Ungovernor, 1892 – Roger Sherman Greene

Roger Sherman Greene, the Prohibition Party candidate for Governor in 1892 who came in dead last with just under 5% of the vote, had one of the more interesting lives of the four men running that year.

Biographies of Judge Greene usually mention his lineage, "He comes of old New England stock, and in his character can be detected some of the strongest virtues of his ancestry. On the maternal side he is a grandson of Roger Sherman, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. His mother, Mary Evarts, was the daughter of Jeremiah Everts and a sister of William M. Evarts, recently United States Senator from New York, who for many years has been recognized as the ablest member of the American bar. His father, Rev. David Greene, a native of Stoneham and long a resident of Boston, Mass., was for twenty years corresponding secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. The family residence was at Roxbury, Mass., now a part of Boston, and there December 14, 1840, Roger Sherman Greene was born."

The Greenes moved to Westborough, Mass. and a couple years later to Windsor, Vt. In 1859 Roger graduated from Dartmouth. He then started a career in law, probably through his Evarts family connection, employed in New York City with Evarts, Southmayd & Choate, "a firm composed of as brilliant men as ever adorned the bar of the metropolis of America, each of whom had at that time gained national renown."

Roger Greene became part of the epic Civil War drama when he enlisted in late 1862, eventually becoming Captain of "Company C, Fifty-first United States Colored Infantry." He was wounded in 1863 when he was shot through his right arm at Vicksburg.

"After the close of his military service, Judge Greene was offered the position of Assistant United States District Attorney for the southern district of New York, but declined the office, and in January, 1866, began the practice of his profession in Chicago, where he occupied the same office with Perkin Bass, then United States Attorney, with whom he was ultimately associated in practice. He remained in Chicago until his appointment by President Grant as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Washington Territory, when he settled at Olympia."

Greene kept getting reappointed to the Washington Territorial Supreme Court, and in 1879 when he was given the post of Chief Justice he moved to Seattle. Greene established himself as someone willing to hold unpopular opinions. He was, according to historian Mary Nicol, "a life-long advocate of equal rights. He was an ardent supporter of women's suffrage, and a strong advocate of the right and ability of women to serve on juries." Writer Lucile McDonald adds Greene was also known as "something of a crank in his zeal to wipe out vice."

In Jan. 1882 Judge Greene became the stuff of legends when got out of a sickbed and attempted to stop a lynching. Three men were hung by an angry mob in Seattle. Greene jumped up on the platform and managed to cut at the rope of one man before the crowd overpowered him. According to McDonald, "Next morning former acquaintances and friends refused to speak to the judge. On Sunday a minister preached a sermon denouncing him and praising the lynchings."

Greene's term on the Court ended in Mar. 1887. "Upon retiring from the bench, Judge Greene formed a co-partnership in the practice of law with C. H. Hanford and John H. McGraw, which a few months later was dissolved and a new firm formed under the style of Greene, McNaught, Hanford & McGraw. A year later this firm was dissolved, at which time Judge Greene temporarily retired from practice." Yes, that McGraw is the same person who was elected Governor in 1892.

"Roger Greene had a reason for leaving the field of law in 1888, he had heard the calling. In June he announced he was going to do the Lord's work, which included running for the office of Delegate to Congress as a member of the Prohibition Party. He had been active in the prohibition movement for quite some time, forming an alliance with former Governor William Newell and others. The Prohibition Party platform called for equal rights for women, direct election of U.S. Senators, restricted immigration, improvement of conditions for labor, and other issues later co-opted by the Populists. But with one difference from the Pops, and a rather big one at that– the prohibition of liquor. The 1888 Prohibition Party platform included this bit: "The liquor power is the mightiest instigator of political iniquity, the most fertile source of political corruption, the unfailing promotion of social disorder, and the element of extreme danger to American civilization and freedom."

It was during this election the Prohibition Party called in a proven campaigner, Edward B. Sutton. This began a 20-year career in Puget Sound for the prohibition activist, who was apparently a gifted and persuasive speaker. Even so, according to Norman Clark, "As an organizer of prohibitionist sentiment, Sutton was superb, but political fortune did not immediately follow. Roger Greene polled 1,137 of about 50,000 votes cast in the election for delegate to Congress. E.B. Sutton, however, was not discouraged. The defeat of Greene he regarded as a challenge to the energy and determination of the temperance leaders, for more people were coming to Washington each month, and he knew the movement would grow."

In June 1889 Greene returned to the practice of law, partnering with J.J. Turner under the name Greene & Turner.

The 1892 gubernatorial campaign from the Prohibition Party point of view has been described by historian Norman Clark (trivia: in retirement, Mr. Clark worked briefly as a part-time faculty at SPSCC in the 1990s. I met him and found Mr. Clark to be a thoughtful and scholarly man): "In 1892 the 'Prohibs,' as Sutton called them, ran a full ticket in Washington, from President right down to state printer. It was a year of economic and social unrest, and the party tried to strengthen its identity with the 'common people's' war against 'the interests.' The platform of 1892 was not only a hard statement of uncompromising hatred of liquor; it was again an appeal for the votes of the discontented. On state issues the party stood for 'abolishing the sweating systems as practiced in some of the mining districts,' for tax reform, and for women's suffrage."

"The Prohibs ran Roger S. Greene for governor. Sutton distributed over two hundred thousand pieces of printed material, made scores of speeches, and spent over three thousand dollars." And although this would be a good showing for the Prohibition Party as far as Washington gubernatorial races go, Greene came in 4th out of four candidates with 3,937 votes (4.38%). Olympia's John Miller Murphy of the Washington Standard, one time a promoter of prohibition himself, commented, "Prohibition is too big a word for such a small party to wear. The Dewdrop party would sound better and conform more fully to the eternal fitness of things. Dew is evanescent; it comes early, goes soon and leaves no trace of its presence. By all means let it be dewdrop." Murphy would've been surprised to know that the Prohibs are still with us today, with their 2008 national standard-bearer being from Vashon Island– over a century later– surviving to be America's oldest third party.

Judge Greene rejoined the Republican Party after 1892. He saw the voters of Washington legalize prohibition in 1914 via Initiative No. 3. And a few years later he witnessed the whole country going dry.

In 1917 his wife Grace died. Shortly after that he married May Jones and moved to Oakland, Calif. May died in 1929. During a visit to Seattle he joined the choir eternal at the home of his daughter Feb. 17, 1930. In his obituary, it was his heroism in the face of an 1882 lynch mob that made him most remembered. His run for governor and connection with the Prohibition Party was almost a footnote. National repeal of Prohibition was still three years away.

Yet, in spite of his zeal for prohibition, he is also remembered today for his ahead-of-his-time view on the rights of women and his efforts to make that a reality in the legal world. Roger Sherman Greene is definitely a Washington pioneer political figure who deserves more attention from historians. His low percentage in the 1892 gubernatorial results does not reflect his importance and impact on the history of our State and he deserves serious consideration from future Washington historians covering the 1879-1892 period.

Update
In George E. Blankenship’s Lights and Shades of Pioneer Life on Puget Sound (1923) he made this observation on Judge Greene:

"Judge Roger S. Greene, Chief Justice of the Territory from 1879 to 1887. A learned Judge whose devout Christian character led him to occupy the Baptist pulpit in Olympia in connection with his legal duties. He stood six feet four inches and looked to weigh 100 pounds."

"In point of dignity Judges Greene and Dennison broke about 50-50, and it was only once that they were known to break through their frozen fronts and appear almost human. Judge Dennison, in quoting an authority, insisted on saying brownie for browne. This continued until Judge Greene could tolerate it no longer, and interrupted. ‘Judge Dennison, why do you insist on saying brownie for browne?’ ‘Well, your honor, the name is spelled with a final ‘e.” ‘Yes,’ said Greene, ‘so is mine, but would you call me Greenie?’ ‘That depends very much on how you decide this motion,’ said Dennison, a reply too good to be rebuked."  

Robert E. Ficken on Greene
From Washington Territory / Robert E. Ficken. WSU Press 2002
"Learning that the Illinois patronage quota was filled, quick thinking Chicago lawyer and Washington supreme court aspirant Roger S. Greene secured appointment by claiming to be a Wisconsin resident. Friends, to say nothing of enemies, considered him a ‘religious crank’ bound, by terminal foot-in-mouth habit, to ‘say or do a thing in the wrong way, at the wrong place or at the wrong time.’ Citing, for authority, a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit, Greene imposed harsher sentences upon prostitutes than upon violent criminals. ‘I would rather before him take my chances … on one of the high orders of felonies,’ said Elwood Evans, ‘than for buying a drink on Sunday.’ Supported by the equally sanctimonious Governor Ferry, Greene had no biblical scruples about making money. He solicited funds for the ‘Gospel Ship,’ a trading vessel built, according to the false claim of its confidence-artist owners, to carry the word of God to coastal Indians. Correctly anticipating that the Northern Pacific would buy him out at a generous profit, Greene purchased, on the basis of inside information, acreage scheduled for inclusion in the land grant. Most local attorneys expressed disgust, but solid political credentials in the East kept Greene on the job for sixteen years, the longest-serving, and strangest, jurist in territorial history."

-- By Steve Willis

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