GRANGER MOVEMENT AT FLOOD TIDE 39 



The one outstanding exception among the leaders 

 of the Anti-Monopolists was Ignatius Donnelly of 

 Minnesota "the sage of Nininger" who re- 

 mained a captain of the radical cohorts in every 

 agrarian movement until his death in 1901. A red- 

 headed aggressive Irishman, with a magnetic per- 

 sonality and a remarkable intellect, Donnelly went 

 to Minnesota from Pennsylvania in 1856 and spec- 

 ulated in town sites on a large scale. When he was 

 left stranded by the panic of 1857, acting upon his 

 own principle that "to hide one's light under a 

 bushel is to extinguish it, " he entered the political 

 arena. In Pennsylvania Donnelly had been a 

 Democrat, but his genuine sympathy for the op- 

 pressed made him an opponent of slavery and con- 

 sequently a Republican. In 1857 and 1858 he ran 

 for the state senate in Minnesota on the Republi- 

 can ticket in a hopelessly Democratic county. In 

 1859 he was nominated for lieutenant governor on 

 the ticket headed by Alexander Ramsey; and his 

 caustic wit, his keenness in debate, and his elo- 

 quence made him a valuable asset in the battle- 

 royal between Republicans and Democrats for the 

 possession of Minnesota. As lieutenant governor, 

 Donnelly early showed his sympathy with the 

 farmers by championing laws which lowered the 



