Early elections 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. 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, dropping out following the first ballot. 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.
1861 speaker election 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.
1861 election for speaker159 votes cast, 80 votes necessary to win election:
Galusha A. Grow (R–Pennsylvania) 99 Francis Preston Blair Jr. (R–Missouri) 12
John J. Crittenden (
CU–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.
Loss of congressional seat and interim 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.
Return to Congress 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. == Death and legacy ==