The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-11-16
Kansas, the Brightest Gem of
the Union,
Must and VIII Rise Above
These Calumnies.
Citizens of Kansas. Stand by
Your State!

If a conspiracy had been formed by
eastern newspapers to destroy Kansas,
to crush her into the earth and trample
one of the bravest, most highly educa-
ted and cultured Christian peoples in
the dust it could not have been set
bout with more malevolence. more cru
city, more heartlessness, more cunning,
more devilishness, than has been dis
played by the eastern press from Chi
cago To New York in the past week.
lit does not matter to the misguided
if not malignant editors of these papers
that Kansas has rendered up to her
creditors every debt she owed unto the
utmost farthing when it came due,
even though ii has ruined thousands on
thousands of our best citizens right
here in Topeka and all over the state
1t is regarded of no consequence that
the payment of the mortgages held by
eastern creditors has beggared tens of
thousands of our farmers and sent
them in vast exodus from western
counties into Oklahoma and other new
territories, there to begin over again
the battle Of life; it matters not that
her young men who dwelt for years in
dugouts on the frontier vainly trying to
subdue the desert. have been driven in
to the mines of Colorado to Alaska and
Mexico to earn a livelihood. it matters
not the least that Kansas has honestly
and honorab bly, given up every thing that
her debts might be paid EVen all this
has not delivered her from the con
tumely of these vicious editors and
writer's who not content with the sur
render Of all that could be taken are
now blackening the character of our
state and our people. They have it all,
our buildings, our farms, our vast
stretches of unimprOved territory in
some instances amounting to whole
counties: why should they now pursue
US with envenomed tongue and make
it more difficult if not impossible to re-
cover our vanished fortunes. The heart
afr1csf "a i'm f1aa
sas is one Of the great sisterhoOd of
states beloved by the friends of liberty
and progress throughout the world
Bleeding Kansas she was, and bleeding.
that her sister states might live in the
glorious union they now enjoy Kansas
was desOlated by fire and sword for the
sake of her companions in the Union
who now through their editors and
newspapers turn on her to rend her In
Kansas began the struggle that saved
the other states of this nation from de-
structi0n. In those old days we stood
the onset of the bloody struggle and
none found us wanting. If we differ in
our views on some public questions it
ill becomes the states that prOfited and
prOspered through our suffering to turn
their poisoned barbs against US. To the
stars through difficulties we have in
deed struggled upward The Joan Of
Arc of progress. Kansas has always led
the vanguard of human freedOm- who
knows what spirit it is in our heroic
people that is leading us nOW2 Who
knows LNdL twenty years from now MS
tory may not Vindicate Kansas again,
as Kansas has been vindicated in the
past
Who has given it into the hands Of
eastern newspaper writer's to destroy
US. by what moral right do they now
seek to strangle hope in our people and
blight them with the terror Of pauper-
ism2 Kansas lifts up her voice in pro-
test We viii not meel1ly endure these
whips and scourges.
Kansas people may not understand
in all its dastardly fullness the on
slaught that has been made on our
state and our people BY the metropoli-
tan press, until they read the following
extracts.
Under the caption. "Crack-Brained
Kansas" the New York World editor
tally assails the state as follows.
with population declining and wealth
decreasing, Kansas chases more fur
iously than ever the delusions
the eyes of the whole nation upon her
folly she has cast her electoral vote for
population. To stampede her prosper
GUS citizens. she has given her chief judi
cia1 position TO a man who proclainns that
the Wright of the user of property takes
precedence over the right Of the owner
might be thinking of coming to live with
in her borders. she is sending to the Uni
ted states senate PefTer- or some other
leather-lungeu visionary, who VIII hold
her UP to the derision of the world by
shouting for thousands of millions of fr-
redeemable greenbacks to be handed out
This from the chief newspaper of a
city which was in active rebellion
against Abraham Lincoln's govern
men when Kansas was sending a
greater proportion Of her male citizens
into the war for the Union than anv
other state And this, also. from the
chief newspaper Of a city in which