William Borah

William E. Borah
United States Senator from Idaho
In office March 4, 1907 – January 19, 1940
Preceded by	Fred Dubois
Succeeded by	John W. Thomas
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
In office 1924–1933
Preceded by	Henry Cabot Lodge
Succeeded by	Key Pittman
Dean of the United States Senate
In office March 4, 1933 – January 19, 1940
Preceded by	Reed Smoot
Succeeded by	Ellison D. Smith
Born	June 29, 1865 near Fairfield, Illinois
Died	January 19, 1940 (aged 74) Washington, D.C.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Mary McConnell
Residence	Boise
Alma mater	University of Kansas
Profession	Attorney
Religion	Protestant

William Edgar Borah (June 29, 1865 – January 19, 1940) was a prominent Republican attorney and longtime United States Senator from Idaho noted for his oratorical skills and isolationist views. One of his nicknames later in life was "The Lion of Idaho."

Early life and career

Borah was born near Fairfield, Illinois. His schooling included the Wayne County common schools and the Southern Illinois Academy at Enfield. According to a drawing published by H. T. Webster in 1916, he had a boyhood ambition to be a railway conductor.^[1] He attended University of Kansas in 1885 but was forced to leave after contracting tuberculosis his freshman year. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in September 1887. After practicing law in Lyons, Kansas, he relocated to Boise, Idaho, in 1890, where he became the most prominent attorney in the new state.

Borah once wrote a letter to the Board of Pardons protesting the change of sentence in hanging "Diamondfield Jack" Davis, a man charged with killing a sheepherder who was working for a cattle company.^[2] Borah ran for the United States Senate in 1902, but was defeated in the Idaho Legislature by Weldon B. Heyburn, a Republican attorney from Wallace.

In 1907, shortly after entering the Senate, Borah, as the prosecuting attorney, was pitted against Clarence Darrow in the nationally publicized trial of "Big Bill" Haywood and two other radical labor union officials for the 1905 murder of former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg.

He married Mary McConnell, daughter of Governor William J. McConnell, in 1895. They had no children.

By his mistress, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, he had one daughter, Paulina (1925-1957).^[3]

Senator

In 1906, the Idaho Legislature elected William Borah to the U.S. Senate over the controversial Democratic incumbent, Fred Dubois. Borah was reelected by the Idaho Legislature in 1912, and four more times by popular vote (1918, 1924, 1930 and 1936). He remains the longest-serving member of the United States Congress in Idaho history.

A member of the Republican National Committee from 1908 to 1912, he was a delegate to the 1912 Republican National Convention. As a senator Borah was dedicated to principles rather than party loyalty, a trait which earned him the nickname "the Great Opposer." He disliked entangling alliances in foreign policy and became a prominent anti-imperialist and nationalist, favoring a continued separation of American liberal and European Great Power politics. He encouraged the formation of a series of world economic conferences and favored a low tariff.

In 1919 Borah and other Senate Republicans, notably Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts and Hiram W. Johnson of California, clashed with President Woodrow Wilson over Senate ratification of the Treaty of Versailles ending World War I and establishing the League of Nations. Borah emerged as leader of the "Irreconcilables," a group of senators noted for their uncompromising opposition to the treaty and the League. During 1919 Borah and Johnson toured the country speaking against the treaty in response to Wilson's own speaking tour supporting it. Borah's impassioned November 19, 1919, speech on the Senate floor in opposition to the treaty and League of Nations was contributive to the Senate's ultimate rejection of it.^[4]

From 1925 to 1933, Borah served as the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. As Chairman, he became known for his pro-Soviet views, favoring recognition of the Soviet Union, and sometimes interceded with that government in an unofficial capacity during the period when Moscow had no official relations with the United States. Purportedly, Kremlin officials held Borah in such high esteem that American citizens could gain permission to travel throughout the Soviet Union with nothing more than a letter from the Senator.

Domestically, he sponsored bills that created the Department of Labor and the Children's Bureau. He was one of the Senators responsible for uncovering the scandals of the Harding Administration. In 1932, unhappy with the misguided policies of President Herbert Hoover, such as a doubling of revenues with no positive results, in light of the Great Depression, Borah refused to publicly endorse Hoover's reelection campaign.

After Hoover's defeat by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, Borah, now the Dean of the United States Senate, supported certain components of the New Deal, such as old-age pensions and the confiscation of U.S. citizens' gold by executive order, but opposed others, including the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Agricultural Adjustment Act.

Personality and views

Borah was a progressive Republican who often had strong differences of opinion with the conservative wing of the party. Borah also had a reputation for being headstrong. When conservative President Calvin Coolidge was told of Borah's fondness for horseback riding, the president is said to have replied, "It's hard to imagine Senator Borah going in the same direction as his horse."

Conservative Republicans in Idaho, notably Governor and later Senator Frank R. Gooding, often feuded with Borah as well. Nevertheless, Borah became a strong political force in Idaho and elsewhere often in spite of opposition from his own party.

Wallace E. Olson, then president of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants in mocking the United States income tax system and rates reported on the debates held in Congress that,

A fear expressed by a number of opponents was that the proposed law, with its low rates was the camel's nose under the tent that once a tax on incomes was enacted, rates would tend to rise. Sen. William E. Borah of Idaho was outraged by such anxieties, and derided a suggestion that the rate might eventually climb as high as 20 percent. Who, he asked, could impose such socialistic, confiscatory rates? Only Congress. And how could Congress, the Representatives of the American People, be so lacking in fairness, justice and patriotism? -- Wall Street Journal, October 5, 1973. Page 8 at columns 4-6.

In 1931 Borah declared he was in favor of the revision of the Versailles Treaty and the Polish corridor, and the revision of the Treaty of Trianon that divided lands from the old Hungarian Kingdom between Austria, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia.^[5]

In 1932 Borah strongly disagreed with the suggestion of the drafters of the London Economic Conference of 1933, who met in Geneva, that the United States should settle intergovernmental debts as a step to recover from the Great Depression.^[6]

1936 Presidential campaign

In an attempt to revitalize the progressive wing of the Republican Party, in 1936 a 71-year-old Borah ran for nomination as candidate for President of the United States, becoming the first Idahoan to do so. Borah's candidacy was opposed by the conservative Republican leadership and dismissed by Roosevelt. He managed to win only a handful of delegates. Borah won a majority of delegates in only one state, Wisconsin, where he had the endorsement of Progressive United States Senator Robert M. La Follette, Jr. Borah refused to endorse the eventual Republican nominee, Alf Landon, leading some to believe he might cross party lines and support Roosevelt's reelection. As he had four years earlier, ultimately he chose to support neither candidate.^[7]

Legacy

Despite his failed presidential run, throughout his long career Borah remained personally popular among Idaho voters. While in the Senate in Idaho he never faced a serious political challenge from either the Republicans or Democrats. After abandoning his presidential campaign, later in 1936 at the height of Democratic power during the New Deal era, Borah ran for reelection against three-term Idaho Governor C. Ben Ross, a Roosevelt ally, and won with well over 60 percent of the vote.

Known for his public integrity, eloquent speaking ability, and genuine concern for his constituents, his private affairs were less straight forward; his romantic relationship with the irascible and none too discreet Alice Roosevelt Longworth was unseemly, especially for the time, but it apparently did him no lasting political harm.^[8]

William E. Borah died in Washington, D.C., on January 19, 1940 of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 74. He is buried in Morris Hill Cemetery in Boise.^[9]

In 1947, the state of Idaho donated a bronze statue of Borah to the National Statuary Hall Collection. Idaho's highest point, Borah Peak, at 12,662 feet (3859 m), is named for him, as are two public schools: Borah High School in Boise, and Borah Elementary School in Coeur d'Alene. At the University of Idaho, an annual symposium on foreign affairs, a residence hall, and a theater in the student union building bear his name.

William E. Borah Apartment, Windsor Lodge, a home of his in Washington, D.C., was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1976.^[10]

Bora Laskin, the Chief Justice of Canada from 1973-1984, was named after Borah.^[11]

Hitler quote

Borah may be best known today for having reportedly said, in September 1939, after Germany invaded Poland, "Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler—all this might have been averted." The source of this quote was a 1940 Senate Document, News Articles on the Life and Works of Honorable William E. Borah, compiled and written by William Kinsey Hutchinson, then International News Service's Washington Bureau Chief. Hutchinson indicated that Borah said it to him in private "in words that ran like a prayer."^[12] There is no other public record of Borah saying this; Borah died before Hutchinson published the document, and thus could not deny or confirm it; its veracity is therefore unknown.

The quote has been repeatedly cited as evidence of the alleged naivete of a belief in the power of pure diplomacy. Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer has referred to the quote in at least three of his columns, making an analogy to negotiating with China in 1989, with North Korea in 1994 and with Iran in 2006.^[13] In August 2006 United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld referred to the quote when decrying those who want to "negotiate a separate peace with terrorists".^[14]

On May 15, 2008, U.S. President George W. Bush referred to the quote in a speech to the Knesset in Israel commemorating that nation's 60th anniversary, after stating, "some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along." Some, including Barack Obama himself, interpreted Bush's comment to be a criticism of Obama, who was then the Democratic nominee for president, for his stated willingness to negotiate with the leaders of Iran. White House staff stated that the reference was meant more as a criticism of former president Jimmy Carter, who has argued that the U.S. should be willing to meet with Hamas.^[15]

Other quotations

• "No more fatuous chimera has ever infested the brain than that you can control opinions by law or direct belief by statute, and no more pernicious sentiment ever tormented the heart than the barbarous desire to do so. The field of inquiry should remain open, and the right of debate must be regarded as a sacred right." —1917^[16]

• "America has arisen to a position where she is respected and admired by the entire world. She did it by minding her own business... the European and American systems do not agree." —1919 speech in Brooklyn opposing the League of Nations.^[17]

United States Senate
Preceded by Fred Dubois	United States Senator (Class 2) from Idaho March 4, 1907–January 19, 1940 Served alongside: Weldon B. Heyburn, Kirtland I. Perky, James H. Brady, John F. Nugent, Frank R. Gooding, John W. Thomas, James P. Pope, D. Worth Clark	Succeeded by John W. Thomas
Party political offices
Preceded by Pre-17th Amendment	Republican Party nominee, U.S. Senator (Class 2) from Idaho 1918 (won), 1924 (won), 1930 (won), 1936 (won)	Succeeded by John W. Thomas
Political offices
Preceded by Henry Cabot Lodge Massachusetts	Chair of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations 1924–1933	Succeeded by Key Pittman Nevada
Honorary titles
Preceded by Reed Smoot Utah	Dean of the United States Senate March 4, 1933–January 19, 1940	Succeeded by Ellison D. Smith South Carolina
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Gelasio Caetani	Cover of Time Magazine 5 May 1924	Succeeded by Homer Saint-Gaudens

References

External links

• BORAH, William Edgar at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• National Statutory Hall - U.S. Capitol
• Borah Foundation & Symposium - University of Idaho
• Morris Hill Cemetery Boise, ID - walking tour
• Biography UMKC Law School - biography of William Borah
• Borah High School - biography of William E. Borah
• A Lion Among the Liberals: William Edgar Borah and the rise of New Deal Liberalism
• TIME magazine - cover - William Edgar Borah - 30-Mar-1936
  • article - "Long ago and far away"