"Lorenzo D. Lewelling and Kansas' "Civil" War," will examine one of the most obscure periods in Kansas political history, the early 1890s. The paper will explore the rise of Populism, a grassroots third-party movement, that upset the long-standing Republican majority in Kansas and show how this movement brought Kansans to the brink of all out war on the Capitol grounds. This study will examine the topic through the eyes of the state's twelfth governor, Wichitan Lorenzo D. Lewelling, and show how his action, and inaction, in office changed reform politics in Kansas for the next twenty five years.