Jeremiah Simpson was an American politician. An old-style populist, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives three times. He was a Georgist and former greenbacker.
Background
Simpson was born on March 31, 1842, in Prince Edward Island, Canada, the son of Joseph Simpson. His mother's maiden name was Washburn. His father, a sawmill owner and sailor, decided in 1848 to remove the family to Upper Canada, and, though the journey was interrupted near Syracuse, New York, by 1852 they were established east of the Saint Clair River. Probably they subsequently removed to Indiana.
Education
The boy had almost no formal education, but home influence and books in part compensated. At the age of fourteen he became cook on a lake boat and ultimately became captain. At the opening of the Civil War he enlisted for three months in Company A, 12th Illinois Infantry.
Career
After 1869 Simpson's home was in Porter County, Indiana, where he met Jane Cape, a native of Cumberlandshire, England, whom he married. About 1879 he abandoned the Lakes for a farm and sawmill near Holton, Kansas; after five years he took advantage of increased prices to sell out and invested his savings, about $15, 000, in a cattle ranch near Medicine Lodge, Kansas. His hopes for speedy profits from this new "boom" were ended when an especially severe winter wiped out his herd, and he found himself under mortgage and without resources. Simpson was glad to accept appointment as marshal of Medicine Lodge at forty dollars a month. In a sense, his prosperity, his disaster, and his courageous efforts at recovery were typical of the big majority of his fellows.
Ruinous prices made the mortgage burden impossibly large, and "booming" gave way to despair; in 1888-1889, the Farmers' Alliance swept through the state until, with its allies, it numbered a third of the voters, and in 1890 as the People's Party it entered politics. Simpson was named for Congress from the seventh district. He was prepared to lead such a movement. He was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives three times, after which, in 1898, he retired to private life.
After retirement he lived a short time in Wichita and Kansas City. On May 8, 1899, he began to publish Jerry Simpson's Bayonet, which he continued to publish until September 17, 1900. In 1902, partly on account of his health, he removed to Roswell, New Mexico, where he associated with a land and colonization corporation. His health grew steadily worse, and he returned to Wichita, where he died and was buried.
Achievements
Politics
Originally a Lincoln Republican, he had deserted that party to work for Peter Cooper and his monetary program. He had followed his principles into the newer Union Labor party and was twice defeated for the state legislature, 1886 and 1888, in spite of Democratic support. In this campaign for Congress, his wit and clever, telling illustrations were very effective before audiences that accepted agrarian doctrines and needed only the emotional stimulus to break past allegiances. A reporter twisted a statement to mean that, in contrast to his wealthy banker opponent who wore silk socks, he, Simpson, wore none, and the name "Sockless Jerry" was his for life. The Populist state ticket was narrowly defeated in 1890, but Simpson was elected. In 1892 the Democrats were eager to draw Kansas from the Republican presidential column, and their endorsement gave victory to the state ticket; he was again elected. In 1894 the allies divided, and he went down with his ticket in defeat. National fusion in 1896 meant the practical absorption of the Populists by the Democrats, and, after his re-election of that year, he called himself a Demo-Populist. In 1898 he was defeated for the second time by Chester I. Long, whom he had twice defeated, and, after a vain attempt to obtain Populist convention endorsement for senator, he retired to private life.
He accepted Populist doctrine completely and combined with it a belief in the single tax. In Congress he delivered few speeches and proposed few bills; his weapon was a shrewd question or witty comment directed at effort that he thought false or insincere, and he was a feared and respected opponent. He advocated a paper money system and accepted free silver coinage as only a step. His belief in simple democracy and his monetary program are the two consistent threads through his career. On the Spanish War he was uncertain, but he was an ardent opponent of army expansion and imperialism.