By Parker Anderson

Ralph Henry Cameron had been elected to the U. S. Congress from the Territory of Arizona in 1908 and became involved in the battle in Washington for Arizona statehood.  By August 1911, President Taft signed the bill for statehood and the territorial politicians scrambled to write a proposed state constitution and elect its first official state officeholders.  Cameron, realizing his term as Congressman would be over, decided to run for U. S. Senate instead, hoping to be the first senator from the new State of Arizona.  In the fall of 1911, Cameron was back on the campaign trail.  The Republican leaning Journal Miner once again reported that crowds packed the Elks like sardines in a can for the campaign speeches just as they did for the elections of 1908.  Candidate after candidate got up and spoke.  When Ralph Cameron ascended the Elks stage, he thundered:

“Who got you statehood?  I will not bore you by telling you how in 1908 you elected me to Congress on my promise to bring you statehood.  I leave it to the people of the territory whether or not I have fulfilled my pledge.  When the Constitution arrived, I took it to President Taft and to the Attorney General and I asked them to approve it as it came from the people.  One day I asked the President if he would approve the Constitution as it stood, and he put a hand on each of my shoulders and looked me square in the eye and said ‘Mr. Delegate, I have carefully read the Constitution of Arizona, the Attorney General has carefully inspected the Constitution of Arizona, and I have come to the conclusion that I will pass the Constitution with the exception of the recall of the judiciary!’”

Riding high, the Republicans would hold another rally in the Elks on December 2, 1911.  Once again, the Journal Miner insisted that the Elks held “the largest crowd which has ever attended an indoor political rally.”

When Cameron spoke to the Elks Theater audience this time, he promised that, if elected to the U. S. Senate, he would appropriate 50,000 acres of land for the Pioneers Home.  But this time, rhetoric such as this was not enough.  On December 12, 1911 Henry Ashurst defeated Cameron to become the State of Arizona’s first U. S. Senator.  The statehood proclamation was signed by President Taft on February 14, 1912 and Ralph Cameron ended his service in Congress on February 18^th.

He lay low for a few years and returned to mining.  He also waged a futile legal battle to prevent the U. S. Government from declaring the Grand Canyon as a National Monument (he had extensive mining claims in the canyon, which he knew he would lose if the Grand Canyon were to be preserved).

However, the lure of political power beckoned to Cameron once again and, in 1920, he boldly entered the race for the U. S. Senate.  Few took him seriously (his claims of single-handedly securing statehood were already being derided) but once again, his ability to connect with the average citizen served him well in his campaign.  Times had changed and candidates no longer traveled together.  On October 21, 1920 the Elks Theater hosted a rally for Cameron alone.  He spoke, but few details have survived.

Because he said things the common people wanted to hear, Ralph Cameron was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1920 but he served only one term, marred by charges of corruption and cronyism, as well as charges of using his new position to try to get the government’s taking of the Grand Canyon declared illegal.  Fed up, voters did not re-elect him in 1926, choosing Carl Hayden instead.

During his failed re-election bid in 1926, Ralph Cameron returned to the Elks Theater for the fifth and last time on October 1st.  It was a meager affair and Cameron’s declining reputation had taken its toll.  Senator Cameron and his entourage were only allowed to hold their rally at 8:30, following the evening’s regular movie showing, a Hoot Gibson western called “The Texas Streak,” which Manager Charles Born did not cancel.  It was perhaps the ultimate indignity for Ralph Cameron, a man who insisted, and perhaps sincerely believed, that Arizona statehood was achieved solely because of his efforts, to be reduced to playing second fiddle to Hoot Gibson at the Elks.

Cameron tried and failed to return to the Senate in the elections of 1928 and 1932, but he never returned to the Elks Opera House.  Bitter and dejected, Cameron left Arizona and spent the rest of his life dividing his time between Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

Ralph Henry Cameron died in 1953 at the age of 89 without ever returning to politics.  In what appeared to be a final gesture of defiance toward his enemies, Cameron’s family laid him to rest in the Grand Canyon Pioneer Cemetery.  His tombstone reads: “Obtained Statehood for Arizona Feb. 14, 1912.”

(Find-a-Grave website) The Grand Canyon Pioneer Cemetery located adjacent to the Shrine of the Ages is an interesting place to browse. In addition to Ralph Cameron, the graves of the well known Kolb brothers are also found there as is a memorial to the 1956 crash victims of two commercial airliners over the Grand Canyon.

(Grand Canyon Pioneer Cemetery) Cameron’s gravestone states that he “OBTAINED STATEHOOD for Arizona Feb.14, 1912” and that “ARIZONA CAN NEVER FORGET HIM.” His role in statehood remains controversial due to his bad image stemming from corruption and cronyism during his years in politics. Arizona has pretty much forgotten him.