On July 4, 1890, a hard-working man of 36 who worked for Yankton College and had previously had tenures as a teacher and a pastor was called upon on at the last minute to deliver a speech before the citizens of Brown County, South Dakota. James Henderson Kyle (1854-1901) proceeded to deliver a half-hour powerful, rousing speech in which he denounced corruption in government and called for more redistribution of wealth. These messages resounded with the people of South Dakota who were so distant from political and economic power, and this speech propelled him to the U.S. Senate.

Kyle had originally been a Republican, but by 1887 he found himself in greater sympathy with the views of the Democrats and switched. Although by the time of his election in 1891 he chose not to identify with any party, he had been supported by the populistic Farmers Alliance and Democrats. Kyle soon opted to identify as a member of the left-wing People’s (Populist) Party and mostly voted with the Democrats in his first term. This included his support of the Wilson-Gorman Tariff in 1894 which reduced tariffs and reinstituted the income tax for the highest earners. He also supported free coinage of silver, women’s suffrage, worker’s rights, and Prohibition. However, the cause he was most known for was Labor Day.

On August 28, 1893, Kyle introduced a bill, S. 730, to make the first Monday of September a federal holiday to honor the contributions of American labor. President Cleveland signed the measure into law on June 28th. On an interesting note, this was signed while the Pullman Strike was occurring, which President Cleveland would ultimately end by use of federal troops. In 1898, Kyle would make another legislative contribution through his strong advocacy for the establishment of the Industrial Commission to investigate the economic conditions of the U.S., which President McKinley signed into law.

Although he had been a Populist, during his second term his views started shifting away from Populism as support of socialism was increasing and the strength of the party was declining. On December 28, 1899, Kyle delivered a statement in which he divorced himself from the Populist Party. He said, “Though I am a bimetallist and have been so from conscientious convictions for twenty-five years, I would rather take the most undiluted gold standard coin than to accept bimetallism with the ingredients of radical socialism that are now associated with it” (The New York Times). From then on, he was a Republican and largely supported the party on the issues from then on. He had already been moving in this direction on some issues, such as his support for President McKinley’s vote to ratify the Treaty of Paris on February 6, 1899, which ended the Spanish-American War, brought the Phillippines, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Cuba under US control and brought an end to the Spanish Empire while establishing the United States as a world power. Guam and Puerto Rico remain U.S. territories today. Kyle’s DW-Nominate score stands at a -0.108, reflecting both his Populism and his later Republican phase.

Kyle’s era of renewed Republicanism would not last long; in 1899 he had contracted malaria and this weakened his heart. On July 1, 1901, he would issue forth his last words that reflected both his faith and peace with the end, “Now I shall rest” (Robinson). Kyle was only 47 years old.

References

James H. Kyle of South Dakota Dead. (1901, July 2). The New York Times.

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Kyle, James Henderson. Voteview.

Retrieved from

https://voteview.com/person/5386/james-henderson-kyle

Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of James H. Kyle. (1902). Congressional Record. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Printing Office.

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Click to access SERIALSET-04252_00_00.pdf

Robinson, D. (1904). History of South Dakota, Vol. 1, 612-614.

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https://electricscotland.com/history/world/bios/kyle_james.htm