When it comes to the first senators of states, not all have had impressive starts with who they sent. However, one of Colorado’s was unquestionably a man of tremendous influence and staying power in Henry Moore Teller (1830-1914).
Although a New Yorker by birth, Teller as a young man made his way west to seek his fortune as an attorney for miners. He was from the beginning of his time in politics opposed to slavery and joined the Republican Party in the 1850s. Settling in the Colorado Territory, Teller aimed to grow the region. Like many prominent Republicans of his day, he was a businessman, establishing with Edward L. Berthoud and William A.H. Loveland the Colorado Central Railroad, with him serving as president for five years. Although Teller is noted for his opposition to the Dawes Act, many of his actions were in opposition to Indian tribes as independent of society. From 1863 to 1865, he led the Colorado militia in campaigns against the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes.
In 1876, the state of Colorado, after multiple attempts from Republicans to admit the state to the Union, is finally admitted. Sworn in as its first senators are Teller and Jerome B. Chaffee on November 15th. Chaffee didn’t remain in the Senate too long, but Teller became a mainstay in American politics for over thirty years. His record in the Senate was as a moderate Republican, and consistently supportive of bimetallism as a policy, as opposed to the favored stance of the Republican Eastern establishment of the gold standard. Silver currency stimulated the mining of silver in the West and was inflationary, thus serving to help indebted farmers reduce their debt. Thus, Teller voted to override President Hayes’ veto of the Bland-Allison Silver Purchase Act, establishing bimetallism as a policy. In 1882, President Chester Arthur nominated Teller to the post of interior secretary.
Interior Secretary
As Interior Secretary, Teller supported measures aimed at forcibly assimilating Indians into American society, including legal penalties for continuing to engage in certain tribal practices. He saw them continuing their practices as holding them back from advancement in white society and wished them to convert to Christianity. Teller also backed opening numerous Indian lands to white settlement and was strongly favorable to developing the west. After the election of Grover Cleveland, Teller was out of the Interior Department but back in the Senate.
Teller Returns to the Senate: Opposition to the Dawes Act and to Edmunds-Tucker Act
The Dawes Act of 1887 probably deserves more coverage than I’m giving it here, but it was in short an attempt at social engineering American Indian tribes to adopt individual property ownership instead of the concept of communal property, thus furthering assimilation policy. The law proved catastrophic for Indian tribes in its land allotment scheme; during the life of the Dawes Act they lost 90 million acres of land (or 2/3’s of the holdings they had in 1887), with at least some of it obtained through fraud. Teller strongly opposed allotment, warning that it would serve “to despoil the Indians of their lands and to make them vagabonds on the face of the earth” and held that “the real aim [of allotment] was to get at the Indian lands and open them up to settlement. The provisions for the apparent benefit of the Indians are but the pretext to get at his lands and occupy them. … If this were done in the name of greed, it would be bad enough; but to do it in the name of humanity … is infinitely worse” (Otis, 18-19).
Interestingly, although Teller did not vote on the Edmunds-Tucker Act in 1887 which disincorporated the Church of Latter-Day Saints for polygamy, it was clear he opposed it as excessively harsh, a pretty lonely stance within the GOP, which had in its 1856 platform regarded polygamy and slavery as twin evils.
Teller was ultimately a deeply respected senator in Colorado not only for his politics transcending his party affiliation but also for his advocacy for the West. He was known as the “defender of the West” and as “Colorado’s Grand Old Man” (Straayer). However, the state’s “Grand Old Man” would not remain with the “Grand Old Party”.
Estrangement from the GOP
The Panic of 1893 plunged the United States into the worst depression it had faced thus far, with rural areas especially suffering. After the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890, the repeal being backed by Bourbon Democrats and conservative Republicans, Colorado’s economy suffered horribly with numerous residents looking to leave. Although Teller opposed the Gorman-Wilson Tariff in 1894 like the other Republicans, he also supported keeping the provision imposing an income tax on the wealthy.
In 1896, Teller led the walkout of the Republican National Convention when a bimetallism plank was overwhelmingly defeated (Larson, 189). Thus, he and other Republican politicians from the West refused to support William McKinley and formed the “Silver Republican Party” in protest, which backed Democrat William Jennings Bryan.
Final Years in Office: McKinley and Roosevelt
Although Teller historically supported Republican tariff policy, he opposed the Dingley Tariff in 1897, not wanting to support the GOP on this one if they would no longer accommodate bimetallism. In 1898, he sponsored the Teller Amendment, which put the Senate on record in opposition to the U.S. annexing Cuba in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War. The US would only remain in Cuba until 1902. The Silver Republican Party as a faction came to an end after the 1900 election given the passage of the Gold Standard Act and the economy had recovered by that point, but Teller did not return to the GOP as many Silver Republicans did. He switched to the Democratic Party and helped build up its support in Colorado. Teller was an interesting addition to the Democratic Party as he did not necessarily change all his core values when he entered their party, for instance retaining his old party’s Lincolnian legacy on blacks, which was beginning to make minor strides in the Democratic Party of the early 1900s. Teller did also support increasing spending on the US navy, consistent with the view of influential author Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan that the great powers of history had strong navies. By 1909, he was 78 years old and opted not to have another term. His DW-Nominate score was a 0.161, reflecting an overall moderate record. Teller departed public life in 1912 and died on February 23, 1914. The state of Colorado has numerous places named in his honor, most notably Teller County.
References
Buys, C.J. Henry Teller. Colorado Encyclopedia.
Retrieved from
https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/henry-teller
Holsinger, M.P. Henry M. Teller and the Edmunds-Tucker Act. Colorado Magazine, 48(1), 1-14.
Retrieved from
Larson, R.W. (2013). New Mexico’s quest for statehood, 1846-1912. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press.
Retrieved from
https://www.google.com/books/edition/New_Mexico_s_Quest_for_Statehood_1846_19/6OlME56WpfAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA189&printsec=frontcover
Otis, D.S. (1973). The Dawes Act and the allotment of Indian lands. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
Straayer, J.A. Teller, Henry (1830-1914). Encyclopedia of the Great Plains.
Retrieved from
http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.pg.080
Teller, Henry Moore. Voteview.
Retrieved from
https://voteview.com/person/9246/henry-moore-teller
Mad Politics: The Bizarre, Fascinating, and Unknown of American Political History 