Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-02-18
Address by Charles W. Robinson.
FIRST GOVERNOR OF KANSAS.

Address by Charles w. Robinson.
FIEsT GOVERNOR OF KANSAS.
Mr.. President and FelLoc Citizens:
Wave assembled to celebrate the twenty
fifth birthday of the state of Kansas. Or
such an occasion review of her wonderful
growth and achievements is eminently proper
and IN these no state can excel our own, bu
l have been notified that am expected t.
speak of Kansas in her ante-natal days, anl
relate something of her struggles in embryo
While the territorial period was full of Incl
dent and worthy achievement, the field ba.
been so often plowed and cross-plowed, har
rowed ard raked as with fine tooth CONT
for items to add to the fame or infamy of the
contestants, nothing fresh or interesting re-
mains to be said appropriate to this occasion
Some of the results, however, of the terri
torial struggle have been inherited by the
state and constitute its chief glory. OF thes<
Will briefly speak. To begin at the begin
ming l will say the difficulty which eliminated
in Kansas had its origin in the Garden OF
Eden. According to report the first law ever
given to the race was prohibitory law, with
death as the penalty for disobedience. This
law, of course, was violated by the occupants
of the garden, and should the threatened
penalty be inflicted, the law-giyer would
have no subjects, as the viOlators included
the whole human family. Accordingly. Tie
penalty was modified to suit the emergency
precedent still followed by political parties
when the enforcement of their laws will leave
their party without quorum in the legisla;
| ture, or minority at the polls. The amended
penalty reads as follows: In the sweat O:
thy face shalt thou eat thy bread till thou
| return into the ground" This penalty at
| tached not only to the law breaker, but to all
| his posterity, and from that day to this the
| chief concern of mankind has been to escape
this penalty. Every person seems DESTROYS
| of making some one else do the sweating
| while he eats his bread. Every device has
been resorted to. Sometimes man escapes
the penalty by Withholding the earnings of
his employees in whole, or in part, but q
| fayorite method has been to capture, steal or
purchase man and compel him to do the
sweating both for himself and his master.
This practice has been handed down from
generation to generation. till the date of the
opening of Kansas to settlement, and it was
proposed to introduce it on Kansas soil.
Hence the conflict. Many people had come
to look upon this business not only as avoid
ing the penalty for eating prohibited fruit,
but as great wrong to such as were com
PEELED to suffer the double infection. Some
thought it was the "sum of all yillainies."
and Others ''trembled when they remembered
that God was Just" Many years of agitation
among the people and in congress. Various
compromises and provisos had been agreed
to, but all such were as ropes of sand before
the demands or the slave power. One of
these barriers to the extension of slavery
went down in the enactment of the Kansas
Nebraska bill. The opponents to the extern
sion OF slavery were beaten, hopelessly
beaten, In congress; the agitators of the
north and east were powerless and could
anything be done to stay the progress of this
institution! writer in the Charleston S.
c., Mercury states the case as follows
First, BY consent of parties the present
contest In Kansas is made the turning point
in the destinies of slavery and abolitionlsm.
If the south triumphs abolitionism will be
defeated and shorn of its power for all time.
Ii she is defeated, abolitionism will grow
more insolent and aggressive until the utter
rum OF the south is consummated. Second, II
the south secures Kansas, she will extend
slavery into all territory south of the 10th
parallel of north latitude, to the Rio Grande,
and this, OF course, will secure for her pent
up institutions of slavery an ample outlet,
ana restore her power in congress: If the
north secures Kansas, the power of the south
in congress will gradually be diminished, the
states OF Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ar
kansas and Texas, together with the adjacent
territories, will gradually become abolition
lied and the slave population, confined to
the states east of the Mississippi, will become
valueiess. All depends upon the action of
the present moment"
This is an exact statement of the situation
as 1t then appeared, and the predictions only
failed Of realization in consequence of the sui
eide OF slavery by the rebellion, which could
not then be known. Here, then, was the
stake; not the extension of slavery to Kan
sas, merely, but its extension indefinitely, or
final extinction. Who can be found to enter
ilStSp SlaVpry hoH oI1 tbo ~
its side were billions of dollars and the do
mestic relations of 5000, 600 people involved.
Congress was Ill favor of slavery extension
or 1t would not have removed the barriers
from the west line of the state of Missouri.
! he judiciary was on the side of slavery ex.
tension or it would never have removed the
bred Scott decision. The ex-
,cutive department of the gov
eminent favored slavery extension
or it could not have been elected, and would
not have had jefferson Davis for secretrry of
war: Besides, Kansas had a slave state ex-
tending across its entire eastern border.
Those inhabitants were alive to the situation.
bold, reckless and defiant, while the oppo-
nents OF slavery were to be found chiefly al a
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 VI Victory II acnleVeQ, 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 the
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
heretofore comparatively obscure man. a |
member of state legislature, was seized |
with inspiration, and he stepped forth in the |
winter of 1854, when it became evident the
kansas-Nebraska bill would become Law
and organized emigration and preached the
crusade till victory was secured. So obnoY.I
ious did this man become to the slave power
that price was set upon his head, dead q,
alive, even before the lands of Kansas vara
open to settlement. But emigration whiIe
indispensable, was not all that was reouisite
state had to be organized and this vol
must be done on the soil of Kansas. The
was the work in hand, and the election Of .
territorial legislature was the first stem To ha
taken. The party that should secure th;s
would secure great If not decisive v;r+o-