The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1882-02-02
ESTABLISHED IN IS
OF AGE.


OF AGE
Sunday was the 21st anniversary of
the admission of Kansas into the Union
After several attempts to join the sister
hood Of states under various constitu-
tions, the bill for admission under the
Wyandotte constitution passed the Uni
ted States senate on January 81, 1861, by
vote of &c tor and 16 against There
are two men now in the senate who voted
for that bill-Anthony of Rhode Island
and Pugh of Ohio. On January %,
the bill passed the house of represents
tives by vote of III for to ~ against,
and on the next day, January 90,
President Buchanan signed the bill, and
we were in the Union. There was general
joy throughout the state, and formal
celebrations at Leavenworth and Law
renee, which two cities were then doing
ii prosperous business in the way of
running Kansas. The territorial legis-
laturc was in session n Lawrence when
the news at admission WAS received. and
1
| GcoTg; vi B.ebe WAS acting governor
He has since been in congress from
| New York district. On the 10Th of Jan
nary he had, in II message to the leeis
lature, recommended that Kansas set up
an independent government of her own
\ creation. If we remember correc tly the
only notice he ever attracted in congress
wss once or twice when he made fool
of himsclfas he did in Kansas on the
| 10th of January 1861.
On February o, Charles II Jbinson
took the oath of office as the first gov
ernor of the state.of Kansas and called
the legislature to meet on March
20 On the 4th day Of April James II.
Lane and Samuel G. Pomeroy were
elected as the first United States sena.
tors for the state President Lincoln
having called an extra session of con-
gress, Martin f. Conway was elected the
first congressman for the state of Kansas
at special election held June II, 1861.
Thus the new state was fully differed
and in running order.
The territory hal just gone through
one of the s.veres, trnuths that ever
afflicted any country, and the new state
was born amid the bristling prepare.
tions of war. On her soil the first blood
was drawn in the great contest between
freedom and slavery, and her peopAR
were the first TO accept the challenge of
the rebels when they fired on the coun-
Ho. \
of but the organ cation OF troops for the
conflict. Every industry was paralyzed
by the patriotic desire to take hand In
the tray. The population OF the year
before was 3,G43. y large proportion
of the able bodied men went into the
service for the government as soon Us
they could get there. Thus Kansas
commenced her career as a state.
As the Topeka Capital remarked n
few days ago, Kansas is no longer IA
"kid." She is 4 full grown common
wealth with II million of inhabitants.
| Her history is so well known,
and her splendid achievements
stand out 50 prominently before the
world that il is useless Tor us to follow
them to tell what she has done.
Twenly-oncl What an even,ful period
in our country's history those years
cover. How the people of Kansas have
worked and suffered and struggled to
bring their state TO its present proud po-
sition. Kansas was the last state al
mitted into the union that was founded
on an idea, aud what blood and treasure
it cost the country tn stamp that idea
upon Its statute books. Kansas forever
settled the question of slavery in this
union, as through the determined stand
Of our people against It's encroachments
freedom was enabled to grapple the gil
ant serpent which had been so long try
ing to fold the American union in its
coils, and crush it to death. The idea
that Kansas took up arms for tri-
umphed.
And now, pausing in the swift pur-
suit of future achievements to glance
along the way she has come in twenty
one years, who shall attempt TO outline
the magnitude of her past accomplish
ments, or set meets and bounds TO her
untried possibilities? The wild and fas-
cinating associations of the Santa
Fee trail are matters of personal
experience with men who every day roll
along the mighty railway thoroughfarcs
of Kansas in the luxuriant case of NOV
ing palaces; the incendiary whoop of
the midnight raider; the shrek of de-
fenseless women and children, the lurid
glare of the arson's torch, painting hell
on the dark sky, and the deeper glow of
heroic blood, have scarce faded from the
ear and eye of Kansas citizens who
dwell serenely in the majestic shadow of
the shield of the law, and repose within
the security of protected homes. The
dreams of the pioneer who erected a
hut in the Wilderness, have materializeI
into splendid citi 5, treming with poo
pie and publishing in imposing monu-
menls of brick and stone, all the eviden-
ces of wealth and enterprise which can
be conveyed through the medium of
skillful construction. The day of small
beginnings has developed into
an era of peerless achieve
ment, and the little handful of intrepid
, emigrants who pitched their tents upon
/ the virgin soil of Kansas twenty-ono
years ago, has grown into a mighty peo-
, pie numbering million of souls; and,
, better than all, the trackless expanse
which rolled away in an unbroken
: sweep of emerald pillows quarter of a
. century ago, Is now dotted with Gordon
: of school houses which forever inter
pose their impregnable Notifications
! against error and ignorance in all their
insidious forms, and render Kansas the
forerunneI in all great questions OF po-
litical and social reform, and the fear
: less exponent of those eternal principles
for whose supremacy her early sons
| poured out their blood, that her soil
: might be fertilized for the production OF
? every growth whose fragrance is crate
full to the friends and advocates of q
higher morality and more generous
culture. May heaven bless our you nG
r state, and make her as true to the cause
of God aud humanity in the future as
she has been in the past.
New York Tribune: Hendricks has
. been heard from again. He passed
through Pittsburg on his way to Wash