The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1876-09-16
KANSAS.

held at Lincoln Hall in Philadelphia,
Col. John w. Forney was among the
speakers, and having visited the Kansas
Centennial building the day before he
made Kansas and her exhibition the
text of his address, speaking in substance
as follows:
As | was walking along through the
Centennial grounds yesterday afternoon,
enioyiny the delicious weather and COM
bined splendors of art and nature, met
my old friend, George A. Crawford, born
in Clinton county i'll this State, who
removed, think in 1857, from this State
to the Territory of Kansas and was Lieu
tenant Governor after it became 4 Com
monwealth. Seeing that was alone he
kindly invited me to walk with him to
the building jointly erected By Kansas
and Colorado. There is such Il world Of
things to see and to study in our une-
qualied Exhibition, that we are often
obliged when some choice novelty Is
pointed out to us, and was quite ready,
therefore. to act upon the suggestion of
my friend, the Governor; and is We
CTOSScu Tile tlTtsuoLt VI tliS uouoiC hcthtS
edifice 1 found myself standing, as it
were, in great educational temple.
Cheers \ tide of memories rushed
through my mind rs took in the daz-
cling scene. Kansas was the field on
which the first modern battle was fought
in favor of the Declaration of independ'
ence. Great cheering. Kansas was
the key that unlncked the tremendous
future. TCheers.] Kansas was the ma
gician that solved the hard problem of
human slavery. [Cheers, Kansas was
the apostle that liberated the white party
slaves of the North and the black chat
ties of the South cheers, and to Kansas
I owe my own emancipation from the
thraldom of slavery in our politics.
Cheers. Have you ever seen this Kan
sas building. fellow Republicans If
not, then take care that you do see it, for
it will teach you many things. Recol-
lect that it is the map, the photograph,
the condensation, the history of the I'M
speakable value of Republican princi-
Piles. [Cheers. 1t is only twenty-one
years of age and it is already giant.
Cheers In our country the citizen
who reaches this age is still almost boy,
but Kansas, launched into being amid
pro-slavery fires and prosecutions and
baptized in the block of its early martyrs
has, so to speak, gathered almost a CEN
fury of experience with every year
cheers. from 1855, wien it was organ
lied into territory, until 1860, when it
graduated into q great Commonwealth.
Cheers. In 1860 it had population
of loo, 900, and in 1876, suppose, quite
half million. l remember well when
all the territory of Kansas was in fact a
terra incognita almost without histo-
ry or geology, and the eagerness of the
shareholders to obtain possession of it is
as familiar to me rs any event of the last
week. They failed, thanks to the cour-
age of the North, and to the fierce re-
sistance of the Douglas Democracy when
the attempt was made to force slavery on
the people by incredible violence and
fraud. Cheers. And so yesterday as
l stood with Gov. Crawford in this Kan
sas house in the Exhibition grounds, the
growth from embryo to empire was some
thing startling. No Centennial State
building tells such story, not even that
of the Golden Pacific, also rescued from
slavery by the Republicans, and welded
to the Atlantic States by the great in
ternational railroad, built by Republican
energy in the midst of war. CT GERS.
First, map of Kansas, itself a romance,
every school house marked with a star
CHEERS, and there are many stars then
room with the files of nearly one hun
dred and fifty Kansas newspapers
[cheers, then a singularly beautiful ira
Gerry woven from the grasses and grains
of Kansas, roofing the temple itself with
a golden lining; then long rows of the
varied seeds and cereals of Kansas; then |
cabinet of minerals; then collection
of woods, and, finally, many specimens
of art and architecture, and books and
book bindinff; and fragrant combina-
ton of summer apples and plums, and
over all the figure of the old bell of In
dependence woven in straw, that rung
out liberty to all the nations of the |
world on the Fourth of July, 1776.