Senator James Harvey Slater - Contact Information

James Harvey Slater (December 28, 1826 – January 28, 1899) was a 19th-century American lawyer, newspaperman, and Democratic politician who served as both a United States Representative and a United States Senator from Oregon. An Illinois native, he also served in the Oregon Territorial Legislature and later in the Oregon State Legislature, and was the owner and editor of the Corvallis Union newspaper. His service in Congress, including his tenure in the Senate from 1871 to 1885, occurred during a significant period in American history, when he participated in the legislative process and represented the interests of his Oregon constituents.

Slater was born near Springfield in Sangamon County, Illinois, where he attended local schools. In 1849 he moved west to California during the era of westward expansion, and in 1850 he settled in Corvallis in the Oregon Territory. There he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1854, beginning a legal career that would underpin his later work in public office. That same year, in 1854, he married Elizabeth (Edna) Gray; the couple would have ten children, among them Woodson T. Slater, who later served as a justice of the Oregon Supreme Court.

Soon after his arrival in Oregon, Slater entered public service. In Corvallis he served as clerk of the district court of the Territory of Oregon for Benton County from 1853 to 1856. He was elected to the Oregon Territorial Assembly, serving from 1857 to 1858, and, following Oregon’s admission to the Union, he was a member of the Oregon House of Representatives from 1859 to 1860. In addition to his legislative duties, he was postmaster of Corvallis from 1859 to 1860. From 1858 to 1861 he owned and edited the Corvallis Union newspaper, using the press as a platform for public affairs while continuing to build his reputation as a lawyer and community leader.

After 1861 Slater moved north to Walla Walla, in what is now Washington State, and then returned to Oregon, first to Auburn and finally, in 1866, to the Eastern Oregon town of La Grande, which became his long-term home and professional base. In La Grande he was appointed district attorney for Oregon’s fifth judicial district in 1868, further solidifying his standing in the state’s legal community. That same year he also served as a presidential elector on the Democratic ticket, reflecting his growing prominence within the Democratic Party in Oregon.

Slater was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-second Congress and served as a United States Representative from March 4, 1871, to March 3, 1873. After this single term in the House of Representatives, he returned to the practice of law in La Grande. He reentered national politics in the late 1870s and was elected to the United States Senate from Oregon, serving from March 4, 1879, to March 3, 1885. A member of the Democratic Party, he contributed to the legislative process during two terms in Congress—first in the House and then in the Senate—at a time when the nation was grappling with the aftermath of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the development of the American West.

Following the conclusion of his Senate service in 1885, Slater again resumed the practice of law in La Grande. He continued to hold public responsibilities at the state level, serving as a member of the Oregon State railroad commission from 1889 to 1891, a position that placed him at the center of regulatory issues arising from the expansion of rail transportation in the Pacific Northwest. His later years were spent largely in La Grande, where he remained an influential figure in legal and civic affairs.

James Harvey Slater died in La Grande, Oregon, on January 28, 1899. He was interred in the Masonic Cemetery there. Through his work as a lawyer, legislator, newspaperman, and federal officeholder, he played a notable role in the political and legal development of Oregon from its territorial period through its early decades as a state.