Stolen Glory

When Abraham Lincoln signed the bill to make Idaho a territory on July 4, 1863, he appointed William Wallace as the first governor. Territorial governors were always appointed by the president and the appointee was usually someone the president owed a political favor to and rarely was that person from the territory or even from the general area. Territorial governors usually did not serve for more than a year or two. The first goveror of Idaho, William Wallace, was at least from the general area. He had lived in Washington for a number of years, although he was originally an Easterner. Washington and Idaho were combined into one territory until that eventful day in 1863 when Idaho became a separate territory. Wallace handpicked Lewiston to be the capital simply because it was the nearest Idaho town to his hometown in Washington.
  He presided over the legislative session of 1863, then resigned as governor to do other things. A territorial governorship was not a very glamorous job.
  During the early summer of 1864, a New Yorker named Caleb Lyon was appointed governor. Almost immediately, he began trying to get the capital moved to Boise. In the first legislative session, about 60% of the legislators were from the southern part of Idaho. A bill had been introduced in the first legislative session to move the capital to Boise. Caleb Lyon continued this effort during the summer months. When the second legislative session began, 75% of the legislators were from southern Idaho. Another bill to move the capital  was introduced and passed by a 75% margin (all the southern Idaho representatives voted 'yes'). Caleb Lyon quickly signed the bill and then snuck out of town in the middle of the night described as a duck hunter because he knew how unpopular the signing of that bill would be. The next day,  a court order blocked it,  because of some shenanigans that went on behind the scenes to get the bill passed. While the bill was blocked, the governor was out of the territory, so his secretary, Clinton Smith, was named acting governor in his absence. In March of 1865, Smith brought a contingent of soldiers from Fort Lapwai and broke into the capitol in the middle of the night. They then broke into a locked safe. Once the safe was open, Smith took the Territorial Seal, the Territorial Constitution and as many official papers as he could stuff into his saddlebags and then made it over to the river where a boat was waiting to ferry him across. He went the three blocks from capitol to river under armed guard. Since Lewiston is situated on the Snake River, which is the border with Washington, all Smith had to do was cross the midpoint of the river and he would be out of the jurisdiction of Idaho law enforcement authorities.