Galusha Aaron Grow (August 31, 1823 – March 31, 1907) was an American politician, lawyer, writer and businessman, who served as 24th
Speaker
Speaker may refer to:
Society and politics
* Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly
* Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture
* A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially:
** I ...
of the
U.S. House of Representatives from 1861 to 1863. Elected as a
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
in the
1850 congressional elections, he switched to the newly organized
Republican Party in the mid-1850s when the Democratic Party tried to force the extension of
slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
into western territories.
Elected speaker for the
37th Congress
The 37th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1861, ...
, Grow presided over the House during the initial years of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
. During his tenure Congress passed the landmark
Homestead Act of 1862
The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than of public land, or nearly 10 percent of th ...
, which he supported. Grow was defeated for reelection in
1862. For over a century he remained the last
incumbent
The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seeking re-ele ...
House speaker to be defeated, until Speaker
Tom Foley
Thomas Stephen Foley (March 6, 1929 – October 18, 2013) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 49th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1989 to 1995. A member of the Democratic Party, Foley represen ...
lost his seat in
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...
.
After leaving office he continued to speak out on political issues, but did not serve in elective office. Then, 31 years after leaving office, Grow won an
1894 special election to succeed
William Lilly
William Lilly (9 June 1681) was a seventeenth century English astrologer. He is described as having been a genius at something "that modern mainstream opinion has since decided cannot be done at all" having developed his stature as the most imp ...
. It remains one of the longest known
interregnums between terms of service for a House member. Over the course of his career, Grow represented the people of three
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
congressional districts: the (1851–1853), (1853–1863), and (1894–1903).
Early life and education
Grow was born Aaron Galusha Grow in
Ashford, Connecticut
Ashford is a New England town, town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. It is part of the Connecticut Quiet Corner. The population was 4,191 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. It was founded in 1714. Eastford, Connecticut, Ea ...
. His
given name
A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a ...
s were the suggestions of an aunt living in Vermont, who was visiting Grow's mother when he was christened: "Aaron" was the aunt's husband's name (his full name was Aaron Nichols (1764–1807)), and
"Galusha" was the surname of a
governor of Vermont
The governor of Vermont is the head of government of Vermont. The officeholder is elected in even-numbered years by direct voting for a term of 2 years. Vermont and bordering New Hampshire are the only states to hold gubernatorial elections every ...
she admired.
[Galusha A. Grow: Father of the Homestead Law](_blank)
from Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...
His family called him Galusha when he was growing up, and before Grow was a teenager, he had started writing his name with his given names reversed.
He was educated at Franklin Academy in
Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, and later at
Amherst College. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in November 1847 and then began his law practice.
Political career
Early elections
Grow ran as a
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
in the
1850 election and served as a member of that party during the
32nd
3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...
and
33rd congresses, and into the
34th Congress. He switched parties in the wake of President Pierce's signing of the
Kansas-Nebraska Act.
He ran as a
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
in the
1856 election and remained a member of that party for the rest of his political career.
Congressional brawl of 1858
During the
35th United States Congress, on February 5, 1858, he was physically attacked by Democrat
Laurence M. Keitt in the House chambers, leading to a brawl between northerners and southerners. Keitt, offended by Grow's having stepped over to his side of the House chamber, dismissively demanded that Grow sit down, calling him a "black Republican puppy". Grow responded by telling Keitt that "No negro-driver shall crack his whip over me." Keitt became enraged and went for Grow's throat, shouting that he would "choke
imfor that". A large brawl involving approximately fifty representatives erupted on the House floor, ending only when a missed punch from Rep.
Cadwallader Washburn upended the
hairpiece of Rep.
William Barksdale
William Barksdale (August 21, 1821 – July 3, 1863) was a lawyer, newspaper editor, US Representative, and Confederate general in the American Civil War. A staunch secessionist, he was mortally wounded during the Battle of Gettysburg while he ...
. The embarrassed Barksdale accidentally replaced the wig backwards, causing both sides to erupt in spontaneous laughter.
Later that year Grow was
re-elected to a fifth term. When the next Congress convened in December 1859, he was one of 90 congressmen to receive votes during the two-month-long 44-ballot
speaker election, dropping out following the first ballot.
On December 29, 1859, North Carolina Congressman Lawrence O'Bryan Branch challenged Galusha Grow to a duel after the two exchanged insults on the House Floor. Both men and their seconds were arrested by District of Columbia police before the duel could take place.
1861 speaker election
The deepening rift between
slave states and free states
In the United States before 1865, a slave state was a state in which slavery and the internal or domestic slave trade were legal, while a free state was one in which they were not. Between 1812 and 1850, it was considered by the slave states ...
overshadowed Grow's
1861
Statistically, this year is considered the end of the whale oil industry and (in replacement) the beginning of the petroleum oil industry.
Events
January–March
* January 1
** Benito Juárez captures Mexico City.
** The first stea ...
re-election victory, as a national crisis erupted in December 1860 when
South Carolina
)'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
became the first of several Southern states to adopt an
Ordinance of Secession. Four months later, on April 12, 1861,
Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, igniting the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
. In response,
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
called the
37th Congress
The 37th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1861, ...
into session on July 4. When the House convened that day, Grow was nominated to be
Speaker of the House; also nominated was
Francis Preston Blair Jr. Grow was elected on the first ballot, but only after Blair withdrew following the
roll call vote
Deliberative assemblies – bodies that use parliamentary procedure to arrive at decisions – use several methods of voting on motions (formal proposal by members of a deliberative assembly that the assembly take certain action). The regular meth ...
, at which time 28 votes shifted to Grow.
1861 election for speaker159 votes cast, 80 votes necessary to win election:
Galusha A. Grow (R–Pennsylvania) 99
Francis Preston Blair Jr. (R–Missouri) 12
John J. Crittenden
John Jordan Crittenden (September 10, 1787 July 26, 1863) was an American statesman and politician from the U.S. state of Kentucky. He represented the state in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate and twice served as Unite ...
(
U–Kentucky) 12
John S. Phelps (D–Missouri) 7
Clement Vallandingham (D–Ohio) 7
Erastus Corning
Erastus Corning (December 14, 1794 – April 9, 1872) was an American businessman and politician from Albany, New York. A Democrat, he was most notable for his service as mayor of Albany from 1834 to 1837, in the New York State Senate from 1842 ...
(D–New York) 7
Samuel S. Cox (D–Ohio) 6
''Others'' 9
Although events of the war dominated and the
First Battle of Bull Run
The First Battle of Bull Run (the name used by Union forces), also known as the Battle of First Manassas occurred only two weeks after the 37th Congress was called into session, under Grow's leadership, several major acts of Congress were passed and signed into law, particularly the
Morrill Land-Grant College Act
The Morrill Land-Grant Acts are United States statutes that allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges in U.S. states using the proceeds from sales of federally-owned land, often obtained from indigenous tribes through treaty, cession, or s ...
(passed House June 17, 1862), the
Pacific Railway Act authorizing land grants to encourage the construction of the
transcontinental railroad
A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous railroad trackage, that crosses a continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single ...
, and the
Homestead Act
The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than of public land, or nearly 10 percent of t ...
, which in over a century resulted in the establishment of 1.6 million homesteads.
Loss of congressional seat and interim
Grow, a supporter of the
Radical Republicans
The Radical Republicans (later also known as "Stalwarts") were a faction within the Republican Party, originating from the party's founding in 1854, some 6 years before the Civil War, until the Compromise of 1877, which effectively ended Recons ...
, was defeated in his re-election bid in 1862, becoming the second sitting House Speaker in a row to lose his seat.
Grow was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in
1864 and
1868
Events
January–March
* January 2 – British Expedition to Abyssinia: Robert Napier leads an expedition to free captive British officials and missionaries.
* January 3 – The 15-year-old Mutsuhito, Emperor Meiji of Jap ...
.
He moved to
Houston, Texas in 1871, and that year became president of what became known as the
International - Great Northern Railroad, a position he held until 1875. He then returned to Pennsylvania and the practice of law from 1875 to 1894.
Return to Congress
upGalusha Grow, 1891
Grow returned to the United States Congress as a
member at-large from Pennsylvania from 1894 to 1903; was the chairman of the committee on education in the 56th Congress.
Death and legacy
Grow resided in
Glenwood, Pennsylvania, from 1903 until his death at age 84. A biography of Galusha Grow, ''Galusha A. Grow: Father of the Homestead Law'', was written by James T. Du Bois and Gertrude S. Mathews and published by
Houghton Mifflin
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...
in 1917.
A monument to Grow was erected in 1915 at the
Susquehanna County Courthouse Complex
The Susquehanna County Courthouse Complex, also known as Susquehanna County Courthouse & Jail, is a historic courthouse complex located at Montrose, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. The complex consists of four contributing buildings, one contrib ...
in
Montrose, Pennsylvania
Montrose is a borough in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, United States, south-southeast of Binghamton, New York and north by west of Scranton. The land is elevated approximately 1,400 feet (427 m) above sea level. It is the Susquehanna Cou ...
.
[ ''Note:'' This includes ]
See also
*
List of American politicians who switched parties in office
The following American politicians switched parties while they were holding elected office.
Federal
State
Local
See also
* List of Canadian politicians who have crossed the floor
* List of elected British politicians who have chang ...
*
List of United States representatives who switched parties
The following are members of the United States House of Representatives who switched parties while serving in Congress.
See also
* List of United States senators who switched parties
*List of party switchers in the United States
*Party switching ...
References
External links
Galusha Growfrom ''Mr. Lincoln's White House'', a website of the
Lehrman Institute
Grow, Galusha Aaron (1823-1907)from
The Political Graveyard
The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 American political figures and political families, along with other information. The name comes from the website's inclusion of burial locations o ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grow, Galusha A.
American transportation businesspeople
Pennsylvania lawyers
Speakers of the United States House of Representatives
1823 births
1907 deaths
Amherst College alumni
People from Ashford, Connecticut
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania
Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania
19th-century American politicians
19th-century American businesspeople