The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-02-18
EVentful Career of
Galusha A. Grow

From the New York sun.
T~lIE HON. GALUsTfA AARON GROW, one of
the two Pennsylvania congressnen-at-
large, has declared his intention OF re-
firing from congress and public life ut
the end OF his term in 1908. To most men OF
this generation lie w2S scarcely even memory
when lie leappearcd III congress in 1904 after
an absence OF more than thirty years. Some
thing OF the monumental pomp OF age, some
thing OF the dignity and solemnity OF history,
clngs to him. To the visitor of any imaglna-
tion who scrutinizes the present house OF rep
rescntatives this Pennsylvania is the most IN
teresting member there. In his ears the passion
ate debates of the ten years before the war
must still be ringing, and his minds eye must
see many and many figure of those great
stormy days that is but Il name i'll the histories
to most of US.
lie was n Free Soil Democratic member OF the
Thirty.second congress, which assembled Dec
|, 1S5l Daniel Webster was secretary OF state
in Millard Fillmore's cabinet Thomas Corwin
was secretary of the treasury, John j. Crittenden
attorney general. Roger b. Taney was chief
justice ut a salary OF 5000 a year, thousand
less than Mr. Webster and his colleagues in the
cabinet We're getting. Thad Stevens was Wing
representative from Pennsylvania. There is no
other name besides Mr. Grows in the list OF
the twentyfour Pennsylvania representatives that
is now familiar to anybody but veteran Penn
:
James Brooks and Preston King are perhaps the
only ones that have not been wholly swallowed
by Time. OF various degrees OF clearer or faint
fame are Orgon S. Seymour, OF Connecticut;
Aleyander H. Stephens and Robert Toombs, OF
Georgia; William ii. Bisscll aud Richard Yates,
OF Illinois; Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana;
John c. breckenridge and Humphrey Marshall,
OF Kentucky; Israel Wushburn, jr., of Maine;
Robert Rantoul, jr,, Charles Allen and Horace
Mann, of Massachusetts, Albert G. Brown, Of
Mississippi; Thomas l.. Clngman, of North
Carolina; Joshua II. Giddings, of Ohio Andrew
Johnson and Isham G.. Harris, of Tennesse8
Charles j. Faulkner, OF Virginia, and Joe Lane,
of Oregon. Tho speaker was Kentucky Demo-
crat, Linn Boyd, name iazed quite from mod
ern memory,
In the senate, which then contained siNty'two
members, only Henry Clay was left OF the great
triumyirate which represents to everybody the
heroic age OF American craftsmanship. Among
The other senators We're "Duke" Gwin OF Cali
fornia; James A, Bayard, Of Delaware; Stephen
Il. Mallory, of Florida; Jesse ID, Bright, OF In
diana Stephen \, Douglas and James Shields,
OF Illinois; Pierre Soule, of Louisiana; ilanni'
bal Hamlin, Charles Sumner, Lewis Cas-, John
7. Hale, William H. Seward, Hamilton Fish,
Salmon p. Chase, Benjamin +, Wade, Samuel
Houston, John Bell, Robert NJ, 4. Hunter, James
NJ Mason. Andrew p. Butler, for pouring upon
whom some OF 'the coarse eXpectoraton of his
was attacked by Preston S. Brooks four years
later, was one Of the senators from South Caro-
lima. His colleague vas II. Barnwell Rhett, of
a famous Palmetto family, a name that brings
Nividly 10 mind always-seceding South Carolina
the little, fierce, fre'eating, Charleston Mercury
state. Who in the North remembers Willie =,
Alangum and George T., Badger, then the North
Carolina senators? Yet they were Wings OF
distinction and men of Jalent Nj. Badger had
been secretary OF the navy, and Mr.. Mangum
had received South Cardinals vote for president.
So Iugacious is political Tenown,
In this congress Of much ability Mr. Grow,
only seven years out OF Amherst and in his
twenty'ninth year, began his useful public ca.
reer, Free Soil Democrat, he naturally became
a Republican soon after the formation of the
Republican party, and he witnessed and took a
hand in the great struggle which Mr.. Douglas
precipitated by his Kansas Nebraska bill, which
went on to its inevitable end. Crowded and
years, the participant in whose events
is like a monument TO us who tlngle even in
reading OF them. But let us not stir up the fire
that shoulders under those treaeherOus ashes.
Mr.. Grow was speaker of the Thirty seventh
congress us6l-G3), a body that had difficult
work to do as has ever fallen 10 the lot OF an
American congress At its close he retired 10
private life for thirty years year earlier The
bill for which he had been working
for ten years, became law. In 1860 It had
been passed. the Southemers voting against it,
but Mr.. Buchanan vetoed 1t because he feared
that 1t might introduce among US those per
nicous social theories which have proved so
disastrous in other eountrieF,"