Dodge City times., 1889-01-17
THE INAUGURAL.
At High Noon Governor John A. Martin
Delivered the Great Seal Of State
to His Successor, Hon. Ly-
man q. Humphrey,

Having Been Its Custodian for Two
Terms Of Two Years Each. Mr.
Humphreys Address In
Full. Read 1t.
When the hour fixed by the constitution Of
Kansas for that ceremony arrived, noon of
he second Monday in January, the newly
elected state officers were inangurated.
Governor Martin, in opening the ceremo-
mics of the occasion, made q brief address,
in which he said he was grateful to the citi-
zens of Kansas for twice hono;ing him, but
that he surrendered his honors and authority
without regret, to resume his old station
among them with satisfaction and pride.
In introducing his successor he used well
framed euiogistic sentences.
GOVERNOR HUMPHREYS INAUGURAL
Mr. Chair naD, and Ladi and Gentlemen:
Ia the presence of these Witnesses, one
public servant, after duty done, but ''putteth
Of the harness." and, in the same presence,
'.girdeth it on
With the just approval of q people one has
served so long and we'll, he Eere surrendets
up 10 them the seals of his official trust,
which in turn, by the voice of that same
people, recently expressed through the
forms of law, are contded to me. AS by
the livery of seiZen. under the feudal Jaw,
the transfer of possession, essential to the
complete investiiure of an estate IN lands,
was publicly evidenced by the delivery OF
the twig of a tree, or patch OF the turf, SO
this ceremony here is but sort OF livery OF
seizen, testifying the mere change In pos
session of pub &c oi1ice-the Office itself be-
ing a perpetuity, the incumbency changing
from time to time, according to the popular
will, as lawfully expressed and ascertained.
standing thus at the threshold of great
public trust, the very contemplation OF lts
responsibilities quickens keen sense OF
duty into feeling of self conservation to
the measured task lying before me.
In estimating the impoft ftance OF the ex-
ecutiye Office, as one of the CO ordinate
branches of government, the growing great
ness of our commonwealth cannos be ex-
cluded from view, 30 r.ch III the hAlloweo
memories that hang over and about her early
days; in the marvellous strides that have car
ried her forward, whereby she has overtaken
eighIeen of her sisters and vaulted into the
fifteenth place in rank among the states;
and still richer in the boundless possibilities
of the years thas shall round out the period
of the nineteenth century.
Kansas, in her career thus far, covers
what has been aptly characterized a focal
period in history, toward which the lines
fully eIemphfies, in her present condi-
tions, the philosophy of De Tocqueville.
that the growth of states bears some
marks of their origin; that the circum-
stances of their b rth and rise affect the
whole term of their being. In Kansas this
may be observed in the liberal spirit of her
laws and In the genius of her institutions;
hke~ ise in the prevailing ideas that have
dominated and prope led her with the gath
ering momentum of a falling body. In
word, the high social and moral plane, and
the intelligent aspirations Of her people, are
traceable, in a marked degree. to the law de-
ciared by the great Frenchmen, having ats
root in the influence of the early history and
settlement of the state-an influence and
force that runs like golden thread through
out our later experience, at once charming,
fascinating and yet powerful, to which
Kansas owes more than has ever been duly
Acknowledged. For free Kansas was but the
first born child of the republican supre-
macy on American sOil the triumph OF an
idea; the idea of the Pilgrim as against that
OF the Cavalier; the idea of tho founders of
Lawrence over the idea of the settlers of Le-
compton. 1t was this conflict of ideas that
made ''bleeding k6nsas" seem like the last
effort of Divine Providence in behalf of hu-
man liberty, the history of which has be-
fSSAA&s
aud in which ths early settlers of Kansas,
brave men and heroic women, dared and en-
dured for a great principle. With lofty
courage and sublime unsefishness, little
dreaming that they we're thereby to make
the name of Kansas luminous, q synonym
for liberty and progress; or laying the foun-
dations of q commonwealth whose subse-
quent career and history should bear the i'm
press of their character and courageous
struggles, so clearly reelected in every
monument of the Kansas of to-day.
But 20 it was and the idea which thus
triumphened in free Kansas, and the infu-
ences going out from our early settlement,
are a living, energizing force in all our
moral, social and material progress. It has
beaten back the buffalo and the Indian in
blazirg the pathway for better civiliZa-
ton; it has reclaimed a barren waste, and
made the great American desert q Fugitive
and a vagabond ON the face of the EARTH
even Plutarch speaks. who ''crowd into the
edges of their maps parts of the world they
kno " nothing about, adding notes in the
margin that beyond lies nothing but dreary
waste-sandy deserts"
By this force of which speak, have We
even reversed Buckles law that great wealth
must precede the highest civilization; for in
all that constitutes true civilization, the
liberty and education OF the masses as
against the classes, in the elevation Of wo-
man by the enlargement of her legal and
political rights, in the recognition of the
dignity of honest labor, in legislation,
guarding the sancity of the home, the pur-
ity of the ballot. the health and morals of
the people, in the application of the rule of
''ths greatest good to the greatest number"
which Priestly declares to be the founda-
tion of morals and legislation. In all these
Kansas presents the highest type of civIliza-
ton ever seen in any state, among any peo-
Il IL
among the sons of men. 1t 10 civiliza-
zion at once unique and in advance OF
great wealth among our people. OF its own
kind it fy,ast not of splendid state "where
wealth accumulates and men decay" but OF
a happy state, where laws restrain cupidity |
and greed; a civilization that breeds neither |
barons nor beggars nor luxury nor destitu- |
tion; whose prime factors arc the railroad, |
the school house, the church and the press;
liberty within the Law; wherein happy |
homes, contented fireeides, intelligent, indie
per dent, honest men and women are the |
chief end and glory of the state. For, after |
all, the state OF which We speak and are so |
proud is not the soil We tread upon, nor the |
air we breathe, but the people, as they go |
about their daily walk and assemble nightly |
in their homes, by the sacred hearth-stones, |
the pillars of society, the affairs of the re- |
public.
1t is to this Kansas, of whose early infiu- |
euCos nhNo uritIy sPoAcu, mat mlllOn6
have been attracted from various quarters, |
giving us population at once heterogeneous |
and homogeneous, through the alchemy of |
free, compulsory education. the assimilat- |
ing power of the railroad, the telegraph and |
the press. and the influence of our early set |
tiemapt. of immigration Kansas gets a |
generous share and the best, due somewhat |
to our location on the highway to the other |
SEA; to the inducement of cheap homes;
congenial climate and productive soil; but |
in q larger degree to the generous sunshine |
of freedom that brightens every page Of her
history. The love of liberty and the mag
netism of liberty loving people-thess are
the influences which, more than any others,
have inspired the sturdy Britou, the mer.
curial Frenchman, the thrifty sons of Ger
many, Switzerland, Norway and Sweden,
and the sOmbre-visaged Russian of the
frozen north, to come. and tho best young
men and women of our sister states.
These various elements are here blended |