Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1888-05-19
HON J. r. BUTTONS SPEECH.


of our citizens, delivered speech IN
Opera Hall last Monday evening.
We understand our duty in the di-
rection of protecting, rather than
assailing, the effort Of anybody who
speaks here upon an invitation from
any Of our reputable citizens. We
have long known Mr.. Burton. He
undoubtedly is a born orator. With
the exception Of his attempting
some very violent Improvements
upon nature, his oratory is perhaps
second to that Of no man in Kansas.
This utterance is made with the full
understanding that a comprehensive
knowledge Of the orators subject is
achief element ofsurpassing oratory:
What we shall say later on ofsr.
Burton's speech must be tempered
with the understanding that he had
scarcely an hour for speaking, on
account Of his. having to take the
evening train for the west at 9:2S.
F. Danford, Esq, presided at the
meeting.
The speaker dwelt upon the ne
cessity Of people doing their own
thinking in politics, instead Of fol-
lowing blindly such men as happen
to have wide reputation.
Mr.. Burton alluded to the politi-
cal situation in the South. He pre-
sumed that, had he been ten years
older, and been living south Of Ma
son and Dixon's line when the war
Of the rebellion broke out, he would
have fought under the stars and
bars. He held up the idea that this
was the natural thing for those peo-
pie to do. At the same time, he de-
clared it to be his conviction that
the rebellion is everlastingly wrong
and that the cause Of the Union is
eternally right. The writer agrees
with Mr.. Burton as to the moral
status Of the secession and the Union
causes. But there is back of this a
thought which he did not bring out.
This is that, with the exception of
South Carolina and possibly another
state or two, the majority Of the
white people of the South were OPP
posed to secession. Horace Greeley
makes this clear in the first volume
of his 1.-THE American Conflict" "
The majority in nearly every state
was, in other words, coerced into
secession by the despotic, capitalistic
minority. This fact demonstrates
that it is illogical to extend to those
ex-rebels the credit Of having acted
from natural, and, therefore, uncen-
surable impulses. On the other
hand, the general prevalence
throughout nearly all the Southern
states Of deep love for the Union
flag is the strongest Of evidence that
the welfare of those states was, in
the popular judgment Of the ante
bellum days, not to be promoted by
seeding from the Union; and that
he who rebelled did so, not for the
good Of his state, but to secure the
prosperity of negro slavery, with
the enslavement of the whites as a
coming concomitant.
Mr.. Burton avowed that the
"bloody shirt" should be thrown
aside, and that the tariff is the main
question for discussion in this years
national campaign. We fail to see
what enduring good tariff can
work for the country if fair elections
are to be dispensed with. The res
olutions of the various Republican
state and congressional conventions
which have been held this year afford
us reason to point with pride to the
position Of the WORLD upon this
question.
The speaker, in manner which
he believed very facetious, sought to
throw cold water on the candidacy
of Farmer Smith for governor. He
thought the farmers, in giving COM
fort to such candidate, are being
fooled badly. He avowed that more