Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-02-18

auU ncuCeIOItn uNeli tOSetnef In unity, I'M
der government that knows no north, no
nseparable DOW and forever"
The Development of Kansas.
By GOVERNOR JOHN A. MARTIN.
Mr Chairman, and Ladies and Gentlemen:
In Grecian mythology it is related tina:
Zeus, warned by an oracle that the son oi
his spouse, Metis, would snatch supremacy
from him, swallowed both Metis and hel
unborn child. When the time of birth ar
rived, Zeus felt violent pain in his head.
and in his agony requested Hephastus tc
cieave the head open with an ak. His request
waa complied with, and from the brain Of
the great god sprang Athena, full-armed.
md with mighty war shout. She at once
assumed high place among the divinities
of Olympus. She first took part in the dis.
ussions of the gods as an opponent of the
savage Ares. She gave counsel to her father
against the giants; and she slew Enceladus
the most powerful of those who conspirec
against Zeus, and buried him under Mt
Etna. She became the patron of heroisu
| mOng men, and her active and origina
;enius inspired their employment. The
| lgriculturist and the mechanic were under
| he poet and the orator delighted in heI
avor. The egis was in her helmet, and she
represented the ether-pure air. She was
| wOrshipped at Athens because she caused the
| olive to grow on the bare rock of the Acrop,
| oils. She was also the protectress of the art
| Of peace among women. She bore in hei
| hand the spool, the spindle, and the needle.
| and she invented and excelled IN all the
| work of women. She was the goddess OF
| wisdom and the symbol of thought; she rep
| resented military skill and civic prudence
| In war she was heroic and invincible; in
peace she was wise, strong, inventive, anG
| industrious.
THE ATHENA OF AMERICAN STATES.
Kansas is the Athena of American states
| Thirty-s years ago the slave oligarchy ruleo
this country. Fearing that the birth of new
states in the west would rob it of its suprem
acy, the slave power swallowed the Missouri
compromise, which had dedicated the north
west to freedom. The industrious north
aroused and indignant, struck quick an6
hard, and Kansas, full armed, shouting the
war cry of liberty, and nerved with invinc-
IDLE courage, sprang into the Union. She al
once assumed a high place among the states.
She was the deadly enemy of slavery; she
gave voice and potency to the demand fol
its abolition: and she aided in burying Sc
cession in its unhonored grave. The wal
over, she became the patron, as she had been
during its continuance the exemplar, of
heroism, and a hundred thousand soldiers OF
the Union found homes within the shelter OF
her embracing arms. The agriculturist and
the mechanic were charmed by her ample re-
sources. and inspired by her eager enter
prise. Education found in her a generous
patron, and to literature, art and science she
has been a steadfast friend. Her pure at
mosphere invigorated all. A desert disfig-
ured the map of the continent. and she COW
cred it with fields of golden wheat and tas-
selling corn. She has extended to women the
protection of generous laws and of enlarged
opportunities for usefulness. In war she
was valiant and indomitable, and in peace
she has been intelligent, energetic, pro-
yressive and enterprising. The modern
Athena, type of the great Greek goddess, is
our Kansas.
THE CHILD OF GREAT ERA.
1t is not long lapse of time since the 10Th
Of January, 1861. boy born during that
eventful year cast his first presidential vote
1t the last election. But no other period of
the worlds history has been SO fertile in in
gention, SO potential in thought, so restless
and aggressive in energy, or SO crowded with
sublime achievements, as the Quarter-cen-
fury succeeding the admission of Kansas as
state. During that period occurred the
greatest war the world has ever known. An
industrious, self-gOverned, peace-loving peo-
pie, TRANSPORTED by the inspiration of pa
triotism and freedom, became. within a
ciplined warriors. Human slavery. en-
trenched for centuries in law, tradition,
wealth, and the pride of race, was annihi |
lated, and 5000, 600 slaves were clothed with
the powers and responsibilities of citizen |
ship. The continent was girdled with rail- |
road and telegraph lines. In 1850 there were |
only 81, 1S6 miles of railway in the United
Less than $1,000 miles of telegraph wires |
we're stretched at the date of the admission |
Of Kansas; there are now nearly SOC, zoo miles. |
The telephone and the electric light are
fruits of this period, and the improvements
and inventions in farm implements,in books
and newspapers, in all the appliances of me-
chanical industry, and in the arts and
sciences have revolutionized nearly every de-
partment of human activity.
When this marvellous era dawned upon the
world Kansas was fiction OF geographers.
On the map of our country 1t was marked az
q desert, and the few explorers who had PEN
etrated its vast solitudes described it as an
bison or the wilder Indian. There it had
lain for centuries, voiceless and changeless,
waiting for the miracle of civilization to
touch and transform it.
The passage of the Kansas Nebraska bill
made Kansas the central figure in tremen-
ious conflict. It became not only the child
Of marvellous epoch, and heir to all the
progress, the achievements and the glory of
hat epoch, but it stood for an idea; it repre-
;ented principles and that idea and princi-
pie thrilled the heart and awakened the con-
science of the nation. That a state Graded
amid such events. schooled during such
period, and inspired by such sentiments,
,hould, in its growth and development, illus
rate these mighty energies and impulses,
vas inevitable The Kansas of to-day is
,nly the logical sequence of the influences
md agencies that have surrounded, shaped
Ind directed every step and stage of the
states material and administrative progress.
NOT THE HISTORIAN.
lam not, however, the historian of this
Very properly the committee as.
signed to my honored predecessor, tho first
rovernor of the state-vhoShas been withand
Of il during all the lights and shadows OF
thirty-one revolving years-the duty of pre-
senting an rhetorical sketch OF the difficulties