This statue presented by Idaho in 1947 to stand in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the Capitol is of William Edgar Borah. This is an example of a statue that represents a subject I know nothing about. Learning about lessor known subjects of statues was the spark for this series, so discovering bits of history about this man was exactly what I had in mind. I will share some of what I have learned.
After two failed bids for elected office, in 1907 William Borah was elected Senator of Idaho. William Borah was born in Illinois and became a lawyer rather than a clergyman as his father had wished. He went into partnership with his attorney brother-in-law in Kansas, but by the age of 25 had decided to seek bigger things and followed the popular phrase, “Go West, young man.”
Idaho was as far west as William Borah got. It was said that was in part because Idaho was as far west as his money would take him.
Silver mining was one of the bigger things the west had going for it at the time. Idaho had just been admitted to the Union in 1890 and Boise, being a boom town had a need for lawyering. Labor tensions, strikes, and violence kept Attorney Borah busy.
In 1896, Borah became a Silver Republican and supported Democrat William Jennings Bryan for president. Advocates of Free Silver were in favor of the inflationary “free coinage of silver” as opposed to the deflationary gold standard set by the East.
Attorney Borah prosecuted several high profile cases which led to runs for political office. First for the House of Representatives and then for United States Senator. He lost the first two elections, but in 1907 he was elected United States Senator of Idaho.
Borah gained national attention for his role in the prosecution of Big Bill Haywood who was on trial for conspiracy in the murder of ex-governor Steunenberg, who was killed on December 30, 1905 by a bomb planted on the gate at his home. Borah had looked to Steunenberg as a father figure, and had been among those who rushed to the scene of the explosion and saw Steunenberg’s shattered body. Borah was on the prosecution team and stated that trying the case was more important to him than being sent to the Senate.
The famed attorney Clarence Darrow led the defense team and won, gaining acquittal for Harwood. But, Borah’s role in the trial made him a national figure.
Senator Borah was often opposed to presidents of either party. He was a man who was not afraid to speak his mind. He was opposed to the Treaty of Versailles and did not want the United States to be part of The League of Nations. It seems he was a senator who decided issues on the merits, and not by political party association. He served as senator during the Harding, Coolidge, Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt administrations, and often voiced opposition in a strong voice. In 1936 he attempted a primary bid for president.
William Borah served as senator until 1940, when at the age of 74, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
**Sidenote- William Borah is rumored to have had an affair with his good friend Alice Roosevelt (oldest daughter of Theodore Roosevelt) and was the biological father of Paulina Longworth, (Alice’s daughter). A family friend said of Paulina, "everybody called her 'Aurora Borah Alice.'" 😳
Diana Erbio is a freelance writer and author of “Coming to America: A Girl Struggles to Find her Way in a New World”. Read more in her series Statues: The People They Salute visit The Table of Contents and the Facebook Page. (I’ll be adding to the Substack Table of Contents as I transfer the Blog Posts. Please subscribe to this Substack 😊🇺🇸🤓)
Mr. Borah was a major player in U.S. and Idaho's History.