The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1914-12-31
HOW LEGISLATION LOST
CAPITAL 50 YEARS AGO
LEGISLATURE CHANGED 1T TO
BOISE, BUT RECORDS WERE
TAKEN 8 YFoRCE.

Fifty years ago yesterday an act of
the Idaho legislature went into effect
removing the capital of the territory
from Lewiston to Boise. AT least the
law said it should then go into effect
although on that particular Christmas
eve, 10 years ago, a guard of Lewiston
citizens, armed with rifles, stood over
the records of the territory of Idaho to
see that they were not removed to
Boise says the Lewiston Tribune
These Lewiston citizens, perhaps
filled with home pride. as eager In
those days to show their home patrio-
tism as are their successors today, Sc
cured an injunction to restrain the Of
hcials from removing the records to
Boise. 1t was claimed that the, cleo
ton of the members of the legislature
which passed the act was illegal. One
trifling incident Of which complaint
was made was that the election of
william H. Wallace to the position of
delegate to congress was illegal be-
cause the United States marshal went
over to Montana, then a part of Idaho,
and brought back 1000 majority for
Governor Wallace, the republican
candidate for congress, when there
were only SO men in Montana at the
time. The histories do not say whe-
Their this was one of the grounds for
Directing to the election of the legis-
lature
Lewiston Men on Guard.
These reasons for declaring the leg
islature Illegal whatever they were,
were held to be good by no less a man
than Aleck Smith United States judge
of the first judicial district of the ter
ritory. No sooner was this decision
made than an appeal was taken by the
Boise people to the supreme court Of
the territory But others of the Boise
adherents decided to try some other
method of getting possession of the
books and Lewiston people who sus-
pected their intentions determined to
prevent the :ttcmpt So the books
were guarded by voluntet,g, day after
day and night aftcr night. Finally,
however by the use of strategy, or
something else the guard was tempt (
ed away from his post, the books were
seized by man said to nave been Sol
Hasbrouck, clerk of the court, who
jumped into a rowboat and roWed
down the river out Of reach Of legal
process, and out Of reach Of what In
those days was more drcadcd-Lew
iston rifles. That seems to have end
ed the fight and Boise thenceforth was
recognized as the capital Of the terri
tory.
Idaho in those first days took in all
Of the present state and went east as
far as the 9th degree of longitude
west Of Washington All Of Montana
and all of Wyoming were parts Of Ida
no and the west ends Of the two Da-
kotas and of Nebraska belonged to
Idaho and were entitled to send men,
bers Of the legislature to Lewiston for
the first session, If there were any in
habitants in these, sections at that
time The present towns of Chappell,
Sidney, Kimball, Alliance, Hcmingford,
Crawford and Chadron, all county
seats in Nebraska, are situated in
what then was Idaho All of the Black
Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming
were then in this territory. l.
Lewiston Made Capital. T.
Lewiston was appointed the terri
torial capital by Governor Wallace,
who was named by President Lincoln
for the position. There wasn't a real
city in the whole vast territory at that
time though there were thousands of
miners who wintered at Lewiston and
Lewiston was the only place that could
pretend to be town. Bosses exist
ence started 4 little later than Lew
iston's, following the discovery of gold
in the Boise basin early in the sum-
mer of 1853.
Warrens and Florence miners are
said to have first thought Of making
a new territory out of that part of
what was the territory Of Washington.
They wanted mining laws enacted
What other ambitions and hopes some
or them had no one now knows. ]
William M. Kellogg of Illinois, on
December Is, 1862, introduced a resell !
ution in the national house Of repre-
sentatves asking the committee on
territories to determine the propriety
of making a new territory 'for that
region OF country in which are stu
atcd the Salmon river gold mines
Professor H. L. darlington of Lewis
ton, in his book, THE Political his
tory, State Constitution and School
Laws of Idaho" gives the data con-
corning the early days Of the state and
facts relating to the creation Of the
territory and the removal of the cap
ital rrEl
Naming the Territory.
James M. Ashley member Of CON-
gross from Ohio, introduced a bill to
create Idaho, on December %, 1852.
There was some discussion as to whe-
Their the name should be Idaho or
Montana, Idaho later being agreed up .
on and the other name subsequently !