Kansas and Kansans p. 1161-1171

1918 KANSAS AND KANSANS

The Populist Uprising

Part 6

XIV - CAMPAIGN OF 1892, XV - THE TRIUMPHAL MARCH

XIV

CAMPAIGN OF 1892

Preparatory to the big campaign of 1892 in which the Populists hoped to win the National election, the State Central Committee of that party met in the Dutton house in Topeka, November 24, 1891, to review the situation and lay their plans. The economic condition of the country was set forth as follows:

Every branch of business is depressed. The merchant fails for want of trade and the banker from depreciation of values. Labor is unemployed and inadequately paid. Our cities are the abode of poverty and want and consequent crime, while the country is overrun with tramps. Starvation stalks abroad amid an over-production of food and illy clad men and women and helpless children are freezing amid an over-production of clothing. We hold these conditions are the legitimate result of vicious legislation in the interests of the favored classes and adverse to the masses of American citizens, and we appeal to the great body of the people, irrespective of occupation or calling, to rise above the partisan prejudices engendered by political contests, and calmly and dispassionately examine the facts which we are prepared to submit in support of our claims. We appeal to reason and not to prejudice, and if the facts and arguments we present can be refuted we neither ask nor expect your support.

The National Committee met about the same time, and in its deliberations mentioned that less than fifty people controlled the currency and commerce of the nation, and called attention to the fact that as iron has more intrinsic value than gold, that money has no value in itself, but takes on a value only by virtue of representing either labor or the product of labor. This idea originally came from Kansas, where an Alliance dollar bill was printed with the following inscription: "This is to certify that the bearer has produced to the amount of a dollar and is therefor entitled to an equivalent."

A Conference of Confederated Organizations was held in St. Louis, February 22, 1892. It was attended by the same organizations mentioned in connection with the Cincinnati Convention. In their resolutions there was nothing new. They began by saying:

We declare the union of labor forces of the United States this day accomplished, permanent and perpetual.

Wealth belongs to him who creates it. The interests of rural and urban labor are the same; the enemies are identical.

Then followed the platform which was endorsed by both State and national conventions of the People's Party and on which the campaign was made. It declared for the sub-treasury, elimination of National Banks, flexible currency, an increase of circulating medium to $50 per capita; for Postal Savings Banks, free coinage of silver, public revenues limited to necessary outlay, graduated income tax, reclaiming of railroad and other corporation lands for the people, government ownership of railroad and telegraph. They also passed resolutions against dealing in options, futures and all manner of grain gambling, and in favor of paying the soldiers of the union the money they had lost through the depreciation of the greenback.

Joint committees of this conference and of the People's Party called a delegate convention of the People's Party to meet at Omaha July 2, 1892.

The months of May and June were filled with county and district conventions.

The first state convention was that of the People's Party. It was held June 5, at Wichita. The platform of the St. Louis conference was adopted with the following additions: All monopolies of products and of the elements of nature were denounced. The railroad assessors were condemned for reducing the taxes on railroad property. The Populist Congressmen were commended for their fight for the interests of the people and against the monopolies, and the legislation of the Kansas House of Representatives was approved, and the Senate censured for not co-operating to pass the various measures in the interests of the people. Pensions for railroad employees, and indemnity for the injured was favored and the abolition of passes. The identity of interest with urban labor was recognized and after some debate equal suffrage was endorsed. One resolution declared that public needs should be served by public agencies, and said it was the duty of the government to provide public telephones, telegraph lines and free mail delivery to all homes.

This convention was a very enthusiastic one, and a very dramatic incident occurred when Fred J. Close, a Union soldier who had lost an arm in the war, in a brief and eloquent address placed the name of Col. W. A. Harris, an ex-Confederate, in nomination for Congressman-at-large. The assembly went wild and the nomination was made unanimous by a rising vote. Men stood on chairs and tables and cheered themselves hoarse, and it was many moments before the tumult could be quieted. The People's Party was healing the wounds which both old parties for selfish reasons were trying to keep bleeding. The nominations of the convention were as follows:

Governor, L. D. Lewelling; Attorney General, John T. Little; Lieutenant Governor, Percy Daniels; Secretary of State, R. S. Osborne; Auditor, Van B. Prather; State Superintendent, H. N. Gaines; A Associate Justice, Stephen H. Allen; Treasurer, W. H. Biddle. The Congressional nominees in the order of their districts were: F. J. Close, of Troy; H. L. Moore, of Lawrence; T. J. Hudson, Fredonia; E. V. Wharton, of Yates Center; John Davis, of Junction City; William Baker, and Jerry Simpson. One delegate for each district was sent to Omaha, as follows: S. R. F. Roberts, A. F. Allen, William Cook, Frank Doster, H. N. Boyd, J. W. Murphy and John Hall. Delegates at large were Mrs. Mary E. Lease, James T. Beck, W. L. Brown, S. McLallin, and George Wagner.

The Republican State Convention was held June 30, and a struggle took place between the stand-pat and the reform elements within the party, the latter succeeding in forcing an unwilling endorsement of some of the planks in the Wichita platform. The success of Plumb in 1891 in cutting down the Populist vote in Kansas by about 30,000, and in electing the Republicans in nearly every local contest, had made the Republicans chesty again, and forgetting that this was the work of Plumb and not of themselves, they thought they had come back for an indefinite stay and a desperate struggle ensued over the nominations, the nomination being considered equivalent to election.

The Democratic convention endorsed the state and electoral tickets of the People's Party. John Martin was the hero of the convention and led the fight in favor of this action. A few of the delegates, mostly corporation tools, withdrew and held a convention under the name "Stalwart Democrats." The tenor of the speeches was a bitter denunciation of the action of their party and a declaration to help the Republicans, which they did.

The Omaha convention was attended by a large body of men and women beside the regular delegates. The entire number of delegates from all states was 1,652, but hundreds who were not entitled to seats went to hear the speaking. The opening address was given by George P. Bemis, Republican Mayor of Omaha, but the objects of the meeting could hardly have been voiced better by any Populist present. He said:

You are here to protest against legislation not in the interests of the people. You are here to protest against the wealth of the nation being absorbed by the few, while thousands are unemployed and many suffering for the necessities of life. You have laid the foundation of a great party. You have broken down the barriers of sectionalism and buried the bitterness of the past, extinguished the glowing embers of the campfires of hate, wiped out the imaginary line that separated the north from the south, and with hearts filled with hope you meet here in convention to nominate candidates who will lead your party in the coming campaign. That great good may result from your deliberations and actions, I sincerely hope. That you will fearlessly face the issues of the day I firmly believe.

The Kansas people who spoke were W. F. Rightmire, L. D. Lewelling, Colonel Harris, Mrs. Mary E. Lease, Louise Lease, her daughter, and Mrs. Annie L. Diggs, who much to the discomfiture of Susan B. Anthony, did not insist on the suffrage plank. Mrs. Diggs was a shrewd politician, and was about the only Populist of the original contingency who survived the defeat of 1894 and exerted any great influence afterward. Miss Anthony was a good suffragist but had a poor understanding of policy. She finally succeeded in forcing Populism and suffrage upon each other, to the great detriment of both.

The platform covered completely the economic questions treated in whole or in part by previous meetings. In the railroad plank was this statement: "We believe that the time has come when the railroad corporations will either own the people or the people will own the railroads." The wrongs of the people were stated as follows:

Corruption dominates the ballot-box, the legislatures, the Congress, and touches even the ermine of the bench. The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced, business prostrated, our homes covered with mortgages, labor impoverished and the land concentrating in the hands of capitalists. The urban workmen are denied the right of organization for self-protection; a hireling standing army is established to shoot them down. The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up the colossal fortunes of a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind. The national power to create money is appropriated to enrich bondholders. Silver which has been accepted as coin since the dawn of civilization has been demonitized to add to the purchasing power of gold by decreasing the value of all forms of property as well as human labor, and the supply of currency is purposely abridged to fatten usurers, bankrupt enterprise and enslave industry. A vast conspiracy against mankind has been organized on two continents, and it is rapidly taking possession of the world.

General James B. Weaver, the former Iowa Greenbacker, was nominated for President. It had been the intention to nominate R. L. Polk, President of the National Alliance, for Vice-President, but his death occurred shortly before the convention, and General J. G. Field, of Virginia, was nominated.

After the close of the National Convention the campaign began in earnest. As in 1891, the big Kansans spent their time in other states. Mrs. Lease went West and then South with General Weaver. She said if the South could be won the cause was won, and she was right. But the South refused to accept Populism as a National proposition, and the Weaver party was greeted all over Georgia with bad eggs. In the West this same party had been having better luck. The enthusiasm of the silver states was unbounded, and the progress from town to town was a continuous ovation. In some places there were not enough people left. in the old parties to form committees. In Nevada eight speeches were made every day. Mrs. Lease said the spirit of rebellion in the West was like Carlyle's description of the storming of the bastile. One of the California papers in describing a meeting addressed by Mrs. Diggs said:

At no time since President Harrison visited San Diego has so large an audience assembled on Horton Plaza. Mrs. Diggs, who has gained a national reputation as an advocate of the principles of the People's Party, is a pleasing and entertaining speaker. Though rather slight in figure her voice is loud, clear and resonant. That she held her immense audience for nearly two and a half hours is a high tribute to her oratory. She arraigned the old parties for offering no adequate solution to the present labor troubles and hard times. She reviewed the actions of Congress in regard to wasteful and dishonest disbursements of the people's money and spoke very clearly regarding the policy and principles of the new party.

In Kansas the campaign was largely carried on by the candidates for State offices and for Congress. It was in a large measure a repetition of the Crusade of 1890. Every meeting was a celebration. Parades five miles in length were held, led by the speaker of the day. Nor was Georgia the only place where indignities were suffered. Congressman Otis was rotten-egged at Princeton, in Franklin County. John W. Breidenthal was subjected to false arrest in Wichita, and S. N. Wood was murdered in Hugoton. A plot was unearthed to murder Jerry Simpson.

As in the former State campaign, the school-houses and other buildings would not begin to hold the multitudes. The meetings lasted hours and hours, and the people cheered and called for more. There was plenty of material in the events of the day to talk from. They said that the unfriendly legislation against silver had cost the farmers of this country more than $10,000,000,000, that being the balance of trade against us caused by an unequal exchange of products in the markets of the world, and that this vast sum had been settled by mortgages on our farms. The silver states had lost $150,000,000 and were still losing $15,000,000 per year on account of this legislation. The cotton states were losing $10 to $12 on every bale of cotton, and the wheat states, 25 to 30 cents per bushel on every bushel of wheat, bringing the annual loss to a figure between $300,000,000 and $400,000,000, on account of demonetization, which compelled the American farmer to compete with India cotton and wheat in the Liverpool market, with an advantage in favor of India of from 40 to 50%. England forced a silver standard upon the gold producing countries and a gold standard upon the silver producing countries in order that she might buy both metals cheap and make the exchange between the countries at an enormous profit.

It was shown that the national debt of 1865 which was $2,700,000,000, could have been paid at that time with 18,000,000 bales of cotton or 25,000,000 tons of pig iron. But now after paying interest on it for nearly thirty years and paying more than half of the principal, it would take 30,000,000 bales of cotton to pay it, or 32,000,000 tons of lead. Between 1880 and 1884, $750,000,000 was paid, yet measured in terms of products and labor it increased 50% in that time. In the hundred years of African slavery no slave owner was able to amass as much as $1,000,000, but in 28 years of financial slavery we have made 4,500 millionaires, some of whom are worth $250,000,000.

The Auditor's report of 1890 was a fertile source of campaign propaganda. According to the figures, the assessed valuation of property in the State was $348,459,943, while the total indebtedness, public and private, including railroad indebtedness, totaled $706,181,627, about twice as much as the property. This assessed valuation was far below the real value, but probably was not below the figure which could have been realized on a forced sale. W. F. Rightmire submitted figures showing that Kansas raised $39,000,000 worth of wheat and $10,000,000 worth of oats, but paid out in railroad hauling, taxes and interest, the sum of $59,381,342.

John R. Mulvane attempted to stem the tide with some sage remarks. He advised the farmers that if they did not like to sell their produce so cheap they ought to hold it for a higher price, knowing full well that in his own bank he held the mortgages on their farms on which interest had to be paid by a certain date, that the taxes had to be paid at a specified time, and that the merchants who had been grub-staking the farmers all summer must have their money in order to meet their obligations, and that it was as much out of the question for the producer to hold his grain without the aid of the sub-treasury as it would have been for the bankers to get rich without the aid of government loans. Mr. Mulvane submitted figures showing that the total value of marketable produce in Kansas in a year was worth $92,500,000, and said there was nothing to complain of. The Populists immediately took the figures of the Secretary of Agriculture on the cost of production and subtracted $178,235,000, the total cost of production from Mr. Mulvane's $92,500,000, leaving a deficit of $85,735,000, to which was added interest, taxes and railroad hauling to the amount of $59,381,342, making a total deficit on the year's business of $145,116,342. And then they asked Mr. Mulvane how they were going to buy the children's shoes.

When the election returns came in the National ticket was found to be badly snowed under. Five states had been carried and the Populist ticket was second in four or five others. There were ten national electors. In Kansas the entire State ticket was elected, twenty-five senators and fifty-eight members of the House. Colonel W. A. Harris was elected Congressman-at-large; H. L. Moore was elected to Congress from the second district, T. J. Hudson from the Third, John Davis from the Fifth, William Baker from the Sixth and Jerry Simpson from the Seventh.

In regard to the returns on House membership, the Populists claimed fraud in counting the ballots. They claimed that the people had elected a majority of Third Party men to the House in spite of the thousands of voters brought into the State by the railroads and in spite of bribery and fraud of every description. One instance was the election of M. B. Chrisman, a citizen of Oklahoma, as representative from Chautauqua County. A transposition of figures in the Haskell County vote gave the election to Joe Rosenthal, the Democrat. Other figures gave it to A. W. Stubbs, the Republican. Rosenthal was later seated, after he had pledged his support to the Republican faction in the House. In Coffey County a tie was declared where the Populists claimed they had elected Rice over Ballinger, the Republican candidate. These three cases with that of E. B. Cabbell, a Populist elector whose name had been printed E. B. Campbell on the ballots, went to the State Canvassing Board. As this board was Republican the cases were decided in favor of the Republican candidate in each instance. The board was later compelled to reconvene and certify the election of E. B. Cabbell. The Populists claimed that the proceedings of the Canvassing Board was not in accordance with law in deciding the other three cases and brought mandamus proceedings in the Supreme Court to compel the board to recount the original ballots. The Supreme Court decided it had no authority to compel this action. This decision was handed down January 4, 1893, a few days before the Legislature convened.

THE TRIUMPHAL MARCH

The inauguration of the People's Party administration took place Monday, January 9, 1893, and it was a gala event such as has never been paralleled in Kansas. For the first time in the history of the State the Republicans were compelled to relinquish the reins of government. Their boasted eighty-two thousand majority had been reduced to a minus quantity, and the victorious hosts moved on Topeka. Thousands of people had come to witness the triumph of the cause. There was the old guard of the reform movement who had been on the fighting line since the days of the Independent party in the early seventies. They had worked and voted for Peter Cooper in 1876, and for Weaver in 1880, under the Greenback banner, and had followed the same principals through the Anti-Monopoly, Union Labor and Alliance movements. To them the occasion meant the wresting of the government from the tools of corporate greed and turning it over to the people. There were farmers in great numbers, who felt that this was the day of their salvation, and of their deliverance from the clutches of the money power. There were newspaper men, not only of the reform press of Kansas, who were there to cheer, but representatives of every leading paper in the country, whose object in most cases was to throw what discredit they could on the doings. The anticipation of excitement in the organization of the lower branch of the Legislature, which was to take place the next day, had attracted an unusually large number of Republicans to the Capital City to witness the outcome. So, the crowd was far in excess of any gathering ever assembled in the State.

JERRY SIMPSON, ONE OF THE POPULIST LEADERS

[Copy by Willard of Portrait in Library of Kansas State Historical Society]

An elaborate parade was arranged to do honor to the occasion. In the triumphal procession rode Mrs. Lease, in a new silk dress and bonnet. Jerry Simpson delayed his departure for Washington to take part in the ceremonies, and said it was better than a trip around the world. Then there were John F. Willits, Judge Rightmire, Levi Dumbauld, Dr. S. McLallin, S. S. King, S. M. Scott, Dick Chase, S. H. Snider, Charles Moody, Fred Close, Householder, Yount, Mrs. Anna L. Diggs, Judge Doster, Rev. W. G. Todd, G. C. Clemens, and a score of other leaders, including A. J. Streeter, Populist leader of Illinois, who was the Union Labor candidate for President in 1888. It was a great moment for these leaders who had been vilified in the press and from the platform, and who had been rotten-egged and subjected to all manner of personal indignity, when they rode down the Avenue amid the wild and prolonged cheers of their followers.

The doors of Representative Hall were thrown open to the public at ten o'clock, and inside of an hour it was packed. Decorations of evergreen held together by red ribbons entwined the central chandelier and extended to the corners of the room, and were mingled with flags and flowers over the walls. The Speakers' stand was banked with palms and roses, and above it the great flag was tied to the gallery pillars with evergreens and roses. About eleven o'clock the ladies of the Shawnee County Alliance unfurled a large silk banner bearing the Populist motto in letters of gold: "A government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish." A life-sized portrait of Governor-elect Lewelling was then raised in the front part of the Hall, and the enthusiasm of the crowd knew no bounds.

The inaugural ceremonies were held at high noon, with John W. Breidenthal, Chairman of the People's Party State Committee, presiding. He opened the exercises with the remark that this was the inauguration of the first People's Party administration on earth. Prayer was offered by Dr. W. G. Todd, pastor of Everybody's Church in Topeka. The retiring governor, L. U. Humphrey, made a short address, after which Governor Lewelling was introduced. He reviewed the age-long struggle of the poor and oppressed against power and wealth, and appealed to the people of Kansas to array themselves on the side of humanity and justice, declaring it to be the mission of the State to protect and advance the moral and material interests of all its citizens, but the especial duty at this time to protect the producer from the ravages of combined wealth. In defining the function of government Governor Lewelling said:

The State is greater than party, but the citizen is greater than the State, while the family of the citizen produces the priceless jewel of our civilization. The problem of today is how to make the State subservient to the individual, rather than to become his master. Government is a voluntary union for the common good. It guarantees to the individual life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. The Government must make it possible for the citizen to live by his own labor. The Government must make it possible for the citizen to enjoy liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If the Government fails in these things, it fails in its mission. It ceases to be of advantage to the citizen; he is absolved from his allegiance, and is no longer bound by the civil compact. What is the State to him who toils if labor is denied him and his children cry for bread? Is the State powerless against these conditions? Then the State has failed and our boasted civil compact is a hollow mockery. But Government is not a failure, and the State has not been constructed in vain. The people are greater than the law or the statutes, and when a nation sets its heart on doing a great or good thing, it can find a legal way to do it.

At the conclusion of his address, Lewelling took the oath of office followed by the other State officers. Ordinarily the ceremonies would have been over, but not so at a Populist jubilee. Jerry Simpson was called for and made a few remarks. Mrs. Lease was then called for and said a few words. Other speakers were demanded, but Chairman Breidenthal fearing a long drawn out session, shut them off and sent the crowd away.

While the newly installed officers were holding their reception in the State House that night the Populist orators held a so-called camp meeting in Representative Hall. The meeting was opened by band music at 7:30 and lasted till a late hour. Mrs. Lease was on hands[sic] with an original poem, but before reciting it she made a few remarks in prose. Referring to the Southern trip taken by the Weavers and herself she said the statements concerning the indignities they suffered were not overdrawn. "The fact was," said Mrs. Lease, "Mrs. Weaver was made a regular walking omelet by the Southern chivalry of Georgia.

The Rev. W. G. Todd was the next speaker. In course of his remarks he made the following observation: "The Republican party is a party of socialism. Every line of its advance has been upon the tone of socialism. The Republican party started out right, but greed and selfishness took possession of it and we have laid it aside."

Mrs. Diggs was called for and talked on the poverty of New York, the riots of Tennessee, and on equal suffrage and prohibition. Judge Doster said that the People's Party ideals were made up of the best principles of Republicanism and Democracy. G. C. Clemens spoke on reforms in the judiciary. Other speakers were Associate Justice Allen, Lieutenant Governor Daniels, and Jerry Simpson. The latter made a rather inflammatory address, or one which at least gave his enemies an opportunity to say that the Populists had planned the events that transpired the following day. The following paragraphs are culled from his remarks:

I want to say to you Republican friends yet on the outside, you can't put this movement down by sneers or by ridicule, for its foundation was laid as far back as the foundation of the world. It is a struggle between robbers and the robbed. I have read history to learn why it was people had lived so long and are yet so far from the ideal government of the statesman. They have failed because they made the governments and tried to fit the individual to it.

The struggle in this state was hot between the People's Party and the Republican Party, but between the People's Party and the railroad corporations. You have beaten the Santa Fe Railroad, and you must take charge of the government. You must organize the Legislature in this Hall tomorrow, and I wouldn't let the technicalities of the law stand in the way. Call this revolution if you will. I do not favor revolution in this case only as a last resort, but see to it that you organize the Legislature here tomorrow.

So closes the record of the one glorious and perfect day which the Populists enjoyed, crowning their long and bitter struggle for success, and preceding the more bitter struggle that led to their downfall as a party organization.

1918 Kansas and Kansans

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A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans , written and compiled by William E. Connelley, transcribed by Carolyn Ward, 1998.

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