The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1877-06-29


derstand that because do not want q
negro woman for q slave must nee
essarily want her for q wife-my I'M
Outstanding is that can Just let her
alone; and how, when Douglas, driv-
en- to the last ditch, gave way to his
smothered anger, he said, with droll
bow and tantalizing good humOr, 81
know the Judge is q great man, while
l am only small man, but feel that
l have got him!' And he did have
him, and he held him and crushed him.
and Kansas breathed q good long
breath of hope and strength from the
triumph. "With public sentiment"
he said again, "nOthing can fail, and
without iL nothing can succeed" and
he did more than any other one man 70
arouse and swell that public sentiment
to which the Kansas press was appeal
Ing, and which at last, through his
hand and his brain.
CLUTCRED THE THROAT OF SLAVERY,
and it fell a corpse at his feet. God
bless his sainted name, and keep green
his memory in Kansas foreverI
When that great debate closed, Kan
sas had voting population of about
twelve thousand, and taxable proper
ty rated at twenty-five millions of
dollars; and democratic territorial
convention, alter the usual declaration
for "the entire exclusion of free ne
groes," had resolved that sour rich
mineral resources deserve the foster
ing care OF the government" and that
grants of public lands ought to be
made for railroads, Wagon-roads,
bridges, and all necessary territorial
and county buildings" The new year
hPnunhk tho fnlonRo nh, 10 to
ON one side, and a possible Ell Dorado
on the other. The western boundary
of Kansas at that time, let me remind
you, was the summit of the Rocky
Mountains and when you get out
there a few days hence, don't forget to
tell those people that we once owned
their ''rocks and rills," their Eswoods
and tempted hills" that a Kansas
newspaper gave the world the first no
tice of their gold diggings, that par
ty of Kansas prOSpectors "panned OUT
the first yellow dust where Denver now
stands, and that Kansas woman was
the first OF her inquisitiVe sex to climb
TO the top of Pixies Peak. Then HOr-
ace Greeley came out to see our folks
and shake hands with the wonderful
editors who were Growing up with
the country" and to write back that
"THE TWIN CURSES OF KANSAS"
at that date, were the land spectators
and the One-hOrse politicians, and that
he found Leavenworth a city of a
thousand houses and ten thousand
people. How many people there are
here now, am not rash enough to
say; l only know, as loyal Kansan,
that 1t Is more than they have in Kan
sas City.
But the browning event of the year,
the occurrence that gave Kansas an
other and distinct hold upon the his
torians, was the headlong, though he
roic undertaking which brought Old
OSawatomie Brown to his melancholy
fate. If were an orator, might at
tempt to show you how the reading of
the Kansas papers inspired him to
stake his life for the naked truth, to
make sure that the oppressed should
all go free by offering the sacrifice for
their redemption, for there was meth
Cd in his madness, and he was the
most conscientious man, the bravest
and most honest and most unself1sh
man, that this state has yet produced.
But l am not equal to such a task, and
so l can only recall in blunt fashion
the spectacle of the old hero lying
AA S6PJuLCd AOuSCS
like all overcome lion, with his head
on his paws, and his unavailing dead
and dying strewn about him; then his
trial, and that memorable speech
which was at once both prophecy and
revelation; then the scaffold and he
standing upon it like a gnarled and
shaggy Moses on another crest of Ne
DO, gazing out over the goodlY land
which he might not attain; and then
the binding cap, and the measured
twitching OF the long, tired fingers
''as If he were counting the days of
slavery" some one has said; and then
the fatal Gron, and the roll of Virgin
ian drums that saluted the limp and
dangling Dody-and that was all, for
they could not strangle the faith that
was in HIM, and
"HIS SOUL GOES MARCHING on"
Kansas touched 1860 with a popula-
ton of over a hundred thousand, a
school fund of some six thousand dol
lars, q press that was clamoring for
rail roads, and legislature that abol-
ished slavery in the territory anu COM
posed the domestic difficulties of the
time by granting forty-Chree divorces.
Then spell of dry weather set in, and
crops fell short, and the wolf was at
the door; but the press kept pegging
away, and ] have been told that the
hungry people of Topeka let their
teamsCer leave barrel of -four at Kan
sas City that he might haul bundle
of paper for the editor. They could
do without bread, but they must have
their newspapers. Then Sewardssmade
us visit, and did us the honor to say,
"Henceforth, if ever 1 shall waver in
deviation En- LII 30
here and renew It." Then the festive
came to move the already
stricken people to some energetic Elas-
phemy and then Lincoln was elected
and then the state got into the Union
and then came what Greeley called
sTHAT NOISE AT SUMTER"
and the four years of fire and smoke,
of death and grief, that followed it as
the night the day, to complete the
work which had been here begun.
You know-the whole world knows
how promptly and with what effect
the Kansas press met the issue, and
how gIandly Kansas indicated her
right to be state. Within a single
week every county had companies of
ready for service, and the
first rebel flag had been hauled down
mere at LeaVenWOfLn; ana before the
year closed, ten full regiments were
under arms, and Kansas had won
some of the first honors of the war,
and hundred slaves freed in Missou-
ri by Kansas soldier, who Is now, as
he was then, Kansas editor, march
ed into Leavenworth with cheers and
banners and glad, wild songs. And
amid it all, the people found time to
organize the first state temperance
to locate their state capital,
and to start several new papers. Was
there ever such a country before |
This was not a mere spasm of energy
and enthusiasm either. 1t was but the |
matter-of-course flow of that
spirit of activity and
proves and aggressive vitality which |
had defended the life of the state with
One hand while developing her re-
sources with the other, and which kept
Kansas, the youngest Of the loyal sis |
IN THE IMPETUoUS ADVANCE
throughout all the surging. years of
the rebellion. She sent her sons to the |
aeld without thought that there was
such thing as doing more than her
share; and when, in the thickest and
darkest of the fray, other states-that |
rich nd