Fred Thomas Dubois was born on May 29, 1851 in Palestine Illinois. Dubois' father, Jesse Dubois, was an official at the U.S. Land Office in Palestine, Illinois, a former judge and state legislator. He was a Republican and had a friendship with Abraham Lincoln. Fred would grow up and study at Yale College from 1870 to 1872, where he was elected to Scroll and Key. He then participated in business until 1875, when he was appointed to the board of railroad and warehouse commissioners of Illinois. He held this position for one year, resigning shortly before the death of his father. In 1880, he moved to Idaho Territory with his brother.
In 1882, Dubois was appointed to be the U.S. Marshal for the Idaho Territory. He launched a successful campaign to disenfranchise Mormon voters in the territory on the grounds they broke the law by practicing polygamy. He became a Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1887 until Idaho became a state in 1890; Dubious ran for State Senator and won. During his first term in the Senate, Dubois focused on domestic politics, advocating for positions that he thought would benefit Idaho. He was a strong supporter of tariffs, mostly on wool and lead. He also helped to negotiate a …show more content…
He is one of the few Politicians to ever win as a Democrat and Republican. During his second term in the Senate, Dubois continued to advocate abandoning the gold standard, but focused most of his attention on opposition to colonization and Mormonism. Dubois led a group of senators which tried to force Reed Smoot of Utah, the first Mormon ever elected to the Senate, to resign. Dubois did not want to make the Philippines a us territory. 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. His reasons for opposing Filipino independence were strongly influenced by racist