Mary Elizabeth Lease was an incredibly important and well known figure of the late 18th century to the early 19th century. She was an American lecturer, writer, Georgist, political activist, and an advocate of the suffrage movement as well as temperance. Although despite all these achievements that demonstrate how broad her work truly was, what she was most known for was her work with the People's Party.
Lease was Born on September 11, 1853, in Ridgway, Pennsylvania. Lease was born of immigrant parents who were fleeing Ireland. From a very young age, she had to experience the harsh side of the rapidly developing America, she grew up engulfed in poverty. At a young age she was also surrounded by death, her father and two brothers were killed in the civil war, this sparked her growing deep hatred for the confederacy along with the democratic party. By 1873 Lease moved to Kansas and married a clerk named Charles L. Lease, they bought a farm together shortly after marrying. Although in the economic panic of 1873 crop prices dropped incredibly low, leaving Charles and Mary with nothing. Lease wanted someone to blame for the economic downfall and she began to point her fingers at the railroad companies due to the fact that they charged farmers higher rates than they charged businessmen.
Lease then moved back to Kansana where she began to study law. This is where she began to rise up and take leadership roles in issues regarding women's suffrage and labor laws. On March 17th, 1885 Lease delivered her first speech “Ireland and Irishmen,” her speech impressed the crowds and she was offered a position as a paid lecturer. By 1887 Lease became a lecturer for the Farmers' Alliance, which was an organization that brought farmers together to fight for their interests such as more fair railroad tax and elimination of national banks. Members of the Farmers Alliance along with labor groups with the help of Lease formed a new political party, the People's Party. This party was established with the intention of giving more people who grew up like Lease herself a voice. Lease and her followers believed that the other two major political groups were only aligned with the rich and were against the poor farmers such as themselves. Lease traveled to different towns across the nation and delivered far over one hundred speeches regarding the popultist party. Lease soon became the most famous and important figure of the populist movement. By 1869 the Populist Party merged with the Democrats for presidential elections. After her major roles and success with the populist party, she went on to take an active role in the campaign to unseat U.S. Senator John J. Ingalls. She made over 160 speeches during this campaign and led to its eventual success. Eventually, Lease moved back to New York with her children, divorced her husband and started to settle down in her career. She passed away on October 29th, 1933 although her legacy and all of her hard work lived on must past she did, she is still remembered and written about today.
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ReplyDeleteI loved how you included all of the major events of her life as we only learned about the beginning of her life and her participation in the Populist movement. Reading more about her biography, I found that one of her attributes that made her so well known was her remarkable voice. Her voice was described as a "golden voice" conveying something that "printed copies did not reveal". This made her more and more well-known as she captivated the working class when she toured America to campaign for Populism as her ideas were innovative and she encapsulated all the emotions and the toil that workers were enduring.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.kshs.org/p/kansas-historical-quarterly-the-disaffection-of-mary-elizabeth-lease/17865
This is a super interesting and informative blog post! I really like how you included information about Lease's childhood and background. This helps people understand why she was motivated to speak for the Farmers' Alliance. Reading about Lease's story reminded me of William Jennings Bryan, who also traveled across the nation and gave speeches to support the working class. In fact, the reason for the merge of the Democratic and Populist parties was because Bryan's platform incorporated many of the reforms that Lease and her followers campaigned for.
ReplyDeletehttps://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/bryan-william-jennings