Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-09-01


Eighteen years ago today this monument
was unveiled. great concourse of people
witnessed the ceremonies. Ex-Ciov. Charles
Robinson. the old commoner and first ex-
ecutive of Kansas. presided at the meeting.
and John J. Ingalls, delivered the principal
grafton. Among his brilliant remarks Were
the following words:
out of the portentous and menacing
cloud of anti-slavery sentiment which long
had brooded with Sullen discomfort, a bale
full meteor above the north, John Brown
spranS like a terrific thunderbolt whose
lurid glare illuminated the continent with
Its devastating lame, and whose reverbera-
tons among the splintered crags of Har-
pers Ferry were repeated on a thousand
battlefields. from Gettysburg to the gulf''
Another sentence from the ex-Senator's
address is here quoted:
I'm any age or country, or under any
system, where abuses existed which needed
correction, John Brown would have been a
reformer In politics and a Puritan in re-
lgion. He would have gone with Huss TO
the stake or with Sidney to the scaffold."
These words from the brilliant statesman
moved many of the old pioneers to tears
eighteen years ago. but the display of grief
then was no greater than today, when a re-
markable letter written by the old hero was
read by an old pioneer. who remembers well
the trials and hariships he endured. 1t was
the letter written by John Brown to his
sister from the Jail in Charleston. Va. ON
the Sabbath before he was executed and
q.
him to be brave and COURAGEOUS to the la ST
When he knew that he soon must pay the
penalty. he wrote: "Oh, my friends, can YOU
deem 1t possible that that scaffold has no
terrors for your poor, old, unworthy broth
er? l thank God. through Jesus Christ my
Lord, IT is even so. / am now shedding
tears, but they are not tears of grief and
sorrow; / trust l am nearly done with
those. am weeping with joy and gratitude
l can In no other way express. $50 am
waiting cheerfully the days of my appointed
time, fully believing that for me now to die
VIII be to me of infinite gain and of untold
benefit to the cause We love"
The pen portrait of John Brown as paint-
ed by the eloquent Ingalls, eighteen wears
ago is no more interesting than the picture
drawn by Mary f. Lease today. as she
dwells upon the fruits of the old hero 5
warfare--the free Kansas of 1874 She said !.
Nature has designed Kansas as debat-
able ground. The soft south winds flower
laden, enervating, come stealing from the
sulf, along our plains. and are met by the
sturdy western winds that blow straip bt
and strong from the battlements of God
the wondrous Rockies. and ever on our
pralrleS they struggle for supremacy typical
OF the warning forces of freedom and slav-
cry, that have made Kansas the amphf-
theater of human progress and attra cted IN
her the attention of the world. The i'm
mensity of space, the vast, ilimitabie sweep
of prairie, the winds that play across the
Undulating bosom of the plains all all
speak for freedom her sacred fires burn in
every heart, and like furnace blast sweep
through her borders. Let slavery in any
form lift its hydra head, and Kansas
speaks, and the world listens for she never
speaks in vain.
Tribute From Frenchmen.
Just prior to the Franco-German war a
number of French republicans raised a sub
scription for the purpose of presenting the
remnant of the John Brown family suit
able medal, and on February 2, 1878, the
following note was received by Governor
George T. Anthony, accompanied by the
bronze duplicate of the medal:
PARIS, January 2 1873
ITO His Exceiiency. The Governor: Just
before the recent Franco-German war a
subscription committee was organized of
French republicans for the purpose of pre-
senting to the widow of John Brown a
golden medal commemorative Of the men,
DRY of her husband, of his sons and of his
companions, who died victims to their de-
votion to the cause of freeing the blacks
The sending of this medal delayed by po-
liticaI events, was effected on the 21st of
October, 1874. 1t will doubtless be agree
able to you to receive a duplicate of said
medal in bronze, and we forward 1t to you
with the suggestion that you cause 1t to be
deposited in some museum in the state of
Kansas.
BE pleased to accept, governor, the as
surance of our fraternal sentiments.
"PATRICE LARROQUE,
Member Of subscription club"
This mepento has been carefully pre-
served and treasured by the people of
Kansas In the State Historical Society.