Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1886-02-06


tending across its entire eastern border,
whose Inhabitants were alive to the situation,
bold. reckless and defiant, while the oppo-
nents of slavery were to be found chiefly az
distance of hundreds of miles from the field
of conflict. Congressman from the north
had been beaten and cowed, the old anti-sla-
very society had no faith in success, or in the
value of victory if achieved, and the liberty
and free soil parties had no machinery
that could be useful in such an encounter:
Who, under these disadvantages, Will
enter the contest for this prize with the slave
power of the nation that has never known
defeat? Individuals and individual effort
could do something, as was shown In tne
person of him who will speak this evening
for the pioneers of Kansas. But the whole
north must be aroused and organization
effected, to stimulate and aid emigration.
A heretofore comparatively obscure man,
member of a state legislature, was selZeo
with inspiration, and he stepped forth IN the
winter of 1874, when it became evident the
Kansas Nebraska bill would become a law,
and organized emigration and preached the
crusade till victory was secured. 30 obnox-
iona did this man become to the slave power,
that a price was set upon his head, dead or
alive. even before the lands of Kansas were
omen to settlement. b t emigration, while
indispensable, was not all that was requisite.
A state had to be organized and this work
rnust be done on the soil of KaI sai. This
was the work in hand, and the election OF
territorial legislature was the first step to be
taken, The party that should secure this
would secure great if not decisive wet, ry.
As is well known this victory. per h
upon the banners of the south. Was there
then hope left for free state? All the ma
chinery for making a state was now in the
possession of the enemy. This was IN 1870,
and there would be no new legislature elect
ed before 1857. In the meantime returning
boards" could be provided and constitution
inaugurated, which might settle the question
in issue irrevocably. Can any power, or any
agency wrest victory from such defeat, and
under such circumstances? Every states
man, every politician, every student of his
tory and every person of ordinary lnforma-
ton of affairs of government would have an
swered, and did answer this question IN the
negative. but the free state party OF Kansas
answered it in the affirmative, and made
good their answer as history has recorded.
How this victory was achieved, by what
measures of policy, belongs to the history OF
The territorial period and not the state, but
as its results have been inherited by the
state, some of them may properly be named
here.
FIRST. The victory of the free state party
made Kansas free instead of a slave
state.
Second. According to the Charleston Mer-
curry, it put an end TO the extension of sla-
very in every direction, and secured freedom
to all other territories.
Third. 1t made the republican party Of
the nation. The cyclopadia of political
science says truly: "The predominance of
moral question in politics, always porten--
tious phenomenon under a constitutional
government, was made unmistakable by the
Kansas struggle and its first perceptible re-
suit was the disappearance III effect. OF all
the old forms of opposition to the demo-
cratic party, and the first national conven-
IF tla Iran 4.
1856"
Eli Tkayer says that ''the Kansas fight
made the republican party" Also he adds
that it was "a necessary training OF the
northern states for subduing the rebellion.
4. "This being conceded, Kansas made
the election of Abraham Lincoln possible.
5. Securing free state in Kansas and tine
election of Lincoln brought on the rebellion,
which
6. .'Was the suicide and end Of slavery, in
this nation and prospectively in all nations
All these results the state of Kansas inner
its from the territorial struggle, rs can be
abundantly shown. | am aware that an at
tempt has been made to rob Kansas Of some
of these laurels, but the attempt will fail
One writer would make it appear that the
raid at Harrers Ferry, to which he WIS par
ty, destroyed slavery, and not the work ID
Kansas. What are the facts? Were | to quo'e
all the declarations of southern politicians
during the pending of the elections of 1856
and 1860, saying that should the republican
candidate for president be elected they would
go out of the union my time and your pa
Gence would be exhausted will therefore
refer to but two or three writers: Jefferson
Davis in his message to The Confederate con-
gress does not mention Harper's Ferry, but
gave this as a reason for Withdrawing from
the union: "a great party was organized for
the purpose of obtaining the administration
of the government with the avowed objct of
using its power for the total exclusion of the
slave states from all participation in the ben
efts of the public domain acquired by all the
states in common, whether by conquest OF
purchase, surrounding them entirely by
states i'm which slavery should be prohibited
thus rendering the property in slaves so lnse.
cure as tn be comparatively worthless. ano
thereby annihilatinG, in effect. property
worth thousands of millions of dollars. This
party, thus organized, succeeded in the
month of November last to the election OF
its candidate for the president of the United
States.''
will next quote from letter attributed tC
Judah =. Benjamin, senator from Louisiana
to the British consul in New York, dated Au-
gust IL, 1860, as follows: "The doctrines
maintained by the great interests OF
the republican party are so unsulteo
o the whole south that the election OF
their candidate (Which is almost certain.
amounts to a total destruction of all planta-
ton interests, which the south, as sure as
there is God in heaven, will not submit-to
Sooner than yield to the arbitrary dictates OF
traitorous allies and false friends who have
proven recreant to the solemn obligations of
the old constitution, we will either secede
from the union, and form separate govern
ment, or upon certain conditions, at once re-
turn to tie allegiance of Great Britain, oui
mother country"
Here again is no allusion to Harper's Fer
~, but he proposes to secede because of the
success of the republican party which was
''made" by the Kansas struggle.
The political cyclopedia says that "Kansas,
il might be said, cleared the stage, for the
last act of the drama, the rebellion" that the
Kansas struggle was the 'prelude to the wal
Of the rebellion" One more question re-
mains to be considered: If the success of tine
republican party made by the Kansas
struggle was the immediate cause of Sc
cession, war and consequent emancil a.
hon did the Harper's Ferry raid contribute
TO that success? This question must be an
swered most decidedly in the negative. This
same cyclopedia says that the North almost
unanimously condemned the whole insurrec-
tion." while it is well known that from every
stump during the Lincoln campaign it wa:
most yehemently denounced. The republi.
can party, that there might be nc mistakins
its position, adopted this resolution in its ma.
Honal platform:
Resoired, That the maintenance inviolate
of the rights of the states, and especially the
rights of each state to order and control Its
own domestic institutions according to it:
Judgment exclusively, is essential to the bal
snce of power on which the perfection ant
endurance of our political fabric depends
and, we denounce the lawless invasion b!
armed force of the soil of any state or terri
tory, no matter under what pretext, as among