7/25/2013:
A citizen-led impeachment committee in Watertown, Dakota Territory, forwarded an arraignment to President Grover Cleveland on this date in 1888. The arraignment issued various charges against the appointment of Louis Church to Territorial Governor of Dakota, and argued for his immediate impeachment and removal. Of course, the fact that Church had been appointed by President Cleveland and was close friends with the President did not bode well for the citizen’s committee.
In 1888, Dakota Territory was on the verge of statehood. Two camps formed among both Dakotans and politicians in Washington; some favored the territory entering the Union as a single entity, while most wanted the territory to be split into two, entering instead as two states. Territorial Governor Church, the territory’s first Democratic Governor, favored Dakota entering as a single state, as did his predecessors, Governors Ordway and Pennington.
Church had been appointed to the governorship in 1887, after serving two years as the territory’s Third District Judge. President Cleveland was responsible for appointing Church to both posts; it is believed that the appointments were Cleveland’s way of repaying Church’s earlier political assistance. In the early 1880s, Church and Theodore Roosevelt, then members of the New York State Legislature, helped Cleveland, then Governor of New York, defeat the corrupt Tammany Hall political bosses that had been dominating New York politics. When Cleveland won the presidency, his judicial appointment of Church to Dakota’s Third District sent the New York politician west.
Church proved popular as a judge. Hard-working and fair, he quickly garnered a positive reputation amongst the mainly-Republican residents of the Territory, despite his democratic leanings. This positive reputation led to Cleveland’s second appointment of Church, this time to Territorial Governor. However, once in a more executive position, Church’s politics proved more problematical to his constituency, especially his opposition to dividing the Territory prior to statehood. Although repeated attempts to contest Church’s appointment or impeach him proved futile, his unpopularity ultimately led to his resignation on March 9th, 1889, only days after President Cleveland himself left office.
Dakota Datebook written by Jayme L. Job
Sources:
Dill, Joseph (ed.). 1988 North Dakota: 100 Years: p. 3. The Forum Publishing Company: Fargo, ND.
The Daily Argus. Fargo, North Dakota. Saturday, July 28, 1888: p. 1.
http://history.nd.gov/exhibits/governors/tgovernors9.html
http://history.sd.gov/archives/forms/governors/territorial/church.pdf