A historical review of the causes and issues that led to the overthrow of the Republican Party in Kansas in 1892
Creator: Kent, W. H.
Date: 1893
This pamphlet recounts the rise of the Populist Party in Kansas and the events of the legislative war in Topeka. This history is written from the Populist perspective. It may have been written by William Henry Kent who died in 1916.

Annie (Le Porte) Diggs
Creator: Snyder
Date: Between 1890 and 1899
A portrait of Annie (Le Porte) Diggs, who was born in 1848 in Canada to an American mother and French father. Two years later the family moved to New Jersey, where she attended school. Diggs moved to Lawrence, Kansas, in 1873 and married Alvin S. Diggs shortly thereafter. While in Kansas, Diggs began to attend the local Unitarian Church and developed a strong sense of moral responsibility that prompted her to work for temperance and women's suffrage. During 1882, Diggs and her husband published the newspaper Kansas Liberal, and beginning in 1890 she was the associate editor of the Alliance Advocate. As a radical reformer seeking to wipe out injustice, Diggs also allied herself with the Farmer's Alliance, aiding in the creation of the People's (Populist) Party, serving on the Populist National Committee, and supporting the fusion of the Populist and Democratic parties in the 1898 election. Throughout this time she continued to work actively for women's voting rights and served in the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association. In 1898, she was appointed the state librarian of Kansas, and she was also elected president of Kansas Press Women in 1905. Diggs moved to New York City in 1906, where she worked on two publications: The Story of Jerry Simpson (1908) and Bedrock (1912). She relocated to Detroit, Michigan, in 1912 and died there on September 7, 1916.

A party of patches
Creator: Judge Magazine
Date: June 6, 1891
This political cartoon drawn by Bernard Gilliam was copied from the satirical magazine Judge presents the Republican perception of the People's (Populist) Party. The artist depicts the People's Party as a hot air balloon made up of a patchwork of pieces, with each piece labeled with the name of the political organization or party that has been subsumed under the banner of the Populists. Some of the more recognizable "patches" include the Prohibition Party, the Greenback Party, the Farmer's Alliance, and the Knights of Labor Party. Inside the balloon's basket are two leading Populists from Kansas, William Peffer and "Sockless" Jerry Simpson.

Farmer's Alliance picnic!
Creator: Darling & Douglass, Printers, Topeka, Kansas
Date: August 28, 1889
A poster by the Farmers' Alliance of Dover Township, Shawnee County, Kansas, inviting the public to a picnic at Moon's Grove to discuss the issues and topics by the Farmers' Alliance and similar organizations.

How to organize an Alliance
Creator: Topeka Commonwealth
Date: February 8, 1881
This brief article from the Topeka Commonwealth outlines the basics of how to assemble a local branch of the Farmer's Alliance and the objectives of this reform organization. These objectives included obtaining fair prices for farm produce, enabling farmers to protect themselves against corrupt and unethical businessmen, eliminating government corruption, and opposing legislation that would aid big business at the expense of farmers. The Farmer's Alliance movement would eventually merge with the Knights of Labor to form the People's (Populist) Party.

Kansas suffrage mass meetings for June
Creator: The Farmer's Wife
Date: May 1894
This article lists the upcoming suffrage meetings for June and their locations. The first section's meetings will have Carrie Chapman-Catt, Annie Diggs, and Theresa Jenkins as the speakers; the second section's meetings will be addressed by Susan B. Anthony, Anna Howard Shaw, Helen Kimber and Rachel Child.

Liberty or freedom
Creator: The Farmer's Wife
Date: November 1891
This brief article in the Populist paper The Farmer's Wife explains why Kansas women supported suffrage. According to the article, which quotes Benjamin Franklin, "they who have no voice or vote in the electing of representatives do not enjoy liberty."

Lone Tree Farmers' Alliance minute book
Creator: Lone Tree Farmers' Alliance
Date: September 4, 1890
The Lone Tree suballiance of the Kansas Farmers' Alliance of Dentonia, Jewell County, met in September of 1890 and recorded the minutes of that meeting. In addition to local appointments and elections, the minutes describe requests and motions to use member donations and the alliance treasury as campaign contributions. This motion led to a controversy between members affiliated with the Republican Party and those supporting the People Party (or Populists). The minutes also describe a lecture on the Republican Party platform. This political controversy marks the transition of the Farmers' Alliance into the People's Party (or Populist Party) which occurred in 1890.

Mary E. Lease to Joseph Hebbard
Creator: Lease, Mary Elizabeth, 1853-1933
Date: September 11, 1890
In this brief letter Mary Elizabeth Lease, a Populist reformer who spoke out against the mistreatment of farmers, thanks Joseph Hebbard, treasurer of the Farmer's Alliance, for his help. She also asks him to do her one more favor: send some information about poverty demographics compiled by the Republicans in order to "dose them with their own medicine." Lease is apparently writing from Hiawatha, Kansas.

Mary Elizabeth Lease
Creator: Deane
Date: Between 1890 and 1899
Mary Elizabeth (Clyens) Lease is perhaps the best-known Kansas Populist. She was born in Pennsylvania on September 11, 1850 to Irish immigrants. At the age of twenty she moved to Osage Mission, Kansas, in order to teach school at St. Anne's Academy. While there, she met and married Charles L. Lease, a local pharmacist. After several unsuccessful attempts at farming, Lease turned her attention to the plight of her fellow farmers, and by 1890, her passionate criticisms of railroads and big business made her a formidable force in the newly formed People's (Populist) Party. She became a well-known lecturer for the Populist cause, traveling throughout the West, Midwest, and South. Although this statement has in fact been misattributed to her, she is most known for her assertion that farmers must "raise less corn and more hell." Her zeal and refusal to compromise eventually alienated her from mainstream Populists, and by 1896 she had turned her attention toward other reform causes, including prohibition and suffrage. She divorced Charles in 1902, spending the remainder of her life living with various children on the Atlantic coast. She passed away on October 29, 1933 in New York state.

Petition of the farmer's convention
Creator: Topeka Capital
Date: January 26, 1881
This article relates the news from a Farmer's Alliance convention held earlier in January. The participants in this convention had written a petition that was presented to the Kansas House of Representatives on Tuesday, January 24, 1881. This petition addressed the greatest concerns of the Alliance, including their recommendations that the government "secure the people the free use of these public highways (railroads) upon the payment of just, uniform, and reasonable rates of toll," and that "the rate of interest be fixed at not more than 7 percent." The Farmer's Alliance movement would eventually merge with the Knight's of Labor to form the People's (Populist) Party.

Reminiscence of the 1893 legislative war
Creator: Bull, Floyd R.
Date: July 15, 1955
In this reminiscence, Floyd R. Bull, a member of the El Dorado company of the Kansas National Guard, recalls his involvment in the Legislative (or Populist) War of 1893. During this conflict, violence broke out between the competing legislative houses--the Republican (Douglass) House and the Populist (Dunsmore) House--prompting Populist Governor Lorenzo Lewelling to call the National Guard to the capitol. On February 25 the Kansas Supreme Court affirmed the validity of the Republican House, thus ending the "war." This reminiscence is a copy of an earlier statement by Bull, written in 1938.

The foolish appeals of the political tramps
Creator: Judge Magazine
Date: 1891
This political cartoon from the satirical magazine Judge depicts a farmer (representing Uncle Sam) standing in his wheat field talking to a Democrat and two Populists, "Sockless" Jerry Simpson and William Peffer, both from Kansas. These three men are attempting to convince the farmer of the importance of free trade and free silver, but he remains satisfied with the current situation. Meanwhile, across the sea in Europe, there are starving peasants begging for relief. The cartoon is meant as a criticism of the Populists' and Democrats' desire to "save" farmers. Judge magazine, created by artists who had worked at Puck magazine and who allied with the Republican Party, began in 1881.

The mite: Farmers' and Laborers' Union songs for national, state, county and subordinate unions
Creator: Olmstead, Florence
Date: 1890s
This booklet of the Farmers' and Laborers' Union includes popular, politically-oriented songs sung by the Populist Party at rallies and social gatherings

The poor donkey has too many drivers
Creator: Judge Magazine
Date: Between 1890 and 1899
In this political cartoon from the satirical magazine Judge, Populist senators William Peffer and "Sockless" Jerry Simpson push a boulder (symbolizing the Farmer's Alliance) under the wheel of a wagon that represents the United States. In the driver's seat are five congressmen, each with their own agenda labeled on their sash. The wagon is being pulled by a donkey signifying "democracy." Judge magazine, created by artists who had allied with the Republican Party, began in 1881 and its sales eventually surpassed those of its rival, Puck.

To Kansas suffragists!
Creator: Amendment Campaign Committee
Date: 1894
This leaflet outlines the work that Kansas suffragists must undertake to win the vote in November 1894. Kansas women were encouraged to donate money and their time to this cause. Women were needed to form suffrage associations or to increase enrollment of those already in existence, to work with their county conventions and draft a suffrage resolution, to speak with members of the press, and to promote suffrage at Farmer's Alliance meetings or other functions (such as those of the Women's Christian Temperance Union). Although this 1894 suffrage amendment failed, Kansas women continued to employ these techniques in other suffrage campaigns, including the successful campaign of 1912.

Why we grow
Creator: The Farmer's Wife
Date: September 1891
This article, originally printed in William Peffer's Kansas Farmer, explains the reasons behind the growth of the Populist movement. Consequently the article focuses on corruption within the government, which has led to legislation that discriminates in favor of the wealthy and privileged and at the expense of the working man. The Farmer's Wife was created by Ira and Emma Pack, who published it from Topeka, Shawnee County, from 1891 until 1894. The newspaper served as a forum to discuss reform movements (including populism and suffrage), to present human interest stories, and to offer practical advice to Kansas women.

W. W. Cone to Joseph Hebbard
Creator: Cone, W. W.
Date: May 10, 1892
In this letter, W. W. Cone of Topeka, Kansas, discusses the pending election and the People's (Populist) Party nominations. He provides the names of several leading Populists, including John Davis, John Grant Otis, and Jeremiah "Sockless Jerry" Simpson, writing confidently that "I believe every Alliance Congressman from Kansas will be reelected." In addition, Cone was displeased that Republican newspapers had implied that the Peoples' Party Convention made resolutions that favored the Democratic Party platform. Thus, he asked Hebbard to speak to both Jerry Simpson and Tom Watson in order to discover the true result of this convention. Cone also asked Hebbard to send him the names and dates of any newspapers that provided an accurate account of the convention's proceedings.