John Lind (March 25, 1854 – September 18, 1930) was an American politician from Minnesota. He served as the 14th Governor of Minnesota from 1899 to 1901 and represented the state in the United States Congress for four terms. Lind also played an important role in the Mexican Revolution as an envoy for President Woodrow Wilson. Early life and career Lind was born on March 25, 1854 in Kånna, Kronoberg County in the Swedish province of Småland. When he was thirteen years old, he emigrated to the United States with his parents. He worked as a teacher and superintendent before graduating from the University of Minnesota Law School. Lind settled in New Ulm to practice law. Most of the inhabitants were German, but Lind adjusted by learning to speak German almost as fluently as he could Swedish. He was soon known among the lawyers across the ninth circuit. He joined the Republican party almost as soon as he set up his office; most Swedes made the same choice in Minnesota. While he could not yet vote in the 1872 presidential election, he stood at the polls to hand out ballots. Party loyalty brought the usual rewards: a receivership in the United States Land Office in 1881, and 1886 a Republican nomination to Congress. Lind was so devoted to his law practice that in the very convention that first nominated him to Congress, he left before proceedings had closed to attend to a client in the court down at Lincoln County. United States Representative Lind was no great orator, but he had special advantages. His district was Republican, generally by a two-to-one margin. The Swedish vote was dependably in favor of Lind, as well, and so were the Germans in New Ulm, thanks to his wide professional acquaintanceship with them. Farmers also resented the duty on binding-twine in the protective tariff, and ran as a moderate tariff revisionist. His support for placing lumber on the duty-free list was far more popular within his district than in the lumber-producing regions in the north of the state. Concerned over the destruction of the nation's forests and a strong supporter for the national timber-culture law, he hoped that a larger importation of foreign lumber would slacken the timber companies' appetite for American trees. Lind served as a Republican in the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1887 to March 3, 1893 in