Galusha A. Grow

Grow ran as a Democrat in the 1850 election and served as a member of that party during the 32nd and 33rd congresses, and into the 34th Congress. He switched parties in the wake of President Pierce's signing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.[2] He ran as a Republican in the 1856 election and remained a member of that party for the rest of his political career.

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 [him] for 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. The embarrassed Barksdale accidentally replaced the wig backwards, causing both sides to erupt in spontaneous laughter.[4][5][6]

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,[7] dropping out following the first ballot.[8] 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.[9]

The deepening rift between slave states and free states overshadowed Grow's 1861 re-election victory, as a national crisis erupted in December 1860 when South Carolina 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. In response, President Abraham Lincoln called the 37th Congress 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, at which time 28 votes shifted to Grow.[10]

1861 election for speaker – 159 votes cast, 80 votes necessary to win election:[11][12]
■ Galusha A. Grow (R–Pennsylvania) 99
■ Francis Preston Blair Jr. (R–Missouri) 12
■ John J. Crittenden (U–Kentucky) 12
■ John S. Phelps (D–Missouri) 7
■ Clement Vallandingham (D–Ohio) 7
■ Erastus Corning (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 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 (passed House June 17, 1862), the Pacific Railway Act authorizing land grants to encourage the construction of the transcontinental railroad, and the Homestead Act, which in over a century resulted in the establishment of 1.6 million homesteads.

Grow, a supporter of the Radical Republicans, 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.

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.

Galusha 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.