The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-01-11

fees. To be permitted to preside on
this occasion is an honor of no mean
proportion; an honor of which I am
highly sensible and for which l trust L
am duly grateful. This occasion should
be an intensely interesting. one to the
thoughtful student of our institutions.
1t should serve as most impressive
object lesson in support of the wisdom
of the fathers who proclaimed the doc
trine of free government in this union
of states.
Here no standing army is required
to insure the induction into office of
those whom the people have chosen as
their rulers. No epauletted official
adorned with gold lace and waving
plumes sits in judgment upon the form
of your ceremonies. The people have
spoken in the manner provided by law
and to that judgment all good citizens
bow in loyal submission. .(CheerS).
Behold the spectacle. How beauti-
full the sight: how instructive is the
lesson. The OutcOming and 1nSo1ng Of
ficials mingle in friendly intercourse
apparently oblivious to the controver-
sizes of the recent campaign. The form
er are about to surrender the power
which they have for two years enjoyed
and the latter are about to take it up
Great indeed is patriotism. Without ii
there can be no free government With
it displaced or corrupted there could be
no such scene as that we are about to
witness and government of the people
by the people and for the people would
perish from the earth. Perhaps may
be pardoned for referring to the fact
that in our state of Kansas there pre-
walls a patriotism of the most intense
character. The causes which have led
to this are not difficult to comprehend.
Our love for our state was born of the
hardShipS endured by the founders of
the commonwealth The struggles of
our pioneers are without a parallel in
the settlement of the newer states and
it is doubted if they have had their
counterpart i'll the history of America,
unless perhaps, in the experience of our
Puritan ancestors on the rock bound
shores of New England And as the
influence Of the sturdy character of the
latter is still felt throughout the nation
so may we anticipate that long after
ali of US shall have passed away the
trials of our early settlers will be felt
in the shaping and reShaping of our
institutions and that much that is ad-
mirable in the characteristics of our
citizenship may be traced to the day
when the immigrants came to Kansas
from the northern states for the pur-
pose of esta bliShing here a free state
and with guns on their shoulders pre-
pared to defend their homes.
AS the purest ore is produced from
the hottest furnace and the brightest
thunderbolt from the darkest storm, so
may we understand in the light of our
early history. some of the causes for
that intense state love; that wonderful
state pride.
Yes. we love out state We love her
for what she is Look at her. She will
bear Inspection. Ne love her every
hill; her every valley; her every plain
and we love her the more ardently for
the difficulties which attended her birth
and her consequent development. We
are proud of our state; proud of her
history; her institutions and her ad-
vanced civilization. Palsied be the
tongue which would utter one word for
the purpose of wounding that love or
destroying that pride and let US all
thank God that we are Kansans as well
as Americans
Rev. w. C. Todd, of Wichita, chap
lain of the DunSmore house, thanked
God for the birth of our nation, the
ideas of freedom and national rights,
the commonwealth of Kansas, and in