A transcript of a speech Dave Leroy gave where he played the part of William H. Wallace in the wake of Lincoln’s death. Lincoln appointed Wallace as the first governor of Idaho and invited him to Ford’s Theater the day of his assassination.
Dave Leroy looks at one of the artifacts he donated to the A. Lincoln Exhibit at the Idaho State Archives.
Nick Danlag
A transcript of a speech Dave Leroy gave where he played the part of William H. Wallace in the wake of Lincoln’s death. Lincoln appointed Wallace as the first governor of Idaho and invited him to Ford’s Theater the day of his assassination.
By law, we recognize March 4 each year as the anniversary of the day on which President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 signed the bill creating Idaho Territory. From the outset, Idaho was formed in the crucible of American history. Two months earlier, the sixteenth president issued his and our Emancipation Proclamation. Seven months later, Lincoln at Gettysburg would remind us that all men (and women) are created equal.
Just a week after March 4, in the same room at the White House where he earlier pondered and produced emancipation, Honest Abe gave Idaho an honest start by appointing the first of a total of 15 loyal “Union Men” which he would send to Idaho to be our earliest territorial officers over the next two years. During the rest of his presidency, Lincoln kept abreast of Idaho political affairs. For instance, he commented in his 1863 and 1864 Messages to Congress on the state of the territory’s political organization, the wealth of our mineral riches, and the situation of our Native American relations.
But what is not so well known about Lincoln and Idaho is that, at the four greatest speeches ever delivered by him, people with Idaho connections were present and even assisted Lincoln at those most significant and memorable addresses ever delivered on American soil.
In February of 1860, not-yet candidate Abraham Lincoln spoke to 1,500 people in the basement auditorium of Cooper Union in New York City. At first, the speech was a failure, until he received a prearranged signal from his Illinois lawyer-friend, Mason Brayman from the back of the room, urging him to speak louder and project more enthusiasm. Lincoln did, suddenly engaging the crowd, rousing their passions against the extension of slavery with phrases like “RIGHT MAKES MIGHT.” Thereby, he instantly became a leading presidential possibility. Brayman, the man who raised his hat on the top of his cane to signal, was appointed governor of Idaho Territory by President U.S. Grant in 1875 and moved to Boise.
One year later, sorrowful, pensive Abe Lincoln said “farewell” to a few hundred Springfield, Illinois neighbors in February of 1861 as president-elect, beginning his journey to Washington by train. “I HOPE IN YOUR PRAYERS YOU WILL COMMEND ME,” he told them. In the crowd were two young boys named Dubois, neighbors who lived across the street and often played with the Lincoln children and even romped and wrestled with their father. In 1880, Jesse and Fred moved to Blackfoot. Jesse became the medical doctor for the Shoshone Bannock Tribe. Fred Dubois, in short order, became the appointed U.S. Marshal and then was elected Territorial Delegate to Congress for the territory. In that role, the little boy who grew up on Eighth Street with Lincoln led the successful political campaign to turn Idaho Territory into Idaho state in 1889-1890 and became our first United States senator.
How about the Gettysburg Address? Surely no Idahoan was there? Not so. Ward Hill Lamon, another longtime Illinois acquaintance of Abe’s from practicing law on the circuit, came to Washington to be the president’s personal, 6 foot 6, 220-pound bodyguard. As master of ceremonies at Gettysburg, on the battlefield site that Nov. 17, 1863, Lamon introduced the president immediately before Lincoln spoke the words: “FOUR SCORE AND SEVEN YEARS.”
Lamon failed in his duty to protect the president because he was in Virginia on another assignment when Lincoln was assassinated. He resigned his post and approached the new president, Andrew Johnson, and sought appointment to a new position — governor of Idaho Territory. Johnson declined.
Last, perhaps the noblest American remarks ever uttered by one of our presidents were heard by a crowd of 30,000 people on a cloudy day, March 4, 1865. Remarkably, that was the Second Idaho Day! In his second inaugural address, Lincoln challenged Americans to act “WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE.”
In the crowd was William Wallace, Idaho Territory’s then delegate to Congress and former governor by appointment from Lincoln.
Just 40 days later, Wallace would be among the last people to see Lincoln alive in the White House on the afternoon of Friday, April 14, 1865. He went to see the president about filling a vacancy on the Idaho Supreme Court. Lincoln agreed, using his favorite nickname for Wallace, saying “Now Old Idaho, come back on Monday, and you shall have the appointment, as you wish.” Then, Lincoln did one other thing. He invited Governor and Mrs. Wallace to go to Ford’s Theatre that night to see a play called “Our American Cousin.” They couldn’t go — Mrs. Wallace was ill. Perhaps, just perhaps, the presence in the theater that night of a man from Idaho could have interrupted Booth’s dastardly act?
Abraham Lincoln became our greatest American communicator by teaching himself the poetry of the Bible, the principles of the Constitution, the power of simplicity and the potency of sincerity. Idahoans were there, listening and learning front and center, even in Lincoln’s day, at his four greatest speeches. Happy Idaho Day!
FOR MORE OF LINCOLN AND IDAHOCheck out the virtual tour of the “Lincoln Legacy Exhibit” of the Idaho State Historical Society at historysidaho.gov/alincoln. Examine 42 Lincoln political quotes which might solve the problems of our times at looktolincoln.org.
David H. Leroy is president of the Idaho Lincoln Institute and former Attorney General and Lt. Governor of Idaho.
