Democratic Party
Which political party did Fred Dubois belong to from 1901 to 1902?
Fred Dubois Fred Thomas Dubois ( May 29 , 1851February 14 , 1930 ) was a controversial American politician from Idaho who served two terms in the United States Senate . He was best known for his opposition to the gold standard and his efforts to disenfranchise Mormon voters . Early life and career . Dubois was of part French-Canadian descent . His paternal grandfather , Toussaint Dubois , was an immigrant who distinguished himself at the Battle of Tippecanoe . Dubois father , Jesse Kilgore Dubois , was an official at the U.S . Land Office in Palestine , Illinois , a former judge and state legislator , an early supporter of the Republican Party , and a close friend of fellow Illinois Republican Abraham Lincoln . In 1856 the elder Dubois was elected Illinois state auditor and moved the family to the state capital , Springfield . Fred Dubois studied at Yale College from 1870 to 1872 , where he was elected to Scroll and Key . He then participated in business until 1875 , when he was appointed to the board of railroad and warehouse commissioners of Illinois . He held this position for one year , resigning shortly before the death of his father . In 1880 , he moved to Idaho Territory with his brother , Dr . Jesse Dubois , Jr . ( 1850–1908 ) , a physician . In 1882 , Dubois was appointed to be the U.S . Marshal for the Idaho Territory . He launched a successful campaign to disenfranchise Mormon voters in the territory on the grounds they broke the law by practicing polygamy . Territorial delegate . Based on this political success , in 1886 Dubois ran as a Republican for the Congressional delegate position from the territory . He defeated the Democratic incumbent , John Hailey , and remained in the position until Idahos statehood in 1890 . Dubois strongly supported Idahos application for statehood and opposed efforts to split the territory among neighboring regions . He reputedly lobbied President Benjamin Harrison in support of Idaho statehood by alluding to the common Battle of Tippecanoe connection between Dubois grandfather and Harrisons grandfather , President William Henry Harrison . On July 3 , 1890 , Dubois requested that Harrison sign the act of statehood on the Independence Day the next day . However , Harrison responded that since the stars are added to the flag every July 4 for every state adopted the previous year , if he did so , Idaho would not get its star on the flag before next year , so Dubois asked him to sign the act immediately , which he did . Senator . Idaho became a state in July 1890 and that November , Dubois helped engineer a plan for the Idaho Legislature to effectively elect three people to the U.S . Senate : Governor George Shoup to the Class 2 seat up for election in 1894 , state constitutional convention member William J . McConnell to serve for the remainder of the 51st Congress , ending in March 1891 , and Dubois himself to succeed McConnell and serve a full six-year term in the Class 3 seat beginning in March 1891 . During his first term in the Senate , Dubois concentrated on domestic politics , advocating for positions that he thought would benefit Idaho . He was a strong supporter of tariffs , particularly on wool and lead which Idaho produced much of . He also helped to negotiate a treaty with the Nez Perce Native Americans in 1894 . In 1895 , commenting on the exemption of the Bannocks from hunting limits , he said , the extermination [ driven over the boundary ] of the whole lazy , shiftless non-supporting tribe of Bannocks would not be any great loss . Dubois most prominent position , however , was in support of bimetallism . In 1896 , he was among those who left the Republican Party to join the Silver Republican faction . He considered having the Idaho Republicans fuse with the Democrats and Populists , but his allies were ousted from the Idaho Republican Party . This disorganization gave control of the Idaho Legislature to the Democrats and Populists . In 1896 Dubois was defeated for reelection in the Idaho Legislature by Populist Henry Heitfeld . After leaving the Senate in 1897 , Dubois returned to his ranch in Blackfoot , where he grew alfalfa . Return to the Senate . As the Silver Republican faction declined , it was thought by many that Dubois political career was over . But in 1900 , after refusing to rejoin the Republican Party , he was elected again to the United States Senate by the Democratic Idaho Legislature by defeating Shoup , his onetime political ally . Shortly after returning to the Senate in 1901 , Dubois switched parties and joined the Democratic Party , one of few politicians in that era to do so . He remains the only person in Idaho history to serve in the United States Congress as both a Republican and a Democrat . During his second term in the Senate , Dubois continued to advocate abandoning the gold standard , but focused most of his attention on opposition to imperialism and Mormonism . Dubois led a group of senators which tried to force Reed Smoot of Utah , the first Mormon ever elected to the Senate , to resign . Dubois strongly opposed efforts to make the Philippines , which were annexed from Spain after the Spanish–American War , an American territory . Dubois first supported independence for the Philippines , but after a 1905 visit , he declared that Filipinos could not rule themselves and advocated selling the islands to Japan . His reasons for opposing Filipino independence were strongly influenced by racist beliefs . He was afraid of the new territories economic competition with the rest of America , but not because he believed that the Filipinos presented an economic threat . Dubois disparaged Filipinos and many other ethnic and racial groups , declaring that It is difficult to get the Filipino to labor at all , and asserting that The Hawaiians will not labor . . . They are very similar to our American negro . The Philippines posed an economic threat if Japanese laborers migrated there , but he hoped that trade barriers could prevent Philippines sugar and tobacco from reaching American markets . Dubois also supported strong limits on Chinese immigration . Dubois broke with most Democrats of the day and supported President Theodore Roosevelts agenda of environmental conservationism . He supported William Randolph Hearst for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1904 . Defeat and later years . Caused in no small part by Dubois obsession with anti-Mormonism , Democrats in Idaho suffered significant electoral losses during his second term in the Senate . In January 1907 , a Republican Idaho Legislature chose prominent Boise attorney William Borah to replace Dubois in the Senate ; Borah was reelected five times and served over 32 years . Dubois lived the rest of his life in Washington , D.C . and made attempts at writing and business , which largely failed . He supported Champ Clark for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1912 , but after Clarks defeat , he worked for the Woodrow Wilson campaign in 1912 and 1916 . His last major political action was in 1918 , when he supported the election of various politicians from both parties in Idaho to support Wilsons progressive agenda , including Borah . Dubois served on the Board of Ordinance from 1918 to 1920 and on a commission on U.S . boundary disputes with Canada from 1924 until his death on February 14 , 1930 . He was buried at Grove City Cemetery in Blackfoot . Legacy . In Idaho , the county seat of rural Clark County is Dubois , and there is also Dubois Avenue in Twin Falls . In adjacent Wyoming , the town of Dubois in Fremont County is also named after the former senator . Senator Fred Dubois 1891 mansion still stands at 320 Southeast Main Street in Blackfoot , Idaho .