Willis Sweet

{{short description|American politician}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Willis Sweet | image = WillisSweet.jpg | image_size = 200 | state = Idaho | district = at-large | term_start = October 1, 1890 | term_end = March 3, 1895 | preceded = Fred Dubois<br>(as territorial delegate) | succeeded = Edgar Wilson | office1 = Associate Justice of the Idaho Territorial Supreme Court | term_start1 = November 19, 1889 | term_end1 = October 1890 | predecessor1 = John Lee Logan | successor1 = ''position abolished'' | appointer1 = Benjamin Harrison | office2 = United States Attorney for the Territory of Idaho | term_start2 = April 24, 1889 | term_end2 = November 19, 1889 | predecessor2 = James H. Hawley | successor2 = Fremont Wood | appointer2 = Benjamin Harrison | office3 = Delegate to the Idaho Constitutional Convention | term_start3 = July 4, 1889 | term_end3 = August 6, 1889 | constituency3 = Latah County | birth_date = {{birth date|1856|1|1}} | birth_place = Alburgh, Vermont, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1925|7|9|1856|1|1}} | death_place = San Juan, Puerto Rico | resting_place = Puerto Rico | spouse = | profession = Attorney | party = Republican | signature = Willis Sweet signature.jpg }}

'''Willis Sweet''' (January 1, 1856 – July 9, 1925) was the first United States Representative elected from Idaho following statehood in 1890. Sweet served as a Republican in the House from 1890 to 1895, representing the state at-large. He vigorously demanded "Free Silver" or the unrestricted coinage of silver into legal tender, in order to pour money into the large silver mining industry in the Mountain West, but he was defeated by supporters of the gold standard.

==Early years== Born in Alburgh, Vermont on New Year's Day 1856, Sweet attended public schools and the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, and was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He learned the printer's trade in Lincoln and relocated west to Moscow in the Idaho Territory in 1881.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Library |first=CollectionBuilder, Special Collections and Archives, University of Idaho |title=Willis Sweet and the Founding of the University |url=https://harvester.lib.uidaho.edu/posts/2014/06/14/willis-sweet-and-the-founding-of-the-university.html |access-date=2025-07-13 |website=Idaho Harvester |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Stories of the Century; Political winds blew schools to the region |url=https://www.lmtribune.com/local-news/stories-of-the-century-political-winds-blew-schools-to-the-region-c50d3ce2 |access-date=2025-07-13 |website=The Lewiston Tribune |language=en}}</ref> Sweet was the first editor of the ''Moscow Mirror'' in 1882,<ref name=lmtmmer39>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=KpBfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vDAMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3474,2344305|newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune|location=Idaho|title=Rival papers at Moscow merged|date=November 1, 1939|page=12}}</ref> studied law and became an attorney, judge, and supreme court justice in the territory.

==Career== In the late 1880s, he drafted the legislation that brought the University of Idaho to Moscow, submitting it to territorial councilor John W. Brigham, who saw it enacted.<ref name=beal>{{cite book|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x000668606&view=1up&seq=118|title=History of Idaho|volume=3: Personal and Family History|last1=Beal|first1=Merrill D.|last2=Wells|first2=Merle W.|year=1959}}</ref> Sweet was the first president of the university's board of regents.<ref name=wsatfotu>{{cite web|url= http://www.lib.uidaho.edu/special-collections/dm/dm2001/wsweet.html|publisher=University of Idaho Library|title=Willis Sweet and the founding of the university |date=January 2001|accessdate=November 29, 2012}}</ref>

On April 24, 1889, President Benjamin Harrison gave Sweet a recess appointment as United States Attorney for the Territory of Idaho.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe/127537026/|title=More Appointments|work=The Boston Globe|date=April 24, 1889}}</ref> Sweet served as a delegate to the Idaho Constitutional Convention for Latah County in July and August 1889.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://idahohistory.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16281coll38/id/720/rec/2|title=Constitutional Convention List of Members|work=Territory of Idaho|date=August 6, 1889}}</ref> On November 19, 1889, Harrison again gave Sweet a recess appointment, elevating him to associate justice of the Idaho Territorial Supreme Court. His nomination was received by the senate on December 16, 1889, and he was confirmed on January 27, 1890.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.congress.gov/bound-congressional-record/1889/12/16/senate-section|title=Congressional Record|date=December 16, 1889|page=178}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.congress.gov/bound-congressional-record/1890/01/29/senate-section|title=Congressional Record|date=January 29, 1890|page=945}}</ref> Following Idaho's statehood, per the Idaho Constitution, he remained in office until the state's supreme court justices were elected in October 1890.

While in Congress from 1890 to 1895, Sweet was a leading advocate of the free and unlimited coinage of silver, which would pour large sums of money into Idaho. He closely followed Charles Parnell, the Irish agitator in the British Parliament, who managed to force consideration of his proposals by blocking the legislative process there. Sweet tried to block everything until he got his Free Silver, but he was blocked by Speaker Thomas Reed. When William McKinley was nominated for president in 1896 on a gold standard platform, Sweet supported silver advocate William Jennings Bryan, who was running on the Democratic, Populist, and Silver Republican party labels.

He was a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1896, but was defeated in the Idaho Legislature by Populist Henry Heitfeld. He was an attorney in northern Idaho in Coeur d'Alene until his appointment as the attorney general of Puerto Rico in 1903.<ref name=imgiapp>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_bdXAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5_MDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3257,5067596|newspaper=Spokane Daily Chronicle|location=Washington|title=Idaho man given important appointment|date=May 7, 1903|page=1}}</ref> Sweet served until 1905 and then worked as a newspaper editor in San Juan from 1913 until his death in 1925.<ref name=wsatfotu/><ref name=swgrooi>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2OgUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3uEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5594,1093182 |newspaper=Spokesman-Review |location=Spokane, Washington |last=Dubois |first=Fred T. |authorlink=Fred Dubois |title=Sweet greatest orator of Idaho|date=August 6, 1925|page=10}}</ref>

==Honors== A residence hall at the University of Idaho is named for Sweet.<ref name=nrhhws36>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=M21WAAAAIBAJ&sjid=meMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1635,7274491|newspaper=Spokesman-Review|location=Spokane, Washington|agency=Associated Press|title=New residence hall honors Willis Sweet|date=July 30, 1936|page=10}}</ref> Opened {{nowrap|in 1936,}} the building is now Carol Ryrie Brink Hall, a faculty office {{nowrap|building.<ref name=crbhll>{{cite web|url=https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/campus/locations/BrinkandPhinneyHalls.html |publisher=University of Idaho |agency=(Campus Photograph Collection) |title=Brink and Phinney Halls |date=1936 |accessdate=August 4, 2018}}</ref>}} The Willis Sweet residence hall was relocated to the new Theophilus Tower {{nowrap|in 1969,<ref name=ttws1970>{{cite web|url=https://issuu.com/uidahodigital/docs/gem1970-71/264|publisher=Gem of the Mountains, University of Idaho yearbook|title=Theophilus Tower|date=1971 |agency=(1970-71, 2 yrs)|page=261}}</ref><ref name=theotwr>{{cite web |url=https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/campus/locations/TheophilusTower.html |publisher=University of Idaho |agency=(Campus Photograph Collection) |title=Theophilus Tower |date=1967 |accessdate=August 4, 2018}}</ref>}} and later to the former McConnell Hall, on the northeast corner of Sixth and Rayburn {{nowrap|streets.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/campus/locations/McConnellHall.html|publisher=University of Idaho |agency=(Campus Photograph Collection) |title=McConnell Hall |date=1957 |accessdate=August 4, 2018}}</ref>}}

==References== {{reflist|2}}

==Further reading== * Johnson, Claudius O. "The Story of Silver Politics in Idaho, 1892-1902." ''Pacific Northwest Quarterly'' (1942): 283-296. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41441198 Online]

==External links== {{Portal|Biography}} {{CongBio|S001110}}

{{S-start}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box| state=Idaho|district=AL| before=Fred Dubois<br>(territorial delegate)| years=1890{{spaced ndash}}1895| after=Edgar Wilson }} {{S-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sweet, Willis}} Category:1856 births Category:1925 deaths Category:People from Alburgh, Vermont Category:Republican Party United States representatives from Idaho Category:Members of the Idaho Constitutional Convention Category:United States attorneys for the District of Idaho Category:Associate justices of the Idaho Territorial Supreme Court Category:19th-century Idaho politicians Category:Phi Delta Theta members Category:19th-century United States representatives