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

flve-sixth vote of the people, found
it necessary to get mad at the hand
ful of newspapers which were
throwing salt on its sore places.
That was an encouraging sign. 1t
showed that the leaVen was work
ing, that the nat lump was rising,
that the press was becoming q pow
er. One idiotic member, you know,
wanted to force reporters to confine
themselves strictly to q report of
the business /; another favored an
order to expel any one printing dis
respectful criticisms of the mem
bers; and still another of those
PIN-FEATHER STAT EsMEN
moved for an order authorizing and
directing individual members to
salve their wounded dignity by ad-
ministering bestings to the naugh-
ty reporters. But the boys kept on
throwing salt, and the raw legisla-
ture kept on squirming, and, in
the end, the papers got the best of
it, even though laws were passed
making it felony to write a word
against slavery, or even to be caught
with an anti-slsvery paper in ones
pocket. Within five days after that
legislature dispersed, you remem-
Der the papers brought about the
Big Springs convention, and the
first platform of the free state par
ty, declaring the right to resist those
laws, and the purpose to "mouId
the institutions" of Kansas on the
basis of free labor. But the papers
were not yet strong enough to pre-.
vent q clause in that platform
pledging obedience to the fugitive
slave law, and q resolution asserting
that "the best interests of Kansas
require q population of free white
men, and we are in favor of strin-
gent laws excluding all negroes.
bond or free, from the territory"
We had to have
A COLOR LINE,
you see, in the very skirmishing of
the mighty struggle which was to
cOnVulse and cleanse and exalt to
the stars not Kansas only, but the
whole nation. Nor could the pa
pers dissuade the Topeka conven-
ton from refusing by a vote of 25
to seven to strike out the word
white from the proposed state con-
stitution the next month, or keep
the people from deciding by a three
foprths majority, at the election in
December, to exclude negroes and
mulattoes from the state. There
was pressing need of more news
papers; and, of course, they were
provided. Within the next two
years the number increased to tWen-
ty or one for every two months
since the first one had been started !;
and the territory was still only a
dot on the broad surface of ciViliza-
ton, though Sumner said about
this time, in his great speech for
which Brooks struck him down,
that this spacious Mediterranean
country" as he called it, had al
ready drawn to its bosom popula-
tion of freemen larger ethan Spar
ia contained when she ruled Greece,
and sent forth her devoted children,
quickened by a mothers benedic-
ton, to return with their shields or
on them" What those wild years
brought of anxiety, of bitterness
and blood, you know but too well,
without my telling you over anew
the thrilling story. 1t was the ep-
och
OF THE CROWN OF THoRNs
for Kansas. How grandly she bore
herself through it all, how patient
ly and how sturdilY she chung to
her faith, how she hid her wet eyes
and choked back her anguish, while
she struck for life and the truth, her
cabins and her graves, God and her
native land, can never be forgotten,
because 1t made her immortal.
kansas, sir" exclaimed her best
friend, William III. Seward, in his
lofty analysis of that epoch, sis the
Cinderella of the American family.
She is buffeted she is insulted she
is smitten and disgraced; she is
turned out of the dwelling, and the
door locked against her. There is
always, however, q fairy that takes
care of the younger daughter, if
she be the most honest, the most
Virtuous, the meekest and the most
enduring of the domestic house
hold" The guardian fairy of Kan
sas, then and ever afterwards, was
her newspaper press. Her papers
were always in the foreground of
the fight,-where the danger was,
and the yictory-'sheuting the bat
tie cry of freedom" One editor
was tried for treason, and two off,
ces were indicted as nuisances. and
destroyed by sherifrs posse; but
the editor escaped and the crushed
papers arose again, and in twelve
months time one of them reached
. circulation of seven thousand
copies. Kansas papers went every
where. u
Very naturally when subscribers
were coming in so fast, all the ed
itcrs wanted to start daily papers.
AS soon as a Kansas editor gets the
mortgage off his press, and $50
on his books, and can
buy paper without having it sent
to him G. 0. D., he wants to start a
daily. The first attempt at q daily
was made July 4th, 1855. at Law
renee. The gods loved the little
thing, and it lasted only a week.
Then, in October, Topeka had one
for short time; and there was an
other there of very brief life the
next March. Then the daily bust
ness was abandoned until Septem-
Der Sd, 1857, when the Ledger ap-
pesred here in LeavenwOrth. This,
I think, may properly be put down
as the first Kansas daily, for il
came of sensible prompting and
survived long enough to earn a saw
ing record in history, though the
annalistg dismiss it, too, with q
mere mentioning. Hon. II. Miles
Moore has shown me fugitive copy
of 1.-THE only one in existence,
perhaps-printed the day of the
vote on the Leavenworth constitu.
ton II died
and on the 10Th of February, 1868,
Leavenworth got the Daily Times,
which was really the first legitimate,
sure footed daily in Kansas-and it |
still lives to aliude to you tO-mor-
row morning as sour distinguished |
guests"
The TWEEN ty Kansas papers of
1853 were swift, you may be GER
tain, to catch the meaning and re-
port the progress of the Lincoln |
Douglas debates of that year in Ill. |
. that memorable controversy
which was