The Kansas herald of freedom., 1857-02-07
Kansas literature.

Philips, Sampson Co. 1854.
We have endeavored thus far to
make the HERALD OF FREEDOM the re-
pository of the History of Kansas.
We have tried to present our readers
with detailed view of anything and
everything which Immediately inter-
ests them, and which would be likely
to prove valuable in the future in
throwing light upon the past. How
well we have succeeded in the effort,
remains for the public to attest. But
the five months of ctr silence-fye
months as they were of tyranny and
struggle-left upon the daybook of
history an accumulation of events
which it viii take a year at least to
post. We have already commenced
in our columns history, which will
be the best ever published, as we be-
lieye; and yet it might be considered
by some an act of injustice, to omit to
mention the other works which go to
make up the sum total of what we call
KANSAS LITERATURE.
Americans, and especially the peo-
pie of the North, are a book-making,
book-buying and book-reading peo-
pie. Every man who feels himself
bursting with the knowledge of some
particular subject, Immediately relieves
himself by writing book. Nor does
the fact that there are thousand other
books extant on the same subject,
deter him. A sentence is introduced
into the preface which humbly sets
forth that although there are great
many other able works on the subject,
yet the author believes and has long
felt that the present work was needed
to supply deficiency" or language
to that effect. If he finds publisher
who will assist him in disseminating his
views, and if his book is bought up by
the book-hungry public, then is that
author a happy man. The critics
smile upon him, the "world" " calls
him a genius, the publisher calls the
book ga success" and generously di
vides the profits. But if a publisher
cannot be found, then the hopeless au
thor comforts himself with the reAec
ton that the "world is not enough
advanced to receive and appreciate
him; "in Short" as Micawber would
say, that he is ahead of the age, anC
that his book will be "just the thing
bye and bye.
1t would be singular, indeed, if thu
question of Freedom or Slavery il
Kansas did not bring forth its du'
share of books. The mania has raget
for two years with a vigor unparalleled
in the annals of literature. Cords 0
| histories, poems, speeches, sermons
novels and dramas have sprung int
) existence and have been bought up b!
an inquiring public. We cannot OBJ
iect to this. The events which tlles
works were designed to throw hgh
upon were as important as the event
of the Revolution of the colonies wer
similar as regards the cause of tn
, struggle, and differed only in tn
greater barbarity and brutality of tn
enemy which the friends of freedom il
Kansas had to encounter But Will
we do aot object to the publication O
any work in relation to our history
| the limits of our paper, so long as i
: continues weekly, forbids US to no
l tice only those which may have had
l or may still have, a bearing upon th
I destiny and progress of our futur
State.
A majority of the people of Kansa
are well acquainted with the event
which have tended, directly or iRdi
: rectly, to make her beautiful prairie
! the scene of strife and bloodshed br
few know how wistfully the oligarch
= of the South, and their allies th
doughfaces of the North, gazed upo
the virgin soil unstained by the swes
II of legalized bondage; /; few know ho'
vigilantly they watched and labored ;
:, the National Capital for the epoeh-hou
of the crimes against Freedom; whic
A.. followed the repeal of a compromis
which had stood for the third of a Ger
tury as sacred, in the eyes of good mer
as the Constitution itself. Nor is
8 likely we viii ever fully know thes
things. It is only by the perusal {
works like the one whose title page "
: have placed at the head of this article
that We can judge of the extent
the Unsuitable thirst after wiekednes
which actuates men in high places t
drink the cup of moral and politics
/ infamy to the dregs.
Mr.. Hale, the author of this worl
is a Unitarian minister, formerly {
Worcester, Mass, but now residin
in Boston. From the beginning, b
has beensa warm and earnest advocat
!. of Freedom in Kansas was dlrecto
. of the Worcester Kansas League, on
= of the many New England societie
for the encouragement of Free Stat
emigration, and is well known in tn
!. North as philanthropist. The boo