylvania
neighbors that "in public and private life
alike Speaker Grow has shown those quali
ties of which we are most proud in our citi
zens," From the Commissioner-General of the Land
Office came an interesting contribution giving
the figures which showed how the statute had
worked. During that fiscal year, ending June
30, 1901, 63,343 entries had been made, em
bracing an area of 8,234,590 acres, or a greater
number and a larger area of land than for any
previous year since the enactment of the law.
The total for thirty-nine years was 636,998 en
tries, covering an area of 85,344,956.38 acres.
The letter which meant most of all to Mr.
Grow was John Hay's, addressed to a member
of the Home Welcome Committee: —

286 GALUSHA A. GROW
Depabtment of State,
Washington, AprU 14, 1903.
Dear Sir: —
We have received your esteemed letter of the
27th of Mardi, in which you invite me to be present
at the "Welcome Home" which Susquehanna is
preparing for her honored and illustrious son the
Hon. Galusha A, Grow,
I regret extremely that the pressure of many
exacting engagements will not permit me to be
present and bring the tribute of my profound re
spect and affection to the beloved and eminent
statesman whose return to his home you are about
to celebrate,
Mr, Grow has lived in a great time and has
borne his part nobly in the momentous events
which have fulfilled the long space of his political
activity. But the one achievement which will make
his name memorable among those of the benefac
tors of his kind is the Homestead Law, An act like
this transcends all considerations of political and
economic success, and appeals to the heart and the
sentiment of all people. A man who has contrib
uted, as Galusha Grow has, to the lasting welfare
of millions is entitled to the gratitude not only of
his country but of the world. Yours sincerely, John Hat,
Mr. Grow's acknowledgment of these hon
ors was deep-felt, and given with the simple
dignity, the love for his neighbor, the friendli
ness and winning address which endeared him

RIPE YEARS 287
to all — which, indeed, gave to his life the
quahty of a hearthstone tale.
The memory of that homage was a source
of pleasure during the next four years, which
Mr. Grow passed quietly at his home in Glen
wood, in the valley of that pretty affluent of
the masterful Susquehanna, the Tunkhan
nock. Two years before his death, Andrew Carnegie,
learning that Mr. Grow was in straitened cir
cumstances, at once placed him on his private
pension list with a generous annual allowance.
When thanked by a friend for his thoughtful
consideration of the venerable ex-Speaker, he
said simply: —
Don't thank me, I should thank you for giv
ing me an opportunity to show my appreciation of
Mr. Grow's worth as a public servant. I take great
pleasure in being of any use to him during his de
clining years. He has done a great work for man
kind, a work which will bless the ages, and he de
serves to spend his remaining days in peace and
comfort. By his statesmanship and intelligent
efforts he saved our vast territory beyond the
Mississippi River for the landless of our people
and thus millions of free homes were made pos
sible to the tillers of the soil. This work alone
entitles him to the gratitude and homage of all
Americans and it is a distinct pleasure to feel that
I have been able to befriend him in any way. It is

288 GALUSHA A. GROW
vouchsafed to only a few men to do great things
to bless mankind and Mr, Grow was one of this
favored group.
Surrounded by comfort made possible by
Mr, Carnegie's kindness, these mellow patri
archal years were spent in the companionship
of well-loved books and friends. He sat often
in his study bedroom before the open fire fed
by hickory logs. In the comfortable chair he
had used for thirty years, with spectacles he
had used for forty years, he diligently read the
"New York Tribune" which he had taken
from its first issue. His interest in current
events was deep, and he loved the comrades,
few but intimate, who dwelt in his small wal
nut bookcase, one of those quaintly contrived
affairs containing a pictorial chart of civiliza
tion. Handles on either side served to wind this
chart up, and history was most ingeniously de
picted thereon. This amused him, but he knew
his few volumes remarkably well, the Bible,
Shakespeare, Gibbon, Homer, Plutarch, the
Orations of Demosthenes and Cicero, and the
complete works of Jefferson and Madison, He
could look out from his windows across the
gleaming little valley to which he had seen
steam come, with all its entrained wonders.

MR. GROW AT EIGHTY-THREE, ON HIS VERANDA AT
GLENWOOD

RIPE YEARS 289
Living thus, in quiet enjoyment, old age did
not seem to grasp him until a few days before
he died in 1907,
A retrospect of fifty years shows that his
work has stood the test. The Homestead Law
stands to-day as concentrated wisdom for the
settlement of the domain, A few days after
Mr, Grow's death General Nelson A, Miles
said that when he represented the United
States at the coronation of the present Czar of
Russia he asked His Majesty what he intended
to do with the lands of Siberia when the great
railroad, then under construction, had been
completed. "We intend," replied His Majesty, "to do
with it what your great statesman, Mr, Grow,
did with the public domain of the United
States. In due time we shall give it to the
people, because we are convinced that the
Homestead Law is the most useful enactment
ever placed on the statute books of nations."
Up to June 30, 1913, there had been 977,467
entries, which took up in all 137,855,709 acres;
and in that year alone ten million acres had
gone to satisfy three thousand claims. The
total amount is greater than any other item

290 GALUSHA A. GROW
of disposal except in grants to the States, and
there remain unsurveyed and unappropriated
nearly three hundred million acres exclusive of
the lands which come under timber, mineral,
forest, coal, or Indian classifications. To this
should be added three hundred and sixty-
seven million acres of Alaskan territory. Alaska
will be settled under the Homestead Act, and
the Secretary of the Interior recommends that
terms be made easier. Had we desisted from
grants to corporations and repealed the pre
emption laws long ago, the Homestead Act
would have been still more valuable. It would
have conserved us the domain in the best con
dition, and provided for a completely natural
development without exploitation at the hands
of railroads and speculators. As it is, however,
the democratic effect has been amazingly far-
reaching. Industrially, to measure the effect of this
act by agriculture, the backbone of our life, one
has only to recall that in 1850 a little grain
was sown broadcast and threshed to the "dull
thunder of the alternating flail," while to-day
in that vast territory which the Homestead
Law gave to the landless is to be found the
granary of the world, where agricultural ma-

RIPE YEARS 291
chinery is doing the work of twenty milhon
men. Hundreds of millions of bushels of wheat
are grown; our corn crop in one year would
cancel the interest-bearing debt of the country,
pay the cost of the Panama Canal, and build a
fleet of battleships; our hay crop alone would
almost cancel the national debt; our dairy
products would give every man, woman, and
child in the United States thirty dollars per
capita; while the total farm products each
year would provide for every person in the
country over ninety dollars.
When Mr, Grow first proclaimed that to the
tillers of the soil should belong the soil, there
was not enough money in circulation to get up
a trust in the peanut crop, and the country
was in nearly as bad condition financially as
the man who invested all his fortune in a
swampy town where they sold lots by the gal
lon. To-day, while most of the European na
tions "fill up their inkstands" when they begin
to give^a hst of their debts, we find ourselves
a nation of industrial and agricultural giants,
possessing an aggregate wealth of one himdred
and sixty thousand millions of dollars, pro
ducing eight tenths of the world's cotton and
corn, one quarter of all its wheat, two fifths of

292 GALUSHA A. GROW
all its steel and iron, one third of all its coal,
one fourth of all its meat, more gold and silver
than any other country, and more manufac
tured products than England, France, and
Germany combined.
Economically vital to us, socially it is cer
tain that the heart of the nation would not be
the same if this law had not been passed. We
could not have answered the prayer of the vast
yearning land: —
"Bring me men to match my mountains,
Bring me men to match my plains;
Men with empires in their purpose.
And new eras in their brains.
Pioneers to clear thoughts' marshlands
And to cleanse old Error's fens:
Bring me men to match my mountains —
Bring me men!"
Such men came. The law which gave them
homes conserved to us a mighty land love
which like a great dynamo drove the ploughs,
built the towns and villages, gave stimulus to
the railroads and later brought us nationally
to reap marvels from that migration to which
we were not only spiritually but practically
sympathetic. Those who went to the land in
that stream which "ripped and roared across
the continent in record time," gave us the

RIPE YEARS 293
soundest value in citizenship, for the man upon
the land best retains initiative; he escapes from
the enmeshing slavery of mechanical industries.
We have always leaned upon the immigrant,
and this statute has been a boon to him. The
middle class, directly benefited, prospered in
ways consistent with true republican ideals.
The Homestead Act was one which laid a
wholesome base for the consolidation of men's
force and therefore for our social superstruc-^
ture. Socially and politically this wise measure has
proved a flag-bearer in a great procession of
progressive experiments which have marked
out the path of human advance. It redeemed
the promise of the radical turn of the genius
of the new Republic which distinguished it
from the conservative, reasoned-rather-than-
felt action of Old-World governments. Based
on the idea that the people's property was
best handled actually as private property, it
entrenched individual rights in the common
lands. Whether or no the ideal of social wel
fare shall change in regard to collectively
owned resources in land and the institutions
of private property ultimately become decad
ent, the law stands as indubitably the best

294 GALUSHA A. GROW
expression of its time, admirably suited to a
social need.
Both human and political significance of
land policy may be somewhat gauged vby look
ing no farther than Mexico, our nextdoor
neighbor, writhing in the throes of a war waged
because statesmen failed to administer her
domain as the estate of the people, encourag
ing a rank upgrowth of oppressive land monop
oly, with peonage and slavery attendant. They
wrestle with the soil and slavery problems
coincidentally. W^e fortunately took slavery
alone and handled the land problem construc
tively, undoubtedly saving our country from
grave troubles and setting the world an exam
ple so tempting that Great Britain, for one,
promptly followed suit with her Dominion Land
Act of 1872, to secure the settlement of Can
ada on similar terms.
Galusha Grow was a vibrant part of the
heart and intelligence of a great time. He
helped to rouse our " Northern chivalry to re
sistance against the institutions which made
merchandise of men." He directed our legis
lative procedure through two years of inter
necine war. With resolution and vigor he
adhered to the simple fireside idea, the fine

RIPE YEARS 295
land motif he received in his boyhood. With
deep passion to satisfy a fundamental national
need, Grow, a great agrarian, persisted until
he assured to us our beautiful freefolk-land,
which to-day still affords hospitality to him
who feels compelling hearth-hunger. " The
modest but firm demeanor he showed in ex
alted places, his manly endurance of political
adversity, the contempt he displayed against
all forms of political immorality," and the
splendid faith in the purposes which sustained
him make him tower above the aggregate. We
have breathed his spirit deeply through our
whole American life.

the end

INDEX

Adams, John C, 67.
Adams, John Quincy, his plan for
dealing with the public domain,
67.
Agriculture, Department of, estab
lished, 263.
Aiken, William, beaten by Banks
for Speakership of 34th Con
gress, 160-62.
Alaska, 290.
Albert, Prince, 151, 152, 154.
Albert, Edward, Prince of Wales
(afterward Edward VII), 151.
Alexander II, Czar, 268.
Aliens, under Preemption Act of
1841, 61, 62.
Amherst College, G.'s course at,
32/.
Atchison, David R., 137, 144.
Averett, Thomas H., 86, 86.
Banks, Nathaniel P., elected
Speaker in 34th Congress, 160-
62; 163.
Barker, Wharton, 268.
Barksdale, William, 175.
Bell, John, 237.
Benjamin, Judah P., 229.
Benton, Thomas H., 57, 68, 59,
61, 62, 79. 98, 99, 100, 101, 139,
142.
Bien, Morris, Land System of the
United States, 53.
Bigler, William, 93.
Birney, J. G., 39.
Blaine, James G., 276, 277.
Blair, Francis P., 247, 248.
Branch, L. 0.. 231, 232, 233, 236.

Breckinridge, John C, 139, 140,
201, 237.
BrinckerhofiF, Jacob, 46.
Brooks, Preston S., 164.
Brown, Albert G., 88, 92.
Buchanan, James, vetoes public-
land bill of 1860, 225, 226, 237,
240; 149, 167, 172, 203, 210, 214,
223.
Bull Run, battle of, 250, 251.
Burchard, Rev. Samuel D., 277.
Burlingame, Anson, 230.
Butler, Benjamin F., 241. 251,
252.
Calhoun, John C, 100, 113.
Cameron, Simon, relations of G.
with, 242-45, 264, 265.
Campaign ditties, 6.
Campbell, James, 138.
Carnegie, Andrew, 287, 288.
Cass, Lewis, 66, 120, 160.
Chase, Salmon P., 96, 121, 126,
128, 130, 131.
Choate, Rufus, 40, 41.
Clay, Clement C, 122, 199.
Clay, Henry, his "American"
" plan, 57; his bill providing for
division among the States of net
proceeds of sales of public lands,
vetoed by Jackson, 59; 39, 40,
100, 142.
"Clay Brigade," 241.
Clay Compromises (1850), 72, 73.
Clayton, John M., 128.
Cleveland, Chauncey F., 43.
Cobb, Williamson R. W., his bill
for graduation and reduction of

298

INDEX

prices of public lands, 64, 104-
" 106, 130, 131; 66, 102, 103, 107,
109, 113, 114, 115. 116, 117. 132,
161, 187.
Colfax, Schuyler, 224, 247.
Congress,, Twenty-seventh: House
Censures J. R. Giddings, 38.
Thirtieth : measures relating
to public domain introduced in,
70. Thirty-second : G. the young
est member of, 70; extends wel
come to Kossuth, 77-80; G.'s
maiden speech on homestead
question in, 80 ff.; House de
bates and passes Johnson bill,
85-89. Thirty-third: contest between
supporters of various public-
land measures in, 162/.; passes
Kansas-Nebraska bill, with re
peal of Missouri Compromise,
140-45.
i Thirty-fourth : membeTship ot
House, 160; fight for speaker
ship of, 160-62.
Thirty-fifth : sectional bitter
ness in, 169, 170; debate on
Lecompton Constitution in,
172 ff.; homestead question
again debated in, 197/.
Thirty-sixth : House passes
G.'s homestead bill, 200; 205;
debate on homestead question
in Senate, 201-03, 205 /.;
passes compromise bill, which is
vetoed by Buchanan, 226, 226;
short session of, 237-41; passes
proposed pro-slavery amend
ment to Constitution, 238-41.
Thirty-seventh : membership
of, 246, 247; chosen Speaker at
extra session of, 248; review of
its work, 249, 250, 263, 254;
passes Homestead Act, 264 ff.

Conkling, Roscoe, 230, 247.
Corwin, Thomas, 236-38.
Covode, John, 174, 231.
Cox, Samuel S., 247.
Creole, case of the, 38. I
Crittenden, John J., 229, 247.
Cuba, proposed annexation of.
149, isO; bill for purchase of,
201-03.
Ciui;is, George William, 277.
Davis, Henry Winter, 230.
Davis, Jefferson, 142, 219, 222,
229, 239.
Davis, Reuben, 173, 175.
Dawson, John L., his bill for dis
posal of public lands, 106; 102,
107, 108, 109, 110, 112, 113, 114,
118.
Delaware and Hudson Canal,
opening of, 8.
Democratic Party, "anti-expan
sionist" sentiment in, 34, 35;
attitude of, on public-land ques
tions, 103/., 111/., 122/, 129,
198; the split in 1860, 237.
Dixon, Archibald, 124, 138, 140,
144.
Dodge, Henry, 122, 128, 137.
Doolittle, James R., 202, 211, 212.
Douglas, Stephen A., 70, 76, 136,
137, 138, 139, 140, 145, 218,
219, 220, 237.
Douglas-Toombs Act, 166.
Dred Scott decision, 212.
Ellsworth, Ephraim E., 241.
Eugenie, Empress, 162, 153, 154,
166.
Evans, George H., his land-reform
proposals, 60, 51.
Farmers' frontier, the, 183/.
Fenton, Reuben E., 146, 230, 234,
276, 277.

INDEX

299

Fish, Hamilton, 229.
Foot, Solomon, 146.
Foote, Henry S., 100.
Foote, Samuel A., 67.
Franklin Academy. 31, 32.
Free-Soil Party, originally a seg
ment ot the Democratic Party,
51; platform of, 65; nominates
Van Buren in 1848, 66; home
stead plank in its platform, 102.
Freeman, Daniel, the first Home
steader, 277, 278, 283-85.
Gallup, Kinney, 2.
Galusha, Jonas, 1.
Garrison, W. L., mobbed in Bos
ton, 34.
General Land 0£Sce, established
in 1812, 53.
Genet, Edmond Charles ("Citi
zen"), 4.
George, Henry, Land and Labor
51; Land and Land Policy, 190.
Giddings, Joshua R., his resolu
tions concerning jurisdiction
over slavery, 38; censured by
House, 38; 79, 95.
Glenwood, Pa., Grow family set
tles at, 12.
Graduation Act, 132, 133, 187,
210, 261.
Grant, Ulysses S., 274.
\ Greeley, Horace, his homestead-
ing plan. 65, 66; 40, 147, 274.
Green, James S., 210.
Grow, Edwin, 2, 3, 8, 11, 12, 30.
Grow, Elizabeth (Robbins), G.'s
mother, 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13,
14, 29, 30, 31, 271, 272, 273.
Grow, Elizabeth, G.'s sister, 2, 8,
31.
Grow, Frederick, 2, 3, 14, 15, 16,
17, 22, 26, 30, 31. 262, 272, 276.
Grow, Mrs. Frederick, 252, 266,
276.

Ghow, Galusha A.
I. Early Years. — Birth, 1;
whence his name, 1, 2; on his
grandfather's farm at Volim-
town. Conn., 2, 3; the westward
journey, 8-11; farming at Glen
wood, Pa., 12; "general store"
clerk, 15; first trading trip, 15,
16; undertakes to sell cargo of
lumber for Phelps & Bailey,
17-21 ; his first contact with slav
ery, and his prophecy, 21, 22,
25; visits Mount Vernon, and
Washington, 23-25; first seeds
of the homestead question, 29,
37; at Franklin Academy, 32;
at Amherst College, 32/.; 39,
40; the presidential campaign of
1840, 34 /.; an anti-expansion
ist Democrat, 34, 35; his first
political speech (1844), 39;
favors election of Polk, 39.
II. The Homestead Question.
— Reads law in Connecticut
and Pennsylvania, and is ad
mitted to the bar, 43; forma
partnership with David Wil
mot, 43; quoted, on authorship
of Wilmot Proviso, 44; his view
of proper settlement of slavery
issue, 46; "land the first sol
vent," 46, 47; studies early legis
lation relating to the public do
main, 51 /.; his views of its
proper administration, 62-64;
votes for Cass in 1848, 66; of
fered Democratic nomination
for Congress in 1860 as com
promise candidate, 68; accepts
and is elected, 68, 69.
III. In Congress. — The
youngest member of the House,
70; still convinced of paramount
importance of public-land ad
ministration, 71, 74; regards the

300

INDEX

homestead principle as the
basis of the correct solution, 74,
76; his defense of Kossuth, and
its effect, 77, 78, 79; his maiden
speech on the homestead ques
tion, 80 /.; maintains the in
herent rights of man to the soil,
83, 84; his views attacked and
staunchly defended, 86-87; the
Johnson bill passes the House,
88, 89, but fails in the Senate,
89; renominated in 1862, 94; in
canvass, opposes agitation of
slavery question, 95; reelected,
95; his friendships in the new
(32d) Congress, Lovejoy, Chase,
Wade, 95, 96; his boarding-
house life in Washington, 97;
his close friendship with T. H.
Benton, 99, 100, 101.
IV. The Domain as a Social
Question. — Introduces his
Homestead bill, 102; a complex
situation, 102/; provisions of
his bill, 106, 108; debate on
Dawson's bill, 108/; offers his
bill as substitute for Dawson's,
114, 115, and is beaten, 115;
effect on, of Cobb's amendment
ot Dawson bill, 117; seeks in
vain to amend Cobb's amend
ment, 118, 119.
V. Repeal of the Missouri
Compromise, and its results. —
Quoted concerning Douglas, the
Kansas-Nebraska bill, and the
Repeal, 138-40; opposes repeal,
140-43; quoted, on passage ot
repeal by Senate, 143-45; dis
satisfied with the Democratic
party, 146; attends mass meet
ing at Jackson, Mich., of op
ponents of expansion ot slav
ery, 147, 148; the Republican
Party born at that meeting,

148; reelected to Congress in
1854, 148; joins Republicans on
Pierce's approval of bill for re
peal of Missouri Compromise,
148; opposes annexation of
Cuba, 150; his political opin
ions finally settled, 150; visits
Europe, in 1856, 161-59; Queen
Victoria in Paris, 161, 162, 154;
his interview with Napoleon
III and Eugenie, 153, 154; his
interest in the struggle tor tree
Kansas, 164; his bUl for ad
mission ot Kansas as a free
state, passes Hotise but is tabled
in Senate, 165, 166; attacks
Douglas-Toombs bill for paci
fication of Kansas, 166, 167;
answers Buchanan, 167, 168;
his persistence makes him ob
noxious to rabid slavery men,
168, 169; his personal affray
with Keitt, 172-82.
VI. The Homestead Question
in 1859-60. — His interest in
the organization of the western
domain, 183, 184; reports bills
for forming additional territo
ries, 186, 186; opposes opera
tions of speculators in public
lands, 187, 190; his proposed
remedies, 192-94; his persist
ence in offensive and defen
sive, 194, 195; his ideas and
Andrew Johnson's contrasted,
195, 196; his Homestead bill
finally passes the House, 199,
200, but is side-tracked in Sen
ate, 201, 202; quoted, on Wade
and Toombs, 202; his Home
stead bill again passes the House
(1860), 204, 205; long debate
on it and rival measures in
Senate results in compromise
bill, 205-22; conference com-

INDEX

301

mittee's report gives G. "half
a loaf," 222-25; the bill vetoed
by Buchanan, 225; 226; G.'s
relations with prominent men,
229/; his opinion ot Judah P.
Benjamin, Toombs, and Jeffer
son Davis, 229, 230; his quarrel
with L. O. Branch, 231-36; his
judgment of Thomas Corwin,
236, 236; supports compromise
scheme in February, 1861, 239;
joins "Clay Brigade" to pro
tect Washington, 241 ; his strong
letter to Secretary Cameron,
243, 244, which was resented,
245. VII. Speaker. — Chosen
Speaker at extraordinary ses
sion of 37th Congress, 248, 249;
asks Butler to appoint him to
his staff, 251; Butler's reply,
261, 252; helps to create De
partment of Agriculture, 253;
favors Pacific Railroad and
Telegraph law, 254; his Home
stead bill introduced by Love
joy, without proper authoriza
tion by committee, 256, 257;
urges passage of similar Potter
bill, 257, 258, which, with
amendments, finally becomes
law, 259-61; the act signed by
him as Speaker, 261; quoted, on
Lincoln's character, 263, 264,
267, 268; approves Seward's
handling of Trent affair, 264;
relations with Cameron, 264,
265; defeated for reelection,
265; quoted, on John Hay, 266,
267; quoted, on the visit of the
Russian fleet in 1863, 268; his
course as Speaker commended,
269, 270; his extraordinary
career, 270.
Vin. In retirement; again in

Congress; last years. — Family
affairs, 271-73; various business
enterprises, 273; railroad pres
ident, 273, 274; his attitude in
1872, 274; at odds with Repub
lican "organization" in Penn.,
274; declines Russian mission,
274, 275; candidate tor Senate,
but defeated, 275; in 1884, ad
vises Blaine against acceptance
ot dinner in New York, at which
Burchard episode occurred,
276, 277; continues to be re
membered as father of the
Homestead Act, 277, 278, 279;
letter from Daniel Freeman, the
first Homesteader, 277; his por
trait presented to House of
Representatives, 278, 279; re
elected to House in 1894, 279,
280, and tor three succeeding
terms, 280; his service in the
House, 280-82; again upholds
the homestead policy, 281, 282;
the "Grow Welcome Home,"
282-87; interview with the first
Homesteader, 283; letter from
Hay, 286; relations with A. Car
negie, 287, 288; his death, 289;
review of his service in the cause
ot tree homesteads, 289/
Grow, Joseph, G.'s father, 1, 2.
Grow, Julia, 2. See Kinney, Mrs.
Julia (Grow).
Grow, Samuel, 2, 30, 271, 272.
Grow, Thomas, 2.
Hale, John P.. 149, 150, 198.
HaU, Willard P., 136.
Hamilton, Alexander, 63, 90.
Hampshire Gazette, 39.
Harlan, James, 222, 229.
Harrison, William Henry, 34, 35.
36.
Hartranft, John F., 274.

302

INDEX

Hay, John, 266, 267. 285, 286.
Hayes, Rutherford B., 274.
Hayne, Robert Y., 68.
Hickman, John, 173, 248.
Hitchcock, Edward, professor at
Amherst, 33.
Hitt, Robert R., 281.
Holman, William S., 248, 279, 281.
Holmes, O. W., 177.
Homestead Act, passed by 37th
Congress, 254/
Homestead principle, basis of G.'s
theory of public-land develop
ment, 74, 75; relation of political
parties to, 214, 215. And see
Public domain.
Homestead question, first stirrings
of, in G.'s mind, 29; complex
situation of, in 33d Congress,
102/ And see Public domain.
Houston, Sam, 70, 229.
Hunter, Robert M. T., 130, 132,
261.
Immigration, in mid-19th century,
50; progress of, before and after
1820, 56.
Jackson, Mich., mass meeting at
(1864), gives birth to Republi
can Party, 147, 148.
Jackson, Andrew, vetoes Clay's
bill of 1832, 59; his theory of the
public domain, 59; his "specie
order" and its effect, 60; 36, 100.
Jefferson, Thomas, 84.
Johnson, Andrew, his free home
stead resolution, 51; provisions
of his homestead bill, 75, 76; his
character and career, 76, 77; in
Senate, 195-98, his activities as
a Senator in public-land mat
ters, 200, 201, 205/., 213, 214;
83, 89, 98, 110, 216, 217. 220,
222, 223, 224, 227, 255.

Johnson, Robert W., 86, 129, 215,
216, 217, 219, 222, 223, 225. 227.
Jones, James C, 109, 145.
Kansas, attempts to secure terri
torial government for, 136, 137;
fight tor possession ot, between
slavery and anti-slavery parties,
164/.; subject of bitter debates
in 36th Congress, 172 /.;
Lecompton Constitution, 172.
See Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Kansas-Nebraska bill, provides for
repeal of Missouri Compromise,
138.
Keitt, Lawrence M., G.'s quarrel
with, 173/; 110, 115, 164, 165,
171.
KeUey, WiUiam D., 247.
King, WiUiam A., 80.
Kinney, Mrs. Julia (Grow), 7, 8,
11.
Kinney, Orrin S., 7, 11.
Kittredge, George W., 144.
Know-Nothing Party, opposed to
Homestead Act, 123, 124; 47.
Kossuth, Louis, debate on extend
ing welcome of Congress to,
77-80.
Land, the great solvent of the
question of slavery, 46/
Land Act, general, of 1796, 63, 54.
Land Act of 1847, repeal of, 63.
Liberty Party, nominates Birney
tor president in 1844, 39.
Liberty poles, 3-6.
LUly, WiUiam, 279.
Lincoln, Abraham, 148, 236, 237,
239, 241, 242, 246, 261, 263, 264,
266, 267.
Logan, John A., 230, 247. '
Lothrop, Thornton K., 140.
Louisiana Purchase, 54, 55.
Lovejoy, Elijah, 35.

INDEX

303

Lovejoy, Owen, 95, 96, 170, 204,
223, 230, 253, 256, 267.
Lowry, James, 66, 67, 68.
McClernand, John A., 64.
McConneU, Felix G., 199.
McDoweU, Irvin S., 260. ,
McMuUen, Fayette, 78, 86.
MaUory, Stephen R., 229.
Marcy, WiUiam L., 140.
Mason, George, 162, 163, 154.
Mason, James M., 212, 214, 220.
Maynard, Horace, 231.
Mexico, 294.
MUes, Nelson A., 289.
MUlUsen, Seth L., 279.
MUlson, John S., 86, 86, 111.
Missouri Compromise, 134, 136,
137, 138.
Missouri Compromise, repeal of,
proposed in Kansas-Nebraska
biU, 138; debate on, 140 /.;
passes both Houses, 143-46.
Montrose Volunteer, the, 13.
Morgan, E. D., 151.
MorrUl, Justin S., 231, 247.
Mott, Richard, 174.
Napoleon III, 152, 153. 164.
Newton, Samuel, 7, 11.
Nicholas II, Czar, 289.
Ordinance of 1787, 53.
Orr, James L., 169, 174.
Ostend Conference, 203.
Pacific RaUroad bUl, 89, 254.
Pendleton, George H., 247.
Perry, Oliver H., 168.
PhUadelphia, anti-slavery women
mobbed in, 35.
PhiUips, PhUip, 139, 140.
Piatt, Donn, 154.
Pierce, Franklin, 93, 95, 134, 139,
140, 148.

Polk, James K., 39.
Port Deposit, 15, 16.
Potter, John F., 170, 171, 175,
234, 266, 257.
Preemption Act of 1840, 60, re
pealed in 1841, 61; principle of,
defended by Benton, 61; Act of
1841 makes land avaUable for
aliens, 61, 62.
Pringle, B., 161.
Pryor, Roger A., 170, 171.
Public domain, extent of, after
acquisitions of territory from
Mexico, etc., 48, 49; summary
review of legislation relating to,
51 /.; early laws relating to sale
of, after Louisiana Purchase,
66; great controversy concern
ing policy of dealing with, be
gins in 1830, 57, 58; Clay's bUl
ot 1832, 59; Jackson's theory of,
69, 60; his "specie order," 60;
looked to, by States, to relieve
financial difficulties, 60; Pre
emption Act of 1841 makes
avaUable for certain aliens, 61,
62; repeal of Land Act of 1847,
63; various plans for dealing
with, 64; agitation concerning,
a powerful factor in politics in
1848, 66; Greeley's plan, 65, 66;
measures relating to, introduced
in 31st Congress, 70; state of
question when G. entered Con
gress, 70/.; question of slavery
inextricably involved with, 72,
73; A. Johnson's homestead
bUl, 75, 76; G.'s "maiden
speech" on distribution of,
80/.; Johnson biU debated and
passed in House, 85-89; the
Cobb bUl for disposal of, 104/.;
the Dawson biU, 106; the Grow
biU, 106, 107; the rival measures,
debated in the House, 108 /.;

304

INDEX

and in the Senate, 120/; oper
ations of speculators in, 187 / ;
rebellion ot preemptors, 188;
extraordinary condition in re
spect to, 191; G.'s Homestead
bUl reintroduced in House in
1856, and later years, 193, 194;
A. Johnson's renewed activities
concerning, 195/; G.'s Home
stead bUl passes House (1860),
200; debates on, in 36th Con
gress, 204/; compromise biU is
vetoed by Buchanan, 225, 226;
Homestead Act passed by 37th
Congress, 254 /; summary of
entries, etc., under Act of 1862,
289-91.
Pugh, George E., 207, 208, 215.
Punch, quoted, 177-81.
Quay, Matthew S., 279.
Quitman, John A., 173, 175.
RandaU, Samuel J., 279.
"Redemptioners," 55.
Reed, Thomas B., 280.
Republican Party, "seminal be
ginning " of, 146; bom at mass
meeting at Jackson, Mich., 147,
148; wins Speakership in 34th
Congress, 160-62.
Richardson, WUliam, 32.
Riddle, A. G., quoted, 253.
Robbins, Samuel, G.'s grand
father, 2, 3, 7, 14.
Roosevelt, Theodore, 285.
Russian fieet, visit of, to U.S., 268.
Saunders, Romulus W., 149.
Schurz, Carl, 277.
Semple, Ellen C, American His
tory and its Geographical Con
ditions, 48.
Settlers on public lands, early ap
peal of, to G., 28, 29.

Seward, WiUiam H., 70, 80, 123,
124, 125, 128, 131, 140, 143,
149, 264.
Sherman, John, 169, 231.
Slavery, violent proceedings of
sympathizers with, in the
North, 34, 35; case of the Creole,
38; G.'s and Wilmot's views ot,
contrasted, 46, 47; question of,
inextricably involved in ques
tion of occupation of public
lands, 72, 73; under the Mis
souri Compromise, 134, 135;
attempted compromise with, in
Feb.-March, 1861, 238-40. And
see Kansas.
SlideU, John, 138, 139, 202.
Smith, Adam, 84.
South, cause of opposition of, to
increasing number ot smaU
farms, 72, 73; general attitude
of, on public-land question in
its various phases, 104/, 111,
117, 122/, 198, 199.
Speakership of National House,
269, 270.
Spinner, F. E., 230.
States' rights, obtrusion of prin
ciple of, in settlement of public
lands question, 205/, 217; ef-
fecton, of Buchanan's veto, 227.
Stephens, Alexander H., 86, 87,
165, 172, 203.
Stevens, Thaddeus, 230, 231. 247,
248.
Streeter, F. B., 43.
Sumner, Charles, 149, 164, 166,
229.
Susquehanna River, 15, 16.
Swamp Lands Act, 86.
Territories, opposition to further
formation of, 186.
Texas, annexation ot, 39.
Thayer, Eli, 186.

INDEX

305

Thomas, James H., 223.
TocquevUle, Alexis de, 48.
Toombs, Robert, 202, 229.
Trent affair, the, 264.
Trumbull, Lyman, 234.
Tuck, Amos, 148.
Tyler, John, 36, 39.
Tyler, WiUiam S., professor at
Amherst, 32.
Van Buren, John, 68.
Van Buren, Martin, Free-SoU
presidential candidate in 1848,
65, 66; 16, 24, 34, 35, 36.
Victoria, Princess Royal, 151, 152.
Victoria, Queen, 151, 162, 154.
Vinton, Samuel P., 46.
Voluntown, Conn., 2, 3, 4.
Voorhees, Daniel W., 247.
Wade, Benjamin F., 79, 96, 97,
128, 129, 149, 201, 202, 206, 207,
208, 216, 220, 221, 227, 234,
260.
WaUcer. Robert J.. 192.

Washburn, CadwaUader C, 175.
Washburne, Ehhu B., 151, 153.
164, 161, 175, 230, 257.
Washington, George, 4.
Webster, Daniel, 40, 41, 68, 70,
80, 100.
West, the, in the eighteen-forties,
47-50.
Whaley, K. V., 230.
Wheeler, WUliam A., 247.
Whig Party, in 1840, 35, 36.
Whitfield, John W., 164.
WUcox, John A., 92.
WiUces, Charles, 264.
Wilmot, David, G.'s law partner,
43, 44; described by G., 44, 45;
the WUmot Proviso, 45, 46; his
view of slavery question, 46;
66, 67, 68, 93, 94, 149.
WUmot Proviso, 45; who was its
author? 45, 46.
Wilson, Woodrow, quoted, 74,
134, 135.
Windom, WUliam, 247.
Winslow, Warren, 233.

CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS
U , S . A