28 Facts About Fred Dubois

Fred Thomas Dubois was an American politician from Idaho who served two terms in the United States Senate.

Fred Dubois was best known for his opposition to the gold standard and his efforts to disenfranchise Mormon voters.

Fred Dubois's paternal grandfather, Toussaint Dubois, was an immigrant who distinguished himself at the Battle of Tippecanoe.

In 1856 the elder Fred 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.

Fred Dubois then participated in business until 1875, when he was appointed to the board of railroad and warehouse commissioners of Illinois.

Fred Dubois held this position for one year, resigning shortly before the death of his father.

In 1882, Fred Dubois was appointed to be the US Marshal for the Idaho Territory.

Fred Dubois launched a successful campaign to disenfranchise Mormon voters in the territory on the grounds they broke the law by practicing polygamy.

Fred Dubois defeated the Democratic incumbent, John Hailey, and remained in the position until Idaho's statehood in 1890.

Fred Dubois strongly supported Idaho's application for statehood and opposed efforts to split the territory among neighboring regions.

Fred Dubois reputedly lobbied President Benjamin Harrison in support of Idaho statehood by alluding to the common Battle of Tippecanoe connection between Dubois' grandfather and Harrison's grandfather, President William Henry Harrison.

On July 3,1890, Fred Dubois requested that Harrison sign the act of statehood on the Independence Day the next day.

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 US 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.

Fred Dubois helped to negotiate a treaty with the Nez Perce Native Americans in 1894.

Fred Dubois considered having the Idaho Republicans fuse with the Democrats and Populists, but his allies were ousted from the Idaho Republican Party.

In 1896 Fred Dubois was defeated for reelection in the Idaho Legislature by Populist Henry Heitfeld.

Shortly after returning to the Senate in 1901, Fred Dubois switched parties and joined the Democratic Party, one of few politicians in that era to do so.

Fred Dubois remains the only person in Idaho history to serve in the United States Congress as both a Republican and a Democrat.

Fred Dubois led a group of senators which tried to force Reed Smoot of Utah, the first Mormon ever elected to the Senate, to resign.

Fred 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.

Fred Dubois 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.

Fred Dubois broke with most Democrats of the day and supported President Theodore Roosevelt's agenda of environmental conservationism.

Fred Dubois supported William Randolph Hearst for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1904.

Fred Dubois lived the rest of his life in Washington, DC and made attempts at writing and business, which largely failed.

Fred Dubois supported Champ Clark for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1912, but after Clark's defeat, he worked for the Woodrow Wilson campaign in 1912 and 1916.

Fred Dubois served on the Board of Ordinance from 1918 to 1920 and on a commission on US boundary disputes with Canada from 1924 until his death on February 14,1930.

Fred Dubois was buried at Grove City Cemetery in Blackfoot.