The Elevator, p. 2

The Elevator, p. 2

“Galusha A. Grow, once leader of the House of Representatives through a part of the stormy anti-slavery fight, and Speaker of the House in the momentous Congress of 1861 62, has been a Texan now for several years. He has been spending several weeks among his old Pennsylvania friends, and was in New York yesterday, but returns within a week to his duty as President of the Houston and Great Northern Railroad, the International and the Brazoria Tap Roads, making altogether lines of over 500 miles through the heart of Texas. Mr. Grow is the only speaker of the late years who has been compelled by the tumultuous applause of the galleries to threaten to clear them during the delivery of his own inaugural address. It was on the memorable 4th of July, 1861, and the ringing sentences which evoked the uncontrollable applause were these: ‘No flag alien to the sources of the Mississippi River will ever float permanently over its mouths till its waters are crimsoned with human gore; and not one foot of American soil can ever be wrenched from the jurisdiction of the Constitution of the United States until it is baptised in fire and blood. A government that cannot command the loyalty of its own citizens in unworthy the respect of the world, and a government that will not protect its loyal citizens deserves the contempt of the world.’ The force of the stirring words was all the greater with an audience remembering the speaker as a man who had knocked down Keitt, of South Carolina, in a melee on the floor of the House. The same ability and pluck have won him equal honor in these latter days in Texas.”

San Francisco Elevator

1874-10-10