It took Smith sixteen days to make it down to Boise. On April 14, he officially proclaimed Boise as the capital of Idaho despite the court order blocking the move. The case wound up going to the Idaho Supreme Court and they, in a roundabout way, declared Boise to be the permanent capital of Idaho. However, this verdict is only recorded in the court minutes, no official opinion was ever written. To this day, no official opinion has ever been written regarding this issue.
Even though the movement of the capital from Lewiston to Boise was just a matter of time, Boise wound up
stealing the capital, in my opinion, but there was a court order blocking the move, but the move happened anyway, in the middle of the night. That movement in the middle of the night speaks volumes because it means the acting governor knew he was breaking the law by moving territorial documents out of Lewiston.
Both Smith and Caleb Lyon liked Boise and wanted Boise to be the capital, but if it had not been moved in a clandestine manner that dark, late winter night, it probably would have moved after the case was heard in court or at least moved during the next year's legislative session. It was bound to happen anyway because Lewiston was rapidly shrinking in size because the gold rush in northern Idaho had abated and Boise was booming because of a new gold rush that was occurring in the southern part of the territory. The town of Boise was only a year old when it suddenly became the capital of Idaho, a distinction it still holds to this day. If the capital question hd been put on the ballot, I am sure Boise, or perhaps Idaho City, would have won handily because the southern part of Idaho had the vast majority of the territory's population.
Since no official court opinion has ever been written concerning this matter, that means that, technically, Lewiston is still the official capital of Idaho, but Boise is the de facto, or actual, capital of Idaho.
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