The Representative (St. Paul, Minn.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
434 issues from 1893 to 1901, published in Minneapolis, Minnesota, digitised for Chronicling America.
Ignatius Donnelly came to Minnesota hoping to make a fortune in real-estate, a dream killed by the banking “Panic” of 1857. Donnelly quickly moved into politics, becoming lieutenant governor of the state under Alexander Ramsey and then a United States congressman and a Minnesota state legislator. A born reformer, Donnelly’s public life centered on the left-leaning third parties and farm movements of the 19th century. He fought for legislation to curtail the worst excesses of the monopolies he viewed as harmful to workers and farmers. Over his life, Donnelly stood for office 17 times, withdrawing twice, winning six elections and suffering nine defeats.
Donnelly used newspapers to promote his ideas and his agenda and to increase his influence. His belief, as stated in his first issue of the Representative, was that “In our present advanced civilization no large association of men can exist without a newspaper… No great reform can live without newspapers.”
On July 16, 1874 the first issue of the weekly Anti-Monopolist was published in St. Paul, Minnesota, after Donnelly tried and failed to get the state’s leading Democratic papers to explain clearly the progressive Anti-Monopoly party position. Indicative of Donnelly’s style, the motto of the new paper was “Speak to the Children of Israel, that They Go Forward.” A review of the Anti-Monopolist by another newspaper, the Litchfield News Ledger captured the flavor of Donnelly’s paper, stating that it was “as unlike other…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
- Language
- English
- Collection
- Chronicling America
- Licence or status
- None stated by the archive
- Rights
- The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety.
- Credit
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- Who can read it
- Teens profiles and older (placed by Invisible Network from what the archive says; archives give no ratings)
- Archive
- Library of Congress