Fred Dubois

Fred Dubois

Fred Thomas Dubois (* 29. May 1851 in Palestine , Crawford County , Illinois ; †  14. February 1930 in Washington, DC ) was an American politician who the state of Idaho twice in the US Senate represented. Previously, he was a delegate of the Idaho Territory in the United States House of Representatives .

Early years

Fred Dubois had French Canadian roots. His paternal grandfather, Toussaint Dubois , was from Montreal and fought on the American side in both the Revolutionary War and the British-American War . His father Jesse was working for the Land Office in Palestine at the time of his birth and was a friend of future President Abraham Lincoln . In 1856 he was elected State Auditor (today: Comptroller ) of Illinois and then moved with his family to the capital Springfield .

During his studies at Yale from 1870 to 1872, Fred Dubois was accepted into the Scroll and Key Society . He then worked as a businessman until 1875; then he was a member of the State Committee on Railways and Wholesale Markets for a year. After his father's death, he moved to the Idaho Territory in 1880 with his older brother, Jesse, a doctor. There he was appointed US Marshal in 1882 by President Chester A. Arthur . In his new home, Dubois ran a campaign against the Mormons who he accused of breaking the law by practicing polygamy . He succeeded in having the members of this religious community withdrawn from voting.

Political career

Territorial delegate and first term in the Senate

Encouraged by this success, Dubois applied for the mandate of Territorial Delegate in Congress as a member of the Republican Party in 1886 . He defeated the Democratic incumbent John Hailey and replaced him on March 4, 1887. He remained in Washington until the dissolution of the Idaho Territory on July 3, 1890. He had previously campaigned vigorously for the founding of Idaho and rejected plans to divide the territory among neighboring regions. Among other things, he made personal contact with President Benjamin Harrison and brought into play the relationship between his grandfather William Henry Harrison and his own grandfather, who had fought together in the Battle of Tippecanoe .

The Idaho Legislature elected George Laird Shoup and William J. McConnell as the first two US Senators for the new state in November 1890 . It was already clear that Connell would only be in Congress for a short time. According to the class division of the Senate seats, his remaining term of office as Class 3 Senator only lasted until March of the following year. A successor was elected for the following legislative period, with Fred Dubois prevailing against William H. Clagett , President of the Constitutional Convention of Idaho.

During his first tenure as senator, Dubois focused on domestic political issues and preferred positions that could benefit his home state. He was a proponent of protective tariffs , especially on wool and lead - two goods of which Idaho produced a lot. In 1894 he helped draw up a contract with the Nez Percé . As a supporter of bimetalism , he was one of those Republicans who left their party in 1896 and split off to form the Silver Republican Party . However, this cost him re-election in the same year, because in this way the Democrats and the Populist Party won a majority in the Idaho Parliament. They elected the populist Henry Heitfeld as senator in his place ; Dubois had to leave Congress on March 3, 1897. He returned to his ranch in Blackfoot , where he grew alfalfa .

Return to the Senate

When the Silver Republican Party broke up, Dubois did not rejoin the Republicans. Instead, he let the Democrats run him as a candidate for the Senate election in 1900. He defeated his former political companion George Shoup and took his place in Congress on March 4, 1901, whereupon he also joined the Democratic Party. As a result, he continued to appear as an opponent of the gold standard . But he turned his main attention to campaigning against imperialism ; he also continued to oppose the Mormons. He led a group whose aim was to force Reed Smoot , the first Mormon elected to the Senate, to resign.

Dubois fought against efforts to make the Philippines, won by Spain in the Spanish-American War , a US territory . First he called for the independence of the archipelago; after visiting it in 1905, he changed his mind and advocated a sale to Japan because Filipinos were unable to govern themselves. The main reason for his opposition to territorial expansion was the economic competition he feared between the new territories and the rest of the United States. Unlike most members of his new party, Dubois supported President Theodore Roosevelt's policies on environmental protection. In the run-up to the 1904 presidential election , he campaigned for William Randolph Hearst to be nominated.

His attitude towards the Mormons cost Dubois re-election in 1906. Because the Republicans regained a majority in the Idaho state parliament as a result, they were able to elect the lawyer William Borah to succeed him.

Late years

Fred Dubois lived the rest of his life in the federal capital Washington. Attempts to be successful as a writer and businessman have failed. In 1912 he assisted Champ Clark in trying to run as a Democratic presidential candidate; after his defeat he worked for the victorious Woodrow Wilson and was also part of the campaign staff when he was re-elected in 1916. In 1918 he campaigned in Idaho for the election of progressive politicians from both parties to support Wilson's agenda in Washington, including his own successor William Borah.

Dubois held his last public office as a member of a commission for the settlement of border conflicts with Canada, of which he belonged from 1924 until his death on February 14, 1930. He was buried in Blackfoot. The town of Dubois in Clark County was named after him in his honor. There is Dubois Avenue in Twin Falls town .

Web links

• Fred Dubois in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Fred Dubois in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Biography (English)