The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1882-09-07
PROGRESSTVE KANSAS.

/ DlCN6D0 AOI SldlC Dy tuC AAC-
| publicans there, is the first instance, SO
| far as we can remember, of the selection
| of u cOlored citizen for q position of
such importance, in any of the old free
and northern states. Kansas has been
the battle ground of and a pioneer in
the movement for political equality and
personal liberty. Il is fitting that hav-
| ing large body of colored citizens, one
| of their number being, as We are as
sured, quite competent, should be
recognized in this way. MIR. McCabe is,
at least, the indirect result of the exodus
movement of three years ago. The
nominee lives at Nicodelnus, Graham
county, In the central valley Smoky
HilD in the western part OF the state.
It embraces a region where eighteen
years ago, the editor served through q
campaign against the KiOwas, Conan
cheS and Arrapahoes, fighting them
over ground now cultivated by ex-slaves
who have migrated thither from the
southern states Nicodemus is, We be-
lieve, a colored settlement. Mr..
McCabe took very active part in Or
ganiZing and assisting his brethren a.
the time Kansas became place OF ref
uge for so many thousand who, peeled,
stripped and oppressed, turned their
dusky faces toward the former home OF
have achieved what one of them pathet-
icallY said to us in St. Louis at the time,
"We'uns hopes TO find place whar the
peoples will not be angry with US cause
we send our children t0 SCHOOL,
Is it not wonderful, when one comes
tn recall the mighty drama with which
the name of Kansas has been for twenty
eight years associated? Count it over
and reflect thereon: The repeal of the
Missouri compromise in 1854 under the
sounding sham announced by Stephen
A. Douglas ''squaticr sOVcTci Sniy;"
the organization of the territories, Kan
sas and Nebraska; tbe great debate in
congress, and Stewards acceptance of the
Southern challenge the organization OF
pro-slaverY emigrant society in Charles
ton, sc. followed at Boston by that of the
New England Aid Society,"" which or
ganized free state colonies, laid out towns
established newspapers, built hotels,
churches, school houses and mills; the
movement of the north the collision of
the sections; the free state war; the
sacking of Lawrence and other free state
settlements; the armed emigration from
the north in 1856; the arrest and impris-
Onment of citizens on the Judge Jeffries
charge of constructive treason;" the
organization of free state government,
and the dispersal of United States troops;
of its legislation by the Democracy and
through the LecOmpton constitution
struggle; the presence, activity and ex-
ample of John Brown and what follow
ed at the Training Post, in Kansas, and
at Harperss- Ferry, ~FiFginia5 sT0ss--
drous chords, all of them, in wonder
full prelude, striking the solemn choral
prologue to the majestic and mighty
tragedy OF the civil war. Then Kansas
was poor and feeble; now she is rich and
powerful, with a mighty brood of in
dustrious people settled all over her
Swelling plains"
Her pioneer work did not close with
the opening Of the war. In the massive
movement Of the greater centers, the
significant part Kansas took In the
''slave holders war" has been stirred
up and kept alive. We, who were part,
have not forgotten or ignored its i'm
pOrtance. HRrried by cOnfederates and
guerrillas. troops as bad, with bloody
memories, the massacres of Lawrence
and Baxter Springs, 10 almost sicken
with the associations they recall threat
ened by Indians on the west and south,
far from the centers of the strife, having
hundreds of miles of important commu-
nications 10 hold open and guard, Kan
sas put 49, 900 men under arms, doubling
aud more the calls upon her patriotism.
while for the four years OF strife all her
people were practically under arms.
During that time she solved several
problems, one of the most important
being that of the military employ
ment of colored men. The Kan
sas troops first employed them as
teamsters and Quartermaster's Ia
borers, They were employed as scouts
"a early as November, 1861. In Febru.
ary, 1862, a number of Negroes were
mustered in as part of the Indian (Cher-
| okees and Creeks Home Guard regi-
ments, and on the 9th of August, 1862,
under the law approved July 4, 1862.
the first colored man, one Chas. Harris,
was legally recruited and sworn in as q
soldier at LeavenwOrth, Kansas. The
| first legally authorized cOlnred regiment
was raised IN Kansas, and the first en-
gagement in which such troops were en-
i gagged was fought by 1t under command
of Kansas officers, on the 28th Of Qcto-
Der, 1862. The first colored troops, with
white soldiers, was this first and a sub
| sequent one, both being in large part re-
cruIted and organized by this writer In
conjunction with others. II we mistake
not, Kansas was the first among the
western states TO give the negro equal
suffrage. It is fitting that her Repub-
lican party should be first among the
loyal states to given one of the same
rage a nomination (which is equivalent
TO an eleclon) for a'high aad responsible
state Office.
1t reads almost like q romance. Ths
history is epical in tone and character
! and not the least marvellous feature o
J the story is the wonderful materia
growth, which, within seventeen years
has interlaced her pFairies with rail
roads and telegraph wires, which hai
made towns grow as If by magic ant
} covered the land with the homes O
} vigorous communities, while making
the stale almost the foremost in IN
; galaxy of agricultural properties
Kansas disputes with California tn
title of the first wheat growing state II
, the Union, while she excels all of tn
: western states in the crOwning glory O
free principles and institutions logical,
designed 10 make them operative.