page_title: Joseph N. Dolph
section_title: Political career
hierarchical_section_title: Joseph N. Dolph / Political career
caption_attribution_description: Caricature of senator Joseph N. Dolph
context_page_description: Joseph Norton Dolph was an American politician and attorney in the state of Oregon. A native of the state of New York, he immigrated to Oregon over the Oregon Trail and settled in Portland where he became the state's federal district attorney. A Republican, he spent nine years in the Oregon State Senate before serving in the United States Senate from 1883 to 1895.
context_section_description: In 1866, Dolph was elected to the Oregon State Senate as a Republican representing Multnomah County. He returned to the legislature in 1872, and also served during the 1874 session, both times in the state senate. He gave a speech in McMinnville, Oregon, at McMinnville College (now Linfield College) on May 31, 1882 at the laying of the cornerstone for the first building on campus, which is known today as Pioneer Hall. He continued practicing law with Dolph, Bronaugh, Dolph & Simon when the Legislature was not in session.
  In 1882, he was elected to the United States Senate by the Oregon Legislative Assembly in a contest that drew national attention. Dolph was not even considered a candidate when deliberations began at the state capital, but state Republican leaders elected him to the six-year term. He became the chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Coast Defenses in the Forty-ninth through Fifty-second Congresses and the United States Senate Committee on Public Lands in the Fifty-second Congress. Dolph was re-elected in 1888 to a second six-year term, but did not win re-election in 1894 and in total he served in the Senate from March 4, 1883, to March 4, 1895.
caption: Caricature of Dolph by Thomas Nast, circa 1894
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