Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 12.djvu/199

This page needs to be proofread.

tributed to its pages have surely elicited the admiration of all who had not earlier the good fortune of knowing him per- sonally.

He served many terms in the state legislature, was for a time Indian agent and from 1895 to 1899 was state land agent. He was always the ardent, fearless and able advocate of what appeared to him the cause of humanity. His place is among the elite of Oregon. He did noble civic service from his coming to the state in 1851 until the date of his death.

Ex-Governor LaFayette Grover, who died on May 10, had a leading part in the public affairs of Oregon from the time of his coming in 1851 to the close of his term as United States Senator in 1883. He compiled the legislation of the Provisional Government period, adjusted claims arising out of depreda- tions of Rogue River Indians, 1854, 1 and those due for services and supplies furnished during the Yakima War. 2 He was a member of the State Constitutional convention, one of the most active. When Oregon was admitted he was the state's first representative in Congress. In 1870 he was elect- ed governor, mainly on the Chinese exclusion issue. During his two terms he was very active in securing title for the state to the lands inuring to it under the different congressional grants. In his term the Willamette Falls canal and locks were constructed, but the entrance upon the policy of subsidizing railways was blocked by his vetoing a bill for Portland to issue $300,000 of bonds to aid Ben Holladay in building a railroad from Portland up the west side of the Willamette Valley. In 1876 he came into the national limelight, so to speak, when he refused to certify the election of John W. Watts as one of the Republican presidential electors on the ground that his posi-

His associates were Addison C. Gibbs, governor of Oregon in 1862-66, and G. H. Ambrose.

This war began early in October, 1855, and lasted about one year. It was caused by a general uprising of most of the Indian tribes then in Oregon and Washington Territories in order to drive the whites from the country. As the military force of the United States in these territories was weak, volunteers were called into service by the respective governors and the Indians were subdued. By virtue of an act of Congress passed August 18, 1856, the Secretary of War appointed Captains A. J. Smith and Rufus Ingalls, of the Regular Army, and Capt. L. F. Grover, of the volunteer forces, as commissioners to audit all claims con- nected with this war.