In addition to the customary “Lincoln” States of Kentucky (birth), Indiana (youth), and Illinois (adulthood, law and politics), Idaho will be in the celebratory forefront because:

1. Lincoln sought to be Governor of Oregon Territory in 1849, which then included the land area of Idaho in 1849.
   
   
2. Lincoln attended a meeting at which the name “Idaho” was selected, lobbied Congress and signed our Territorial Bill in 1863.
   
   
3. A week later Lincoln appointed our first territorial officers, including among their number his legal and political associates from Illinois and Indiana.
   
   
4. Lincoln mentioned Idaho Territory in his 1863 and 1864 messages to Congress.
   
   
5. On the last day of his life, April 14th, 1865, he met with the delegate from Idaho Territory about filling a vacancy on the Idaho Supreme Court and invited the delegate to attend Ford's Theater with him that night.  (William H. Wallace)
   
   
6. A subsequent Idaho Governor was a lawyer-colleague who lived in Lincoln’s house and who attended Cooper Union to assist him with his speech.  (Mason Brayman)
   
   
7. A subsequent Idaho Senator was a Springfield neighbor boy who played with Lincoln and his children.  (Fred T. DuBois)
   
   
8. His personal bodyguard resigned after the assassination and sought unsuccessfully to become Governor of Idaho Territory.  (Ward Hill Lamon)
   
   
9. The man who caused Lincoln to approve an 1860 unauthorized political biography was an Idaho Supreme Court Justice (Samuel C. Parks)
   
   
10. The oldest public statute of Lincoln in the Western United States stands in Boise, Idaho.
    
    
11. Of Idaho Territory, Lincoln said:
    • “The mineral resources of Idaho…are proving far richer than has been heretofore understood.” 
              Abraham Lincoln, Message to Congress, December 8, 1863 
      
      
    • “Idaho…by reason of…great distance and Indian hostilities…(has) only been partially organized” 
           Abraham Lincoln, Message to Congress, December 6, 1864
      
      
    • “You can have everything for “old Idaho” as you want it.
           Abraham Lincoln, Statement to William Wallace, April 14, 1865
      
      
12. Among the last official documents Lincoln ever wrote are a letter and a note about politics in Idaho.

Lincoln and Idaho:  A Rocky Mountain Legagy by David H. Leroy