TALES FROM RIVER VIEW CEMETERY
River View Cemetery is one of two historic cemeteries in Portland, Oregon. Lone Fir was the first cemetery, but filling up in the latter 19th Century, River View was established in the hills just – then – outside the growing city. Here, the families of well-to-do Portland buried their loved ones and still do. Walking through the memorials is a history lesson of the city. Street names come to life – through death. The larger monuments tend to overawe the more numerous plainer ones, as if trying to sum up life as the dead thought of their experience. Stories abound here among all of the graves and it is one of the smaller, lesser monuments we move to today – the grave of La Fayette Grover, third governor of Oregon.
There is a small area in Portland where west-to-east streets are named after old Oregon governors. The sequence follows a series of Union military leaders from the Civil War – Grant, Sherman, Hooker, Meade, Porter (there is a Caruthers Street thrown in for good measure in between the governors, with a good story to boot.). In the governor section, there is Woods, Gibbs, Whitaker, Curry, Pennoyer, Gaines, Lane, Abernathy and Mood. Another governor with a short section of streets is Grover Street.
YOUNG MAINEIAC
Grover originally grew up in Bethel, Maine, graduating from Bowdoin College. Moving to Philadelphia, he studied and gained admittance to the bar in Pennsylvania in 1850. He met up with fellow Bowdoin graduate, Samuel Thurston about this time.
Thurston was a lawyer, too, and had emigrated over the Oregon Trail with his wife in 1847. He was elected to the Provisional Legislature in 1848 and selected to represent the Oregon Territory in the US Congress the following year.
Two things Thurston is most remembered for. First, the passage of the Donation Land Claim Act legitimizing existing land claims in the territory and allowing 320 acres – 640 for a married couple – to settlers who would cultivate the land for four years. He was an enemy of John McLoughlin, the Hudson Bay Company factor at Fort Vancouver. Working with Jason Lee, a pioneer missionary, Thurston made false statements against McLoughlin to the US Supreme Court to discredit him – and vicariously, British claims to Oregon.
YOUNG OREGONIAN
Grover came to Oregon under the impression of a law partnership, but Thurston died because of disease – probably yellow fever – he picked up in Panama on his return trip to Oregon.
On the matters of race, Grover probably saw eye-to-eye with his chosen partner. Thurston was anathematically to non-whites urging Congress to prohibit free African-Americans – as well as Hawaiians – to settle in Oregon, “[It] is a question of life or death to us in Oregon. The negroes associate with the Indians and intermarry, and, if the free ingress is encouraged or allowed, there would a relationship spring up between them and the different tribes, and a mixed race would ensure inimical to the whites; and the Indians being led on by the negro who is better acquainted with the customs, language, and manners of the whites, than the Indian, these savages would become much more formidable than they otherwise would, and long bloody wars would be the fruits of the comingling of the races. It is the principle of self preservation that justifies the actions of the Oregon legislature.”
ASS-A-HELL BUSH
Grover came west, first to California, but then on to Oregon settling in Salem in 1851. Here, he met up with another young man influenced by Thurston to emigrate, Asahel Bush. Bush had started his working career working for a newspaper before passing the Massachusetts bar in 1850.
Arriving in Portland and then moving to Oregon City in late 1850, he brought along a printing press and started the Oregon Statesman. Founded in response to the Portland paper The Oregonian a Whig politically oriented newspaper, the Statesman was the Democratic counterpoint. Bush and Dryer were very colorful in their messages and in regards to each other. Dryer referred to Bush as “Ass-a-hell” Bush. Bush responded with Dryer being the most “unvarying liar we have ever met with. He so seldom tells the truth, even by mistake, that we are inclined to make a special note of the fact when he does.”
SALEM CLIQUE
The territorial capital moved to Salem in 1853 and so did the Statesman. Grover and Bush were part of what became known as the Salem Clique, a group of colleagues who controlled Democratic politics in the territorial and early statehood days. They had a big advantage in that most emigrants came from Midwestern states where Democrats held sway. Jacksonian Democrats held views not unlike Libertarians of today – personal liberty and a strong distrust of any force they thought was looking to impose limits upon their freedoms or exploit their labors.
The Clique worked well throughout most of the 1850’s. Besides Grover and Bush, there was Matthew Deady, Delazon Smith, James Nesmith and R.P. Boise as erstwhile members. Grover’s role was political acting as a behind-the-scenes strategist and organizer, rewarding and punishing according to Clique themes. Starting as clerk for the territorial supreme court he expanded as prosecuting attorney for a district taking in a region from Salem to California as well as auditor of territorial revenues and compiler of the governmental archives. Elected from Marion County to the territorial house of representatives in 1853 and again in 1855 when he was elected speaker, as well.
During the Rogue and Yakama Indian Wars (1853 and 1855-56), Gover commanded volunteer companies recruited from Marion County. Elected to command rank, he punched another ticket on his political scorecard. In 1857, he was voted to represent Marion County in the constitutional convention prior to Oregon’s Statehood acceptance in 1859.
CLIQUE DISSAPTES AS THE CIVIL WAR ERUPTS
The Clique was beginning to come apart by then, however. Former territorial governor Joseph Lane, also a Democrat, was beginning to build a patronage network separate from Salem. The Clique maintained a wary alliance with Lane who, popular, became the representative for the territory to Congress in 1851. He was essential for federal monies to come to Oregon. The monies made it easier for the Democratic party to stay in control.
Democrats from Multnomah and Clackamas counties also began forming the own Democratic organizations independent of the Clique. Slavery was beginning to be a divisive issue which further split the party after the mid-1850’s.
Oregon passed its constitution in 1858 sending two senators – Lane and Delazon Smith – as well as, La Fayette Grover as representative to Washington. The men could not take seats or salary until Congress admitted Oregon as a State. Problems with slavery and Kansas mired the discussions in Washington. Finally, 15 Republicans broke party ranks. The Republican party opposed the convention clause prohibiting emigration of free African Americans into the State. Oregon won statehood 12 February 1859 by a narrow 114 to 103 vote.
The victory was pyrrhic for the Clique. Smith joined with Lane while Bush managed to deny Smith’s reelection to his senate position. Lane lost as vice presidential candidate on John Breckenridge’s southern Democratic ticket of 1860. With the Civil War, the Democratic party fractured and the Republicans filled the void for the most part – Oregon senator James Nesmith a prominent exception.
CIVIL WAR AND RESURGENCE
Grover focused his attentions back on his law practice and interests in the Willamette Woolen Mill. He did help organize the Union party made up of Republicans and Douglas-minded Democrats during the Civil War. In spite of that, he did support McClellan in 1864. Following the end of the war, he helped to reassemble the Democratic party becoming the state central committee chairman in 1866. He helped led the way for a stunning Democratic victory in 1870.
Race played central in his victories. Running against the forces of monopolistic capitalists (Republicans) he sold the vision of Republicans wanting to bring the working man down to the level of impoverished Chinese immigrants. The Burlingame Treaty of 1868 – Republican – by extending most-favored-nation status on China encouraged Chinese migration to “swarm in upon us like locusts.” By raising the anti-Chinese flag, Grover was borrowing from Californian political exhortations aimed at the white workingman. What was most effective was the threat of possible destruction of a homogenous white population and a changed Oregon. Chinese were those railed against, but African Americans were never far behind in most minds.
THE RACE CARD INSTEAD OF THE BLOODY SHIRT
the chinese
Chinese enfranchisement was the Republican goal according to La Fayette Grover, but he went further stating the reconstruction amendments – 14th and 15th – took away the “first element” of Oregon’s constitution, “the right to regulate suffrage”. The state had narrowly (25-22) ratified the 14th amendment – giving guaranteeing all born in the United States or naturalized, including former slaves, the right to due process under the law as citizens – in 1866, though at the same time another law passed prohibiting interracial marriage.
the african americans
Democrats, led by Grover, took control of the legislature. In part, an influx of emigrants from the defeated South aided the party. One of the goals of the new majority was to rescind the ratification of the 14th amendment which the new legislature promptly did. The amendment was already part of the federal constitution by this point, so by rescinding, no real effect would be made except as editor of the Democratic Portland Herald, Beriah Brown, put it, the move “will at least put Oregon right upon the record, as favoring a white man’s government.”
The same legislature in 1868 refused to ratify the 15th amendment giving the right to vote to all citizens, including African Americans. In doing so, Oregon became one of five western states – along with California – to refuse to ratify the amendment. Oregon’s constitution of 1859 denied the vote to African Americans. Grover argued the amendment “deprived the state of the right to regulate suffrage.” Refusing to ratify the 15th amendment, again, had no effect since like the 14th, enough states had ratified to make them federal laws. The state Supreme Court acknowledged the result in an 1870 decision allowing votes of African Americans to stand. It was not until 1959 when Oregon certified the 15th amendment and 1973 re-certified the 14th.
GROVER ASCENDENT
As governor, La Fayette Grover retooled the Democratic party through patronage building a “machine” more powerful than the old Salem Clique. Re-elected in 1874 and made a US senator in the summer of 1876 by the legislature. The election to the senate was the beginning of the end of his “machine”, however. Rumors of buying votes in the legislature abounded. In refusing to resign his governorship or wait until his term finished, Grover upset loyal Democrats with his ambitions.
A prelude to his introduction as a senator, Grover thought to be a kingmaker. The presidential election of 1876 is probably the most fraudulent in history. Southern states were still in rule of Reconstructive legislatures. Samuel Tilden received more votes, but Rutherford Hayes was seen as winning on the electoral stage. Many of his electoral votes were a direct result of those Reconstructive legislatures. In Oregon, Hayes won Oregon by 1,057 votes. Voters voted directly for electors of whom the three Republican electors were victorious.
WOULD-BE KINGMAKER
Grover invalidated one of those electors saying he was a government employee at the time of election. A deputy postmaster in Lafayette, John Watts resigned from his position before the Electoral College met. Grover then theorized with Watts invalid, the next highest vote getter, E.A. Cronin, a Democrat, should be the Elector in Watts’ place.
Normally, one electoral vote does not matter much. In this case, Hays eventually won the election by one vote. The Oregon Secretary of State declared the three Republican electors as victors, with Grover decided against. Eventually, a special electoral commission decided the matter in favor of Hays – only after Hays agreeing to end Reconstruction – and instead of reaching Washington as the hero, Grover was notorious or as the New York Times put it, “he was the ready, but somewhat ignorant, tool, of smarter people.” The Republican Senate in Washington seated him only after hearings about suddenly enriched Oregon legislators following his legislative victory.
LONG PASS INTO OBLIVION
With no influence in the Senate and reviled even by his own party in Oregon, La Fayette Grover was a non-factor in Washington. On his return to Oregon in 1884, he found his political career at an end. Moving from Salem to Portland, he served as lawyer and business director, dabbling in real estate on the side.
At first successful, many of his financial dealings went sour. By the time of his death in 1911, dying in poverty at 87 years of age. His wife and son are buried alongside him at River View though their headstones do not survive. The headstone of La Fayette Grover is a courtesy of a local Children of the American Revolution chapter. The previous must be lost in the mists of time.
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