Sierra Club See conservation; Muir, John.
Simpson, Jerry (1842-1905) activist, orator The Populist orator Jerry Simpson was born on March 31, 1842, in Westmoreland County, New Brunswick, Canada. Between 1848 and 1852 he resided in several towns near the Great Lakes in both Canada and the United States. Except for a few years of home schooling, Simpson had almost no formal education. At age 14 he became a cook on a lake freighter and ultimately rose to the rank of ship captain. In 1861 Simpson enlisted in the Union army. However, he was mustered out after just three months because of poor health. Simpson married Jane Cape on October 12, 1870. They had two children.
In 1879 the Simpsons moved to Holton, Kansas, where he owned and operated a farm and sawmill. Taking advantage of high prices, Simpson sold out and invested his profits in a cattle ranch near Medicine Lodge in southwestern Kansas, but the severe winter of 1886 wiped out his herd and left him in debt. Having dabbled in politics, he was lucky to secure an appointment at $40 a month as the marshall of Medicine Lodge. He also became involved in local politics. Originally a Republican, Simpson twice ran unsuccessfully for the state legislature as a Greenbacker (1886) and as a Union Labor Party candidate (1888). Between 1888 and 1889, Kansas plunged further into agricultural depression, and farmers throughout the state began to join the farmers’ alliances in an effort to find a solution to their pressing economic problems. In 1890 the Farmers’ Alliances joined with local reform elements in Kansas to create the People’s Party (Populist Party). Simpson’s attraction to reform-based politics made him an active member of the new party, which nominated him for a seat in the U. S. House of Representatives.
During the campaign, his opponents disparaged him as “Sockless Jerry,” but Simpson shrewdly turned the intended insult to his advantage. He conveyed the Populist message in a folksy political style that endeared him to audiences. Not only was Simpson a tireless champion of political and economic reform, but he was also an advocate of the “single tax” plan popularized by Henry George. Both Kansas Populists and Democrats endorsed Simpson, and he was elected to Congress in 1890, 1892, and 1896. As a leader of the fusion wing of the People’s Party, Simpson supported the Populist nomination of William Jennings Bryan in 1896 and urged the Populists to support Democratic candidates whenever possible. His promotion of fusion (without which he could not have been elected) made many leading Populists resent him.
As a congressman, Simpson delivered few speeches and introduced few bills. Yet, he was well known for his sharp, shrewd wit and was a leader among House Populists. Simpson fought for currency inflation (he preferred greenbacks but accepted Free Silver [see Free Silver movement]), disliked the autocratic rule of Speaker Thomas B. Reed, and opposed iMpERiALisM.
In 1898 Simpson lost his bid for reelection. He then moved to Wichita, where he began to publish Jerry Simpson’s Bayonet. Following his failure to secure the Populist nomination for the Senate in 1900, Simpson retired from active political life. In 1902 he moved to Roswell, New Mexico, where he took up ranching and became a land-grant agent for the Santa Fe Railroad. He died on October 23, 1905, in Wichita.
Further reading: O. Gene Clanton, Kansas Populism, Ideas and Men (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1969); Lawrence Goodwyn, Democratic Promise: The Populist Moment in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976).
—Phillip Papas
Single tax See George, Henry.
Singleton, Benjamin (Pap) See Exodusters; see also Volume V.
World History
