Remembering Idaho’s founding fathers and the controversial debate in the road to statehood
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IDAHO FALLS – There was a “pensive and awful silence” as John Hancock took pen in hand and became the first of 56 delegates to sign the document Thomas Jefferson and the rest of the committee had drafted.
It was Aug. 2, 1776 and after months of debate, the Second Continental Congress now felt the magnitude of what they were doing.
The final draft of the document now known as the Declaration of Independence had been approved on July 4 after the written text had passed with a 12-0 vote two days earlier.
The words expressed what the colonists had been fighting for nearly a year and a half after the start of the Revolutionary War.
“We, therefore … solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved,” the document said. “With a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Each delegate approached the table to sign the document in large, bold ink, knowing full well it was an act of treason against the British Crown.
It “was believed by many at that time to be our own death warrants,” Benjamin Rush, a delegate from Pennsylvania, wrote of that historic moment.
It would be another 11 years before the Constitution was ratified and the United States of America, with its system of laws and democratic republic form of government, was born.
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Two hundred and forty-eight years later, the Declaration now sits in the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. Americans gather every July 4 to celebrate its existence and the accomplishments of the nation’s founding fathers.
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Wednesday, July 3, was another historic occasion for Idahoans. On that day in 1890, Idaho became the nation’s 43rd state. It also had a contentious beginning. Here’s a look back at some of the Gem State’s founding fathers and the issues of the day.
Idaho’s Constitutional Convention and the ‘anti-Mormon’ Test Oath
It was Benjamin Harrison, America’s 23rd president, who signed the act that created the state of Idaho. He later paid a visit to the Gem State and planted a tree at the Statehouse in Boise.
George Shoup, for whom Shoup Avenue in downtown Idaho Falls is named, was integral in getting the Constitutional Convention to assemble and begin the process that would lead to statehood.
“As territorial governor, Shoup guided the convention until they produced a constitution,” F. Ross Peterson writes in the book “Idaho’s Governors.”
William Clagett, an attorney who practiced law in several territories, including Idaho, served as president of the convention.
Between July 4 and August 6, 1889, representatives throughout the Idaho territory met in Boise to debate every important topic covered by the Constitution, according to the Idaho State Historical Society.
One of the most controversial issues was the Test Oath, a bill passed by the Idaho Legislature in 1884 and written into the Constitution that prevented members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from voting or holding public office.
The church practiced polygamy at the time, which the general public opposed. The increasing amount of Latter-day Saints coming to Idaho caused concerns about their voting power, which prompted the legislation.
Fred Dubois, a Republican delegate at the convention from whom the eastern Idaho town gets its name, was one of the legislation’s most ardent supporters. He’d previously served as a U.S. Marshall for Idaho who “became absolutely obsessed with the Mormon problem.” In that capacity, he felt it was his duty as a government agent to make sure Latter-day Saints obeyed the laws of the land, which outlawed polygamy.
On May 9, 1885, Dubois raided Paris, Idaho, where a large number of church members lived. He rounded up several polygamist men who were arrested and sent to prison.
“In December 1887, five Mormon men from southeastern Idaho, convicted of plural marriage, were sent to the United States Penitentiary at Sioux Falls, Dakota Territory, probably because the territorial penitentiary in Boise was overcrowded. They were the first Mormon men from Idaho sent to another territory to serve their time, and no doubt felt that they were martyrs to their religious beliefs,” a 2015 Idaho Statesman article reports.
This led to a rising anti-Mormon sentiment among the general population.
Dubois and others adamantly attached the Test Oath to the new Constitution. Shoup avoided any personal involvement in the issue, according to Peterson.
Shoup issued a proclamation on Oct. 5, 1889 calling for a November 5 election to ratify the Constitution. Voters ratified it 7 to 1.
“Shoup signed the document and it was forwarded to Washington,” Peterson writes.
It passed the House of Representatives in April 1890 and the Senate in June.
Dubois paid a visit to President Harrison at the White House on July 3, 1890. Harrison hadn’t yet signed the statehood bill and Dubois wanted it to be signed on July 4 so Idaho could celebrate its birthday on Independence Day.
Harrison explained stars were added to the flag on July 4 for all states admitted in the previous year. If he signed then, Idaho wouldn’t get its star on the flag until 1891.
Despite overwhelming support for a July 4 signing, Dubois reversed course.
“The responsibility is all mine and I ask you to sign the bill now. I want the star of Idaho on the flag tomorrow,” Dubois responded, according to the Idaho Statesman.
“I think you have chosen well,” Harrison told him.
After signing the bill, Harrison presented the 39-year-old delegate with the gold pen and a holder, saying, “There is no honor which can come to a young man greater than that of bringing your state into the Union.”
The LDS Church abolished polygamy that same year. The anti-Mormon clause was later appealed and ultimately upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Idaho Legislature removed the restrictions against church members in 1893, but the constitutional provision remained on the books until 1982.
A territorial governor’s role in Idaho’s creation
Twenty-seven years earlier, on March 4, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln created the Idaho Territory as America was at the height of the Civil War.
At the time of its creation, the territory “sprawled across an area one-quarter larger than Texas,” as reported on the state’s website, encompassing all of present day Idaho, Montana and most of Wyoming. Lincoln’s close friend, William Wallace, whom he appointed to serve as Idaho’s first territorial governor, came up with the boundaries.
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It was President Grover Cleveland who appointed Edward Stevenson to serve as Idaho’s first and only Democratic territorial governor in 1885. Stevenson was also the first Idaho citizen to serve as governor.
A native of New York, Stevenson lived in Michigan before heading west with the California gold rush in 1849. He was active in state politics, serving in multiple positions, including four terms in the state legislature. He settled in the Boise Basin in 1863.
A 2016 Idaho Falls Magazine article calls Stevenson “Idaho’s best territorial governor” because of his non-partisan and moderate approach to controversial issues, including the anti-Mormon legislation. It isn’t clear where he stood on the issue.
He is best remembered for preventing a measure that would’ve placed the northern part of the territory in Washington and the rest in Nevada.
Stevenson strongly objected to this move and requested an audience in Washington to be heard on the matter.
“He was denied the trip, but gained his point,” Robert Sims and Hope Benedict write in “Idaho’s Governors.” “Cleveland wanted to discourage absence of territorial governors from their posts of duty, and Stevenson was promised that if he would only stay home, the bill would not be signed.”
Cleveland’s prediction proved correct. Congress refused the plan in its next session and Governor Stevenson “took personal credit for having saved Idaho.”
He went on to be a huge supporter of Idaho’s application for statehood. Though he was replaced as governor after Benjamin Harrison took office, he continued to “work vigorously” to that end.
Though he was unsuccessful in a second bid for governor in 1894, he is regarded today as “one of Idaho’s most influential pioneers.”