Under his tenure as governor Kansas became the third state to enact a statewide prohibition of alcohol which would last until 1948 and remain in some form until 1987.

[3] During the American Civil War he served as lieutenant colonel of the 143rd Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the Union Army from 1861 to 1864.

He was blamed for James G. Blaine's defeat and on November 27, 1884, an effigy of him was burned in Topeka, Kansas in front of a crowd of three thousand people.

[8][9][10] At the 1896 Prohibition convention he supported the broad gauger faction that wanted to add women's suffrage and free silver to the party's platform, but after the narrow gauger faction successfully defeated those attempts John, Charles Eugene Bentley, and Helen M. Gougar led a walkout of the broad gaugers and created the breakaway National Party and nominated a rival ticket with Bentley as president and James H. Southgate as vice president.

[12] On December 3, 1887, he, with a group of followers, bought 10,000 acres of land in Newhall, California, to create a dry community.

On June 20, 1916, he suffered from heat exhaustion, but was able to recover enough to attend the 1916 Prohibition national convention in July.