Ignatius L. Donnelly | |
|---|---|
 Portrait byMathew Bradyc. 1860–1865 | |
| Member of theMinnesota House of Representatives | |
| In office January 4, 1897 – January 1, 1899 | |
| Constituency | 24th district |
| In office January 3, 1887 – January 6, 1889 | |
| Constituency | 25th district |
| Member of theMinnesota Senate | |
| In office January 5, 1891 – January 6, 1895 | |
| Constituency | 24th district |
| In office January 6, 1874 – January 6, 1879 | |
| Constituency | 20th district |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMinnesota's2nd district | |
| In office March 4, 1863 – March 3, 1869 | |
| Preceded by | Cyrus Aldrich |
| Succeeded by | Eugene McLanahan Wilson |
| 2nd Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota | |
| In office January 2, 1860 – March 4, 1863 | |
| Governor | Alexander Ramsey |
| Preceded by | William Holcombe |
| Succeeded by | Henry Adoniram Swift |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Ignatius Loyola Donnelly (1831-11-03)November 3, 1831 |
| Died | January 1, 1901(1901-01-01) (aged 69) Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic (before 1857, 1884–1887) Republican (1857–1884) Independent (1887–1892) People's (1892–1901) |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3 |
| Profession | Attorney Author |
| Signature | .png) |
Ignatius Loyola Donnelly (November 3, 1831 – January 1, 1901) was an AmericanCongressman,populist writer, andpseudoscientist. He is known primarily now for hisfringe theories concerningAtlantis,Catastrophism (especially the idea of an ancientimpact event affecting ancient civilizations), andShakespearean authorship. These works are widely regarded as examples ofpseudoscience andpseudohistory. Donnelly's work corresponds to the writings of late-19th and early-20th century figures such asHelena Blavatsky,Rudolf Steiner, andJames Churchward.
Donnelly was the son of Philip Carrol Donnelly, an immigrant fromFintona,County Tyrone,Ireland who had settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His sister was the writerEleanor C. Donnelly. On June 29, 1826, Philip had married Catherine Gavin, who was the daughter of John Gavin, also an immigrant fromFintona,County Tyrone,Ireland. After starting as a peddler, Philip studied medicine at thePhiladelphia College of Medicine.
Catherine provided for her children by operating a pawn shop. Ignatius, her youngest son, was admitted to the prestigiousCentral High School, the second oldest public high school in the United States. There he studied under the presidency of John S. Hart, excelling primarily in literature.
Donnelly decided to become a lawyer and became a clerk forBenjamin Brewster, who later becameAttorney General of the United States. Donnelly was admitted to the bar in 1852. In 1855, he married Katherine McCaffrey, with whom he had three children. In 1855, he resigned his clerkship, entered politics with campaign speeches forDemocratic candidates, and participated in communal home building schemes. He fell away from the Catholic Church sometime in the 1850s, and thereafter, never participated in any organized religion.[1]
Donnelly moved to theMinnesota Territory in 1857 amidst rumors of a financial scandal, and there he settled inDakota County. He initiated autopian community calledNininger City, together with several partners. However, thePanic of 1857 doomed the attempt at acooperative farm and community and left Donnelly deeply in debt.
His wife Katherine died in 1894. In 1898, he married his secretary, Marian Hanson.
Donnelly died on January 1, 1901, inMinneapolis, Minnesota, age 69 years. He is buried at Calvary Cemetery inSt. Paul, Minnesota. His personal papers are archived at theMinnesota Historical Society.[2]
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Donnelly entered politics, this time as aRepublican, with two unsuccessful campaigns for the state legislature (1857, 1858). Though he was not elected, Donnelly was recognized as a highly effective political speaker, which led to a successful campaign for lieutenant governor, which he held from 1860 to 1863. He was aRadical Republican[3] Congressman from Minnesota in the38th,39th, and40th congresses, (1863–1869), a state senator from 1874 to 1878 and 1891–1894 and a state representative from 1887 to 1888 and 1897–1898.[4] As alegislator, he advocated extending the powers of theFreedmen's Bureau to provide education for freedmen so that they could protect themselves once the bureau was withdrawn. Donnelly was also an early supporter ofwomen's suffrage. After leaving the Minnesota State Senate in 1878, he returned to his law practice and writing.
In 1877, Donnelly spoke at a meeting of 10,000 people where he read his preamble to thePeople's Party conference platform. The document of 12 short paragraphs, as altered slightly for the first nominating convention in Omaha that July, was the pithiest and soon became the most widely circulated statement of the Populist credo.[5] Donnelly talked about the corruption of politics and voting, newspapers giving out false and biased material, and how the Populists needed to take back the country that was their own.
In 1882, he publishedAtlantis: The Antediluvian World, his best-known work. It details theories concerning the mythicallost continent ofAtlantis. The book sold well and is widely credited with initiating the theme of Atlantis as anantediluvian civilization that became such a feature of popular literature during the 20th century and contributed to the emergence ofMayanism. Donnelly suggested that Atlantis, whose story was told byPlato in the dialogues ofTimaeus andCritias, had been destroyed during the same event remembered in the Bible as theGreat Flood. He cited research on the ancientMaya civilization byCharles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg andAugustus Le Plongeon, claiming that it had been the place of a common origin of ancient civilizations in Africa, especiallyancient Egypt, Europe, and the Americas. He also thought that it had been the original home of anAryan race whose red-haired, blue-eyed descendants could be found in Ireland. Donnelly wrote thatIreland was the ''Garden of Phoebus'' (Hyperborea) of theWesternmythologists.[6][page needed]
A year afterAtlantis, he publishedRagnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel, in which he expounded his belief that the Flood, as well as the destruction of Atlantis and the extinction of the mammoth, had been brought about by the near-collision of the earth with a massive comet. This book also sold well, and both books seem to have had an important influence on the development ofImmanuel Velikovsky's controversial ideas half a century later.
In 1888, he publishedThe Great Cryptogram in which he proposed thatShakespeare's plays had beenwritten by Francis Bacon, an idea that was popular during the late 19th and early 20th century. He then traveled to England to arrange the English publication of his book bySampson Low, speaking at the Oxford (and Cambridge) Union in which his thesis "Resolved, that the works of William Shakespeare were composed by Francis Bacon" was put to an unsuccessful vote. The book was a complete failure, and Donnelly was discredited.
Donnelly also made several other campaigns for public office during the 1880s. He made a losing campaign for Congress, this time as aDemocrat, in 1884. In 1887, he successfully campaigned for a seat in the Minnesota State Legislature as an independent. During this period, he was also an organizer of theMinnesota Farmers' Alliance.
In 1892, Donnelly wrote the preamble of thePeople's Party'sOmaha Platform for the presidential campaign of that year. He was nominated forVice President of the United States in 1900 by the People's Party, also known as the Populist Party. The People's Party was a development of the National Farmers' Alliance, and had a platform that demanded the abandonment of thegold standard and later for the adoption offree silver, the abolition ofnational banks, agraduated income tax, adirect election of senators, civil service reform, and aneight-hour day. That year, Donnelly also campaigned for governor of Minnesota but was defeated.
The People's Party protested the railroad companies corrupting government and advocated government regulation of the railroads. Donnelly had a key leadership role in this party, yet he received $10,000 from the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad Company.[7]
During the 1930s, an organization was formed to lobby for the creation of a state park at Donnelly's home atNininger nearHastings, Minnesota. The house was still standing in 1939, but the effort failed and the house has since been demolished.[8]
Donnelly's writings on Atlantis have been rejected by scholars and scientists.[9] He has been described as acrank andpseudoscience promoter.[10][11]Gordon Stein has noted that "most of what Donnelly said was highly questionable or downright wrong."[12]
However, Donnelly's concept of "hyperdiffusionism," which purports to detect prehistoric catastrophes in the mythologies of multiple unrelated cultures, is credited as inspiringJ. R. R. Tolkien's fictionalNúmenor. In his 1939 essay "On Fairy-Stories," Tolkien gave some credence to diffusion as a source of mythology.[13]
His books include:
The radical Ignatius Donnelly and other spoke in support of the bill.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota 1860–1863 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
| Preceded by New district | U.S. Representative fromMinnesota's 2nd congressional district 1863–1869 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| First | Populist Party nominee forGovernor of Minnesota 1892 | Succeeded by Sidney M. Owen |
| Preceded by | Populist Party vice presidential candidate 1900 (lost) | Succeeded by |
