The Virtue of Tolerance : The Lion of Idaho and the Mormons
Journal of Mormon History
April 2015
41
2
Salt Lake City, UT
Mormon History Association
2015
201-226
Idaho politics in the late nineteenth century were dominated by two issues: demands for annexation of north Idaho to Washington and anti-Mormon agitation in southeastern Idaho. The Republican Party used the anti-Mormon issue in 1882 to capture control of Idaho Territory-a significant achievement in a year when most of the country voted Democratic. Republicans used their victory to pass test oath legislation in late 1884 that successfully disfranchised the Mormons and permanently altered the political status quo. Democrats who had formerly relied on the Mormon vote were forced to use anti-Mormon rhetoric to have a chance on election day. Anti-Mormonism dominated Idaho politics until the early 1890s when Boise attorney William Edgar Borah led a campaign to restore the franchise to Mormons in Idaho. Key in bridging the divide between Republicans and Mormons was Borah's belief in the importance of religious tolerance. [From the article]