# John Lind (politician) *American politician who served as the 14th governor of Minnesota and as an envoy to Mexico* Johannes "John" Lind (March 25, 1854 – September 18, 1930), called "Honest John", was a Swedish-born Minnesota politician. He was the 14th [[Governor of Minnesota]], in office from 1899 to 1901, and he sat for four terms in the United States Congress.[^1][^2] He first went to Congress as a member of the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] and later returned as a member of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]. He won the governorship in 1898 on the joint nomination of the Democrats and the Populists.[^2] In 1913, during the Mexican Revolution, President Woodrow Wilson and Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan sent Lind to Mexico as Wilson's envoy.[^2] ## Early life and career Lind was born on March 25, 1854, at Kånna in Kronoberg County, in the Swedish province of Småland. His parents were the farmer Peter Gustaf Jonasson and Katrina Jonasdotter. He came to the United States with them in 1868, at age thirteen.[^2] He lost his left arm in an accident while he was a teacher. After working as a teacher and a superintendent, he took a law degree from the [[University of Minnesota Law School]].[^2] Lind opened a law practice in New Ulm. Because most of the town's residents were German, he learned to speak German nearly as well as Swedish.[^2] Shortly after opening his office he joined the Republicans, as most Swedes in Minnesota did. He was too young to vote in the 1872 presidential election but handed out ballots at the polls. In 1881 he was given a receivership in the United States Land Office, and in 1886 the Republicans nominated him for Congress.[^2] ## United States Representative Lind held a Republican seat in the [[United States House of Representatives]] for the 50th through 52nd Congresses, from March 4, 1887, until March 3, 1893.[^2] On the House Commerce Committee, he managed the bills on bridge construction in the Northwest. He required any railroad authorized to bridge a river to guarantee other railroads the use of the bridge in return for reasonable compensation.[^2] He introduced his own anti-trust bill. It would have barred railroads from carrying "patent cars", such as Standard Oil's oil cars and the meat-packers' refrigerator cars, unless such cars could be furnished to all shippers at equal and fair rates.[^2] On the tariff, Lind supported moving lumber to the duty-free list. That position was more popular in his district than in the lumber-producing north of the state. He supported the McKinley tariff, but he sought lower rates on jute bagging for small shippers. He also opposed a seven-hundred-percent increase in the protection given to binding-twine manufacturers.[^2] ## Between offices Lind was considered for the Republican nomination for governor in 1892 but showed no interest.[^2] In 1896 he ran for governor as a Democrat. Both the Democratic and Populist parties nominated him unanimously, at a time when the left wing controlled the Minnesota Democratic Party. He lost to the incumbent, [[David Marston Clough]], by 0.06 percent of the vote. No Democratic or Populist candidate had come that close before.[^2] In 1898 Lind served in the Spanish–American War. After he returned, the Democrats and Populists again nominated him unanimously, this time for the 1898 gubernatorial election.[^2] He won. In a speech at Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, he credited his victory to the earlier work of the Farmers' Alliance and the Populist Party.[^2] ## Governor of Minnesota Lind took office as the 14th governor of Minnesota on January 2, 1899, and left office on January 7, 1901.[^1][^2] He faced opposition to his renomination in 1900 from within the Democratic Party and, to a greater degree, from within the Populist Party. The Populist convention of August 30, 1900, split. One faction backed Adolphe Paradis, while the other, called the "Bolter's Convention", nominated Lind.[^2] Paradis did not run independently of Lind. Instead, he asked Lind to return to the convention for a primary. Lind did not return, and he took the Populist nomination by default. Within the Democratic Party, party boss Michael Doran continued to oppose him.[^2] ## Later career In 1902 Lind's supporters hoped he would run for governor again, but he declined. With Lind's backing, Leonard A. Rosing became the nominee instead.[^2] From March 4, 1903, to March 3, 1905, Lind returned to the House, this time as the Democratic member for Minnesota's 5th congressional district.[^2] During this period he developed a personal rivalry with a fellow Democrat, [[John Albert Johnson]], who was elected governor in 1904. The two men nevertheless agreed not to run against each other. Johnson died in 1909, leaving the party without a candidate for 1910. Lind was asked to run that year and declined.[^2] ### Mexican Revolution On February 22, 1913, Mexican President Francisco I. Madero and Vice President José María Pino Suárez were assassinated. Woodrow Wilson was sworn in as President of the United States on March 4.[^2] With General Victoriano Huerta now president of Mexico, Wilson and Bryan sent Lind to Mexico as Envoy for Mexican Affairs. Lind had financial interests in Mexico and long-standing ties with other U.S. landholders there.[^2] Lind pressed Huerta to call prompt elections and not to stand as a candidate in them, and Huerta refused. According to the source, Lind "threatened a military intervention by the United States in case the demands were rejected". He also promised Mexico an American loan if Huerta stepped aside.[^2] When rebellions broke out against Huerta, Lind backed Venustiano Carranza, a large landowner and former Governor of Coahuila. He supported Carranza's Constitutionalist faction against more radical elements of the rebellion. The sources in this record do not set out his reasons for that choice.[^2] ## Personal life Lind married Alice A. Shepard in 1879. The botanist and inventor Alexander P. Anderson was his cousin.[^2] On January 17, 1901, a front-page article in the *Moose Lake (Minnesota) Star* reported that Lind had gone to the *Dispatch* office in St. Paul and struck its editor after leaving the governorship. The article remarked: "For a one-armed man, John Lind can make some telling blows once in a while."[^2] ## Death Lind died in [[Minneapolis]], [[Minnesota]], on September 18, 1930. He was buried at [[Lakewood Cemetery]].[^2] ## Notes [^1]: Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, *Governor John Lind* (official governor biography) — establishes Lind's service as Governor of Minnesota. https://www.lrl.mn.gov/mngov/govbio?govid=25 [^2]: Wikipedia, *John Lind (politician)* (revision 1379253357, retrieved 2026-10-25) — summarizes Lind's early life, congressional and gubernatorial service, the 1900 nomination contest, his envoy role in Mexico, his personal life and his death. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lind_(politician)