The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-10-06


led by her ideas and her example a:
much perhaps, as in any other way
Others were here, from Ohio, from
Illinois, from Wisconsin and from the
entire north-men who had become
! weary of being smitten on the one
cheek only to turn the other for q
blow When the, roll is called, it mat
ters little where was the birthplace
or where the ancestral home, of any
} who stand up to be counted. They
came, not simply to make homes for
themselves; that would be too narrow
a view OF the great movement, which
! against appalling odds won freedom
1 Tor Kansas, and in a larger sense, for
this nation They came to make free
homes for all; to establish here in
Kansas towns and town meetings, dis
tr1ct schools, the untrammeled vote of
every citizen. and all the sanctions of
an institutional government. Their
zeal, tranquil and self-poised, was the
zeal which had been in generations
before TRANSFORMATIONS that had
crossed .the ocean and subdued the
sternest soil upon this continent.
Kansas was, of course, different from
New England. The comparison was
| between garden and a land of rocks.
pray you remember they were not
mere Adventures; and remember,
too, they We're men who could follow
a purpose wherever it might lead,
asking only if it were right.
We often use the phrase, 1.-The
irony of fate" Here is the irony: The
4 IL,
votes of men who expected to see
slavery Qnade the cornerstone of the
new territory, was the strongest in
fiuence which insured freedom here
question out of congress-out to the
free prairies, where Truth can always
find a chance They blindly said,
You may fight it OUT And so it
happened the wretched measure, the
fatal and perf1dious bill, became
step in the march toward all for which
the friends of freedom were praying.
And they took care of this soil and
irony of fate.
The Extension of Slavery.
You who are young do not perhaps
understand that the fight was not
against slavery in the abstract, but
against its extension. New England
but it is protected by constitutional
and statutory guarantees, and we
must let it alone where it is But
they said also: Keep within your
own limits; SO far may you come, but
no farther. Keep off the prairies.''
And then the prairies were kindled;
for in the cabins and on the claims
they knew they could hardly live
themselves and that the children
could never thrive, if their toll was
to be measured by the toll of slaves.
1t is an old economic truth that the
good and the valuable cannot COM
pete with the bad and worthless.
Slave labor will drive out free labor
as the cheaper and baser metal will
drive out the precious one. 1t was a
perfectG simple proposition. Slavery
was not only wrong, but it was de-
structive of their homes; the gar
dens, the flowers, the clambering wild
rose, the little cluster of buildings, the
lares and penates which they had
cherished and brought with them to
their rude western cabins. Let sla-
very stay where it beIongs-on the
plantation, in the swamp, in the fields
of rice and cane, but it shall not
fasten its deadly fangs upon our free
western institutions. That was the
issue; and it was here, good friends
here where we now are, and out upon
the virgin soil of Kansas, that the
grapple came. In all those days and
nights, Lawrence was the eye and
ear of the cause.
The Story of Lawrence.
How can i erecite the story of this
played in the struggle for freedom in
Kansas? How can I tell you-you
who are jewellers here-what relation
she bore to the cause which in some
form has always been in the hearts of
men? Lawrence is diStinctively a
child of New England. And if that be
not lineage of which to boast, it is
certainly a lineage of which you may
we'll be proud. The love of liberty
in any heart, is a sacred, a solemn and
an inspiring thing; and it is, ideally, as
beautiful in one person, or in one
country or state as in another. 1t is
the same passion in Holland or
Switzerland, as in Old England or in
New England, and, like all that is most
precious in human lives. is but a senti- |
ment, impalpable and invisible, though |
as real and actual as the everlasting |
hills. In the teachings of the Master.
there is nothing more profoundly true
than this: 1.-The kingdom of God is
within you" When Eli Thayer saw
the approaching triumph of the slav-
cry propagandists in the certain pass
age of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. he
felt within him Kingdoms and powers
and hopes and faiths and the quick
ening of the word His eyes had new
er seen this land of surprising beauty
but what of that? 1t is a narrow
patriotism and a very scant phlloso-
ply which confines human effort to
that which happens under our very
eyes, Eli Thayer, with the soul of a
poet and the brain of a New England
Yankee, took time by the forelock and
his company before the Dill
passed. That has been their way al
ways. The genius of Puritan1sm
means: Here we are-ready." And
It means also-if absolutely necessary
Fire" And the Puritan, fellow
citizens, takes his Cromwell and his
any place upon this earth, where he
plants his feet. The United States of
America, one and indivisible, is the |.
product of New England ideas. mixed
"a littIe-with other ideas. Without
New England, we should not be what
we are and what we expect to be
soon or late.
You have seen paintings of the May
lower. and of the sad-faced pilgrims
Who used to kneel upon her deck to Fl
,rav for safety and deliverance. Some
Law artists will paint the men and