One of T.B. Ferguson’s tenants in office was to not interfere with choosing candidates from within the Republican Party. Within months of taking office in December 1901, the 1902 elections loomed close. A new Territorial representative must be chosen to replace Flynn who was not running for reelection. Ferguson had run Flynn’s reelection campaign in 1900 and had received support from Flynn for Ferguson to be governor. Ferguson remained neutral.
“Bird S. McGuire of Paynee, assistant United States attorney for Oklahoma Territory emerged as a leading candidate from within the Republican party.” He was another friend of Ferguson from college days Bird S. McGuire okhistory. A former territorial governor, Cassius M. Barnes was also struggling for control of the Republican Party Cassius M. Barnes. “An all out fight in the Republican territorial convention was averted, due to the governor’s neutral stand in regard to candidates and factions, and because of his strong leadership for party unity.” “McGuire won the Republican Party nomination” and “McGuire defeated his Democratic opponent by only 500 votes out of over 94,000 votes cast. The Republicans barely won control of both houses of the territorial legislature, capturing fourteen of the twentysix seats in the House of Representative and seven of the thirteen seats in the Council. Ferguson’s efforts at party unity were instrumental in forging this narrow Republican victory.” Chronicles of Oklahoma 53:116, 1975 Following this election, Ferguson turned his attention to legislative matters. Ferguson provided strong leadership and acted more as an Oklahoman than a Republican. He took his executive duties seriously scrutinizing every piece of legislation that was sent to him and was not afraid to exercise his veto power. His messages, delivered personally to the legislative session which met in in 1903 and 1905 clearly spelled out his philosophy of government. One of the pillars of Ferguson’s legislative philosophy was the necessity of wise money management and sound financial planning. He pointed with pride to the balanced budget that had been maintained in 1902; to the next legislature he bragged that Oklahoma was free of bonded indebtedness.
Rather than waiting until the last minutes of the legislative session to pass an appropriations bill, he suggested this bill be passed early and that all private or individual appropriations be considered separately. He favored appropriations that fostered progress in the Territory, but relied on “safeguard to know that every appropriation asked for is necessary”. For example, he criticized the regents of the University Preparatory School at Tonkawa for indebting themselves, when building their new school, for more than the $15,000 that had been allocated by the territorial legislature.
As I have written in the past (2023 and 2024), Ferguson was a strong proponent of education https:// www. thewatongarepublican. com/ news/ ferguson- features-49 and https://www.thewatongarepublican. com/ news/ ferguson- features-74 . The largest part of his budget was for education.