Kansas Senator Prepares "Oratorical Eruption"

The February 20, 1897 edition of Harper’s Weekly displayed on its cover an eye-catching illustration captioned "The Senator from Kansas Preparing an Oratorical Eruption." Senator William Peffer appears in the center of the illustration, seated at his desk in the Senate chamber. Surrounded by mountains of papers, he is attended by two young pages bearing large books. Sporting a waist-length beard, the Kansas senator appears lost in thought while drafting a major speech. This illustration reminds us that, prior to the twentieth century, the Senate chamber served as the principal office space for many senators.

A journalist and former editor of the Kansas Farmer, William Peffer belonged to the Populist party and served in the Senate from 1891 until March 1897. As a third-party member, he had little influence in the Senate. He was known as a persistent and somewhat tedious speaker on a wide variety of subjects. One biographer assessed him as follows : "His tall, well-rounded figure, his unusually long and wavy beard, which he combed constantly with his fingers as he talked, his heavy, dry, excessively statistical speeches, his absence of humor, and his deadly earnestness made him a conspicuous figure in the Senate, and one which in caricature came to typify Populism."

Soon after Peffer left the Senate, he composed these memorable lines, which are as applicable today as they were nine decades ago : "The Senate is a school. The world’s history is its text book. The record of a single day’s proceedings frequently shows a range of work as wide as Christendom. No man well made up can be there long, if he will but listen, without himself becoming wiser and better. His opportunities for usefulness multiply as the new days come to him; his intellectual horizon expands, his view broadens and he grows stronger."