Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1894-09-01

ertheleSS, OF the Wlnd-sWept and
sunlit prairies. Thirty-seven years
ago last March, as a mere youth, he
took his Kansas prairie claim and
became a squarter sovereign with
few of the rest of as. A disastrous
season caught him III a pinch and
| he lost his farm, but he neither
turned calamity bowler or deserted
| his state, but stuck to Kansas and
| by Kansas until through his indus
try and force Of character he had
won back all he had lost and thou
sand times more, establishing a
home and raising a family and win
ming hOnors and a good name for
his fellow men, all within sight of
his squatter's cabin, and in the
county in which he still lives. He
is a Kansan to the manor raised,
even if Maine born.
No man who has even been gov
ernor of Kansas knows the state bet
ter, and all the elements which have
gone to make it what it is; no man
better knows Kansas people and
the present and future requirements
Of the state than Major Edmund N.
Morrill,. He has hel ped to make it
what it is as a citizen, as a legislator
and as soldier. Soon after the
writer Of this first entered public
life he found Major Morrill, seated
but two desks distant in the Kansas
State Senate, he being recognized
even then as both civil and mill
tary veteran. He was in fact a
member Of the first Free State Leg
islature winch was welcomed to Lee
compton by the Grim Chieftain, y
Jim Lane, in an outdoor speech,
with the opening remark: eve
meet the damned roosters on their
own dunghilI to-day
When the incipient confederacy
sent its first reasonable missile
crashing through the walls Of Old
| Sumter and the immortal Lincoln
turned his grief stricken face to the
west with an appeal in the name Of
loyalty and of human liberty, the
Hon. E. n. Morrill, laid aside his
civic ambition, dropped his work
and became a soldier for freedom.
After Appomattox and four years
Of service which had won him a
Majors epaulets, he did not return
to New England and its comforts,
but came straight back to Kansas
and took up his life where he had
left off for the sake Of his country.
soon finding himself again in the
Kansas Legislature helping to make
wise and sensible laws for its then
struggling people.
When Kansas in 1882 was emit
: tied to four congressman, all elected
at large, Morrill, was one Of the -four
elected in his party. Since that
time the people have kept so well
posted as to his course and work
that little need be said of it. He
l proved himself equal, in every re-
spect, to the great honor and re-
! sponsibility. He was reelected
l three successive times subsequently
; refusing fifth nomination in 1890
What gave him national standing
and recognition, however, was his
. work in the interest Of the soldier
as chairman Of tie pension commit
tee. He knew the wants and de.
servings of the patriot, and became
: the father of the dependent pension
and disability act whereby 100000
r Union veterans, their widows anc
orphans, all over this broad country
draw sixty millions Of dollars annu.
ally, several millions of which come:
: to Kansas veterans, their widow:
t and their orphans. Besides the
: great work, which ought to render
: his name immortal and make hin
governor q half-dozen times if ht
should desire, he, being member O.
: the pension committee SO many
| years, assisted III getting over fv,
thousand special acts through con
gress for deserving soldiers whc
could not make their proofs or for
their unusual disabilities. He tool
:; the ground that pensions were no
q graGulCY put que ana SHOULD "
i demanded
. This, briefly, is something of tn,
man, of his manner and his history
whom the people Of Kansas ar,
asked to honor with the chief exec
utiyeship of the state; a mere
glimpse of the one whose sterling
1 character, breadth Of experience anC
natural endowments render him i'm
6 measurably superior and peculiarl,
fit for the position at this particula
juncture of political and financia
unrest. That he will be elected anC
5 overwhelmingly so there does no
seem the chance for the admission o
, a Doubt Wichita Eagle-M. NJ
Murdoch.
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