Populist Party: Omaha Platform

Ignatius Loyola Donnelly was born on November 3, 1831, in Philadelphia. The son of Irish Catholic immigrants, Donnelly became a lawyer in 1852 with a determination to fight the inequalities that he witnessed among the poor and working class. He rejected organized religion and became increasingly drawn to the idea of creating a utopian community, based on equality and shared ownership. Donnelly moved to Minnesota in 1857 to establish his ideal community, but the effort failed during an economic downturn.

An ardent opponent of slavery, the young idealist joined the new Republican Party and served a term as lieutenant governor of Minnesota (1860–1863) during the initial years of the Civil War, and then three terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1863–1869). Donnelly went on to serve in both the Minnesota House of Representatives (1887–1888 and 1897–1898) and the Senate (1874–1878 and 1891–1894). In the midst of his political career, Donnelly wrote a study of the mythical lost continent of Atlantis, Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882), and other works that challenged conventional history and philosophy. Modern scholars have generally disavowed his writings.

Donnelly became disenchanted with the Republican Party, which he saw as increasingly dominated by wealthy business interests. He briefly joined the Democratic Party and then became an independent. He was then elected to office as a member of the short-lived Anti-Monopolist Party in 1887. (The party opposed monopolies and business cartels.) Donnelly finally found a political home in the new Populist Party. He was responsible for the party's 1892 platform, which served as the basis for the Populists' agenda for the rest of the time the group existed. He served in the Minnesota House of Representatives as a Populist and was the party's 1900 vice presidential candidate. Donnelly died on January 1, 1901, at age sixty-nine, of a heart attack.