Arizona republican., 1904-05-31
Kansas MergeS Two CeIe- bratiOnS Into a Great One
HER DEAD REMEMBERED
Also the Semi-Centennial of Her 0ri- sin-Secretary Tan Upon the kan- sas-Nebrasiia Bill of Wicked Pur- pose but Beneficent Result.

Topeka, May 30.-Decoration day cx- ercises formed the opening of the Kansas semi-centennial celebration here today. Secretary of War Taft was the guest of honor. He made an ad- dress this afternoon in the auditorium Soldiers graves in several cemeteries of the city were decorated this morn ing under action of the c. A. R. posts and the department officers of Kansas
 Secretary Taft and his party arrived shortly after noon. With Mir. Taft we're General Bell and M A Low. They came in special car on the Rock Is- land from Chicago, and took lunch on the car so as to be ready for the pc- rade in the afternoon, which was giv- en in honor of the secretary of war. Feature of the parade was the appear ance of two troops of the Fourth UnI> ted States cavalry and the Twenty ninth field artillery from Fort Leav- enworth, under command of Ma jor C. M. Murray.
 The afternoon exercises were held In the auditorium. Governor Bailey spoke, after which came an address by Secretary Taft. He said in part;
 Ut would be difficult to select a day and date more important and signih- cant, both from a local and from a na- tional standpoint. than the day which we,celebrate here. It Is fifty years to- day since President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas Nebraska bill. We do not mean 10 praise him, or the au- thor of the bill. stephen 4. Douglas. or those by whose votes the bill was en- acted into a law. Though our party prejudices are mellowed by half cen r1rxr md more judicial view of the get. we stnl find nothing in it, which can reflect credit on those who were responsibls for its passage.
 "The act involved a breach of faith so palpable that its benehciaries and supporters were embarrassed in it's de- fense, while its opponents, the anti slavery men of the north. were reused to an indignation of white heat at this deliberate breaking of d compromise which for thirty years had been thought to he as sacred as the provis- ions of the constitution itself. The declarations of the bill opened every foot of unorganized territory of the United States to the possibility of hav- ing imposed upon it the institution of human slavery, and it remitted the de- cisipn of the question to an uncertain. untutored floating vote of a shifting pioneer people forming the population of territory not yet incorporated in~ to a state. It transferred the decision from the congress of the United States. ! an intelligent and dignified legislature, to an unorganized, disorganized body of men among whom mob violence was certain to exist. subject to all sorts of improper influence and capable of un- scrupulous manipulation.
 If this be true, why do we com memorate the event? Why is there gathered here so much of the Intelli- gence and patriotism of the great state of Kansas? We rejoice today that the bill, which was enacted into a law fif- ty years ago. instead of accomplishing the purpose of those who voted for 1t. marked the beginning of the end of the controversy which eliminated from our social system the cancer of human slavery and permits us as citizens of the United States to look the world in the face when we proclaim our nation al love of freedom and civil libe-ty. The Kansas-Nebraska bill was the last great step of the slave power be- fore actual secession, which showed to the doubtful and hesitating north the present extremity to which the institu- | ton of slavery could bring its support CTS and it reused the north to a state of virtuous resentment, whic> three de- cades of abolition propaganda had failed to stir
 Secretary Taft reviewed slavery and ! the causes leading up to it's abolition He told of the border ruffian wars in Kansas and the efforts necessary to be used by the Kansas authorities to
 wrest the state from the grip of pro- slavery advocates, who. he said. came over the line from Missouri and by
 their illegal votes sought to control the | situation.