WILLIAM MORRIS STEWART William Morris Stewart, of Carson City, was born in Lyons, Wayne county, N. Y., August 9, 1827. When he was a small child he removed with his parents to Trumbull county, Ohio. His education was exceedingly limited until he was about seventeen years of age, when, having saved money enough to attend school, he entered Farmington Academy. He subsequently returned to his native State, where he taught school, at the same time prosecuting his studies. In 1848 he entered Yale College, where he remained two years, when, attracted by the gold discoveries in California, he went to San Francisco, arriving there in May, 1850. He immediately engaged in mining with pick and shovel in Nevada. county, and in this way accumulated money with which he began the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1852 and the same day was appointed district attorney, to which office he was elected at the general election of the next year. In 1854 he was appointed attorney-general of California. He removed to Virginia City, Nevada, in 1860, where he was largely engaged in early mining litigation and in the development of the Comstock lode. In 1863, when Nevada was admitted to the Union, he was one of her leading citizens, and became her first United States Senator, taking his seat February 11, 1865. He was elected in 1869 and on the expiration of his term of service in 1875 he resumed the practice of law in Nevada, California, and the Pacific coast generally, and was thus engaged when elected to the United States Senate, as a Republican, in 1887, to succeed James G. Fair, Democrat. He was re-elected in 1893. Mr. Stewart is a familiar figure in public affairs. Though rendering admirable service to the country in the reconstruction period and in framing our national mining laws, he is most widely known as the chief leader in the Senate of the movement for the free coinage of silver. In this movement he is one of the familiar and picturesque figures well known to every visitor in the Senate. In the political history of the United States his name will be associated with those western pioneers who settled the great states of the Pacific coast, built their railways, made fortunes out of their mines and developed their latent wealth. Frederick T. Dubois is a native of Illinois, having been born in Crawford county, May 29, 1851. His father was Jesse K. Dubois, a wellknown character in the State, familiarly called "Uncle Jesse,” and a warm friend of President Lincoln. After a public school education at Springfield, young Dubois entered Yale College in 1868 and graduated with the class of 1872. He clerked for a time with J. V. Farwell in Chicago and then entered the State Auditor's office at Springfield. He soon became secretary of the Board of Railway and Warehouse Commissioners in Illinois and bade fair to become an influential politician. On account of ill health he started for Idaho, taking a herd of cattle to Cheyenne. He began business as a merchant at Blackfoot in 1880. President Arthur made him marshal of Idaho in August, 1882, and he served till September 1, 1886. By his uncompromising fight on the Mormons he got a start in politics and was elected a delegate to the Fiftieth Congress as a Republican. He was re-elected by an increased majority in 1888, and in September, 1890, was named as the first congressman from the new State by a majority of over 2,000. The young statesman did not have long to serve in the National House of Representatives. The Legislature of the new State of Idaho met to choose United States Senators and the election, which was a warmly contested one, resulted in the ultimate choice of four men for that honor. One, Mr. Shoup, was selected for a vacancy extending only three months. Mr. McConnell got the regular short term to last twe years, and Senator Dubois, youngest of all, was the lucky man to get the long term of six years, extending from March 4, 1891, to March 4, 1897. Of course all this was the result of compromise and a combination of the supporters of the three, who were all Republicans. The Democrats and the disaffected Republicans bolted the Dubois nomination and elected Judge William Clagett to contest the same seat. The United States Senate decided the contest by seating Mr. Dubois, and the hard fight was ended for the time. Before the expiration of Senator Dubois' term, the Populist party had become a power to be reckoned with in Idaho, and the State Legis lature elected Mr. Heitfeld to succeed Mr. Dubois. The latter, however, although a Republican, is one of the most active supporters of the silver principles of the Populists and Democrats. |