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

upon the banners of the south. Was there
then hope left for q free state? ALI the ma.
chinery for making state was now in the
possession of the enemy. This was in 1855,
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 informa-
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
az 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 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 cyclopedia of political
science says truly: 'sThe predominance of a
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 in effect, of all
| the old forms of opposition to the demo-
cratic party, and the first national conven-
| ton of the new republican party, June II,
| 1856"
Eli Thayer 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 the
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, as 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 Harper's Ferry, to which he was a par.
ty, destroyed slavery, and not the work in
Kansas. What are the facts? Were to quote
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
tience would be exhausted. will therefore
refer to but two or three writer's: 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 in which slavery should be prohibited,
thus rendering the property in slaves so inse-
cure as to be comparatively worthless, and
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 a letter attributed tc
Judah P. Benjamin, senator from Louisiana.
to the British consul in New York, dated Au.
gust II, 1860, as follows: 1.-The doctrines
maintained by the great interests OF
the republican party are SO unsuited
o the whole south that the election of
their candidate (Which is almost certain
amounts to 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 the allegiance of Great Britain, our
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, |
It might be said, cleared the stage for the |
asst act of the drama, the rebellion that the |
Kansas struggle was the ''prelude to the war |
Of the rebellion" One more question re-
mains to be considered: If the success of the /
republican party made by the Kansas |
struggle was the immediate cause of Sc
cession, war and consequent emancipa-
ton 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 we'll known that from every |
stump during the Lincoln campaign it was /
most vehemently denounced. The republi-
can party, that there might be no installing
its position, adopted this resolution in its ma
tional platform:
of the rights of the states, and especially the
rights of each state to order and control its
own domestic institutions according to it's
Judgment exclusively, is essential to the bal
ance of power on which the perfection and
endurance of our political fabric depends,
and we denounce the lawless invasion by
armed force of the soil of any state or terri |
tory, no matter under what pretext, as among
the gravest crimes.
After the election, President Lincoln, in
his inaugural address, quoted this resolution
and added, II now reiterate these sentiments,
and, in doing SO, only press upon the pub
lie attention the most conclusive evidence of l.
which the case is susceptible, that the pros
perity, peace, and security of no section are
10 be in any wise endangered by the new in
coming administration"
Can it be possible that the effect of
,uch raid as that at Harper's Ferry, almost
denounced by the whole north,
specially denounced in the platform of tho +
,arty, and the denunciations reiterated BY
its candidate, could be to aid in the election |.
If Mr.. Lincoln. To ask such question is
20 answer it. Not only did the raid not help
he republicans, but as soon as the facts were
developed, it did not brighten the south. The
pro-slavery members of the senate investi-
eating committee, Mason, Davis, Fitch, say
hat not single slave could be induced to
join the raiders, and when arms
we're put in their hands they refused to use