The Leavenworth weekly times. [volume] (Leavenworth, Kan.) 1870-1880, 1870-08-04


Three yean ago Rev. Hian H Revels
~as The pastor of the African Mahodist
CAuch Of this city. Yesterday he returned
10 he plane Of his former residence sfkes
having had seat in The United States Sem
ate since February last II was IT that the
man who holds the highest position ever
attained by any of his race in this country
should have previously ssen IN daey n Kan
sas-the State where John Brown fought for
freedom and equal rights-the State in which
j, was first shown on American soil that poor
abolition fanatics were stronger than slave
holding oligarchy sustained by every bsanh
Of the National Government. The Struggle
which was settled in Kansas has given the
country, through those who, on de soil or
in other States, participated in II, It's bet
public men during the last decade and q half
Of the men who opposed Kansas, and Who
were in power in 1854, hardly single one
now remains in public life. Our civil war
was great national revolution, changing
not only every Office holder, but remodeliing
the Constitution Of the Usised States, Of The
separate States, changing the sentiments of
the people and the whole attitude Of the gov
eminent The revolution has been as great
as the che wrought by Luther in changing
Germany and England from papal dictation
and subserviency TO partial religious freedom
as great as was made by Magma Chana, in
1915, or by the English Revolution of 1888.
History will SO recognize it hereafter, and
there can be NO doubt that John Browns
place in history will be as prominent, as Sc
cure, and as deserved, as that Of Martin
Luther Both we're reyolutionisss and re-
formers.
1t is not within the power Of any one man
10 change the thought and life Of people
to take nation which he finds facing back
wards and turn its forehead to the radiant
and hopeful future. Many men and many
nations aid in every such great movement,
and the hidden and unseen forces of nature
are on the side Of the earnest and disinter-
eaed reformer And If God allows his
prophets to be crucified and hanged he does
it to make them and their cause victorious.
The things nearest TO us We cannot see, or
fail to see in their tr'le proportions, and
there are men and women, white and black, +
living in Kansas to-day whose true merits 2
will not be known until their bodies lie
Wondering in the dust. Their reward is
not here, and their deserts are not recognised
by their daily companions. Happy is he
to whom it is given to celebrate the obscure
and the unrecogni.ed, as MrA Stowe did in
Uncle Tom and her Quaker heroes. /
Tomorrow the oolored people Of the State q
will assemble here to celebrate not only the \
the festival of West Indian Emancipation !,
lmt the still greater triumph achieved in our !,
own country in the ratification of the Fiji
teenth Amendment to the Constitution. The 4.
occasion Isl glorious one, and we rejoice
that Senator Revels is here to join his old
friends on such day. IS a representative 5
man of his race, his influence among more 4
than four millions of American citizens is
vast, and is felt in every portion Of the I,
He knows both South and North !,
as few men can know them, and it is in his :,
power to raise standard of excellence among j
his people and to set them an example of I
culture and Improvement which will elevate G
their condition not only in material hut in
moral respects. He is a leader, and is us !,
ing his power, not as politician, but as a !
humane reformer. Andy Johnson was fond /;
bf saving that he had elevated himself from |
poverty to the Presidency, but his example T
was a ruinous and rotten one, for his success
WAS diSsraoed by apostacy and by loathsome !;
habits. The triumph of the selfmade man, (
Hiram Il. Revels, has been far greater, and |,
il Is stained bv no evil influences.