[4] In 1870, the United States government had granted the railroad three million acres (12,000 km2) of land to build a line from Portland south to California.

[8][9] While in Congress, Lafferty continued his fight on behalf of his constituents affected by the railroad land issue.

[13] In 1916, the situation repeated itself: Lafferty sought the Republican nomination and lost to McArthur, and then ran as an Independent in the general election.

[15] Following his defeat in 1916, he resumed his Portland law practice until World War I, when he served as a major at a San Francisco training camp.

During his first term in Congress, he solicited the acquaintance of two young women to whom he had not been formerly introduced, including the daughter of a federal official, in violation of social norms of the times.

[2] In 1933, he purchased the historic Riversdale Mansion in Riverdale, Maryland, living there until he sold it to the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission in 1949.

[21] However, Congress passed a further act that gave control of those lands to the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Lafferty's appeal that his case had precedence.

To reintroduce himself to constituents after his lengthy absence from Oregon, Lafferty launched a series of advertisements that featured an unusual assortment of information, such as excerpts from letters, snippets of poetry, pictures of notables such as Abraham Lincoln, and references to his fight for the O&C counties.

[24] At the time of his death, he was still seeking full payment for his fees from his court cases on behalf of the O&C counties and owed several hundred thousand dollars in back taxes.