Abe and Idaho

COEUR d'ALENE - Dave Leroy wanted something to say at Lincoln Day events in Idaho.

So what better subject to master than Honest Abe himself and his Idaho connections.

"I knew he had created Idaho territory by signing the bill that passed on March 4, 1863," Leroy said Friday. "I didn't realize all the connections with the state before and after that."

The Boise attorney has amassed around 1,500 items, including books, letters, photographs, cartoons, paintings, bronze busts and floorboards, too, with a link to President Abraham Lincoln, elected in 1860.

But he's not keeping it for himself.

He's donating the collection to Idaho, which will open a permanent museum exhibit in Boise later this year detailing the history of Lincoln and his relationship to the Gem State.

Leroy's visit to Coeur d'Alene for the Lincoln Day Dinner comes just a few days after the 150th anniversary of President Lincoln's signing of the act creating Idaho territory on March 4, 1863.

"Honest Abe stayed up 'til dawn to ink his name on the parchment just hours after Congress passed the bill, emphasizing how important the measure was to him," Leroy wrote.

The University of Idaho graduate's background includes being Ada County prosecutor, terms as Idaho attorney general and Idaho lieutenant governor, and being the state's Republican nomination for governor in 1986, when Democrat Cecil Andrus was elected.

It was during his political career he studied Lincoln's life.

"I had to have something to say at Lincoln Day banquets," he said.

The pursuit of Lincoln memorabilia began when he left public office.

His collection includes:

- A piece of floorboard from the Lincoln home in Springfield, Ill.

- A lock of Lincoln's hair taken at his autopsy in the White House on April 15, 1865.

- A bronze bust of Lincoln's left hand.

- Printed handbill from Ford's Theater on April 14, 1865, announcing the play to which Lincoln invited the Idaho Congressional delegate, William H. Wallace, to attend hours before his assassination.

Leroy said he's been astonished at the connections he found between Lincoln, the country's 16th president, and Idaho.

"A hundred and fifty years ago, Lincoln and Idaho were bonded together as political partners in the greatest struggle our continent has ever seen," he said.

Leroy said it was important to Lincoln to organize the Idaho territory so the state could be used as a blocking maneuver to prevent slavery from extending to the Pacific Ocean.

Idaho, he said, was loyal union territory of 310,000 square miles.

"Staffed by Lincoln's personal friends and political allies, Idaho Territory could be trusted to fly the American flag," Leroy wrote.

It was also important so Idaho's gold and silver could be used to help finance the Civil War.

Metals from Idaho were shipped to San Francisco, where they were minted into millions of dollars to pay for troops and guns.

"There was a very strategic and significant purpose to Idaho's creation and the timing of it by Lincoln in 1863," Leroy said.