The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1907-04-04

years, which ended four years ago, be-
gan full generation after the close of
the war, and brot him back to Wash
ington at a time when the reunited
country was making its most tremen-
dous strides in material prosperity. In
his first service he welded a powerful
influence Beginning as Free Soil
Democrat, he left that party after three
terms to join the newborn Republican
Party in its fight for the overthrow OF
slavery, and closed that period of his
life in Congress as Speaker of the
House, in which capacity he served
during the 37th Congress, from 1851
| to 1863.
Coming back to the House, after 80
years of retirement, Mr.. Grow found
that his world had moved far beyond
him. He was a relic Of an age long
! gone.
Mr.. Grow was % years old when he
was first elected to Congress. in 1851,
| barely old enough to qualify, and the
youngest man who had up to then been
chosen as a Representative. He had
| lived rs of those years in Pennsylvania,
his father having gone there from Con-
necticut, where he was born, when he
| was three years old. He succeeded in
the House David Wilmot, of "proviso"
| fame.
Grow was then a man with one idea
emily that It gave him the name the
| father of the homestead law" He be-
| gan to urge that measure, which opened
| the great West to settlement, in his
| first session. He kept on urging it,
until, in his sixth term, he had the fe-
licity of signing it as Speaker and see
| ing 1t become law. His conversation at
| homestead. He talked homestead law
| in private, and he spoke on it in the
House. He was insistent in season and
| out.
! 1t was in that first period of his Con-
| gressiOnal service that Mr.. Grow re-
ceived an honor not recorded as having
| fallen to any other member of Con-
| gress-a unanimous election. And
when. after three terms as Free Soil
| Democrat, he Joined the new Republic
can Party he took his district with him,
and came back for three terms more.
In his second term as a Republican he
| struck what he afterward referred to
| as the first blow for the Union" An
acrimonious debate was going on which
| involved the slavery question, and Law
renee NJ. keitt, of South Carolina. made
remarks which provoked Grow to the
| fighting pitch. He jumped at the South
erner, who was standing directly in
| front of the Speakers desk, and
| knocked him down. The fight was
| StOppcu btloIt bIoW COulu 80
/ and such was the temper of the House
at that time that he got off without
punishment for his breach of the rules.
Elected as Freesoiler, his home
| stead bill at once aroused the antagon-
| ism of the slavery men, and thru all
the struggle for that measure, until the
| outbreak Of the war withdrew that op-
position, he fought two battles with one
bill. His long fight for this bill DEM
onstrated his parliamentary ability, and
| when Lincoln called the 37th Congress
| in special session, on July 4, 1861, Mr..
| Grow was chosen Speaker of the House
with almost no opposition, and without
formality of caucus. ColfaX, Thad
| Stevens, Logan, Washburne, PendletOn,
| Morrill,, Voorhees,, Cox, and Holman
/ were among his colleagues then, and in
the Senate were Lyman Trumbull, Zach
Chandler, Charles Summer, John Sher-
man. and David Wilmot. During those
first two years of the war Grow was
frequently an adviser of Lincoln.
/ From that Congress Mr.. Grow retired
| from public life for 80 years. Then
Matt Quay, the master of Pennsylvania
under the new order of things that had
i grown up. invited him to return to Con-
gress, and he came for 10 years longer.
/ Whatever illusions Mr.. Grow had as
to the place he would occupy in the
House in this second period We're soon
dispelled. He found himself merely a
cog in the machine wheel, bound to
move as the rulers of the 'Organza-
ton" directed. AS a survivor of by
gone age he received certain hon.
age, and as an ex-Speaker he was per-
mitted to select his seat in advance of
the regular lottery. But as an influ-
ence on legislation he found himself
superseded by men he had never heard
of before. He still lived and thot back
in the days when he had been a factor
in what was done in Congress.
Il He finally declined a reelection and
retired four years ago. He died as he
had lived, a bachelor, at his home in
i Scranton, Pa.