The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-08-30

Kansas. Decide for yourself as to
whether you shall be slave or free,
made an armed conflict here newt
able.
The Fight for Freedom.
1T came John Brown came to
Kansas that year He became an ac-
tive participant in affairs from the
beginning. He was fearless and dar-
Ing, thoroughly imbued with the idea
that slavery was inherently wrong and
that all men should everywhere be
| free. The battle of Osawatomie, fifty
years ago today was an insignificant
sl1irmish. but 1t helped to show the
country the impossibility of settling
the slavery question by compromise
Four hundred men from Missouri at
tackled this little village which was
destroyed, only four houses being left
unin1ured. IT was an incident in Dor
der warfare, but it pointed the way in
which the people of the nation had to
walk Fraud in elections was not
tamely submitted to by these early
settlers of Kansas. Ordinarily they
were peaceful and la-w-abiding but
the scenes which they witnessed along
this border made It impossible for
them to obey laws or abide by election
results which followed the grossest
frauds. One governor succeeded an
other in rapid succession, all of them
however. endeavering to force slavery
upon people the majority of whom
were for freedom.
you early settlers of Kansas vivid
| " remember how near to success came
the effort to make Kansas slave
state. The Lecompton constitution
was framed, but never submitted to the
people for ratification. The single
question submitted was whether they
were for the constitution with or with
out slavery BY this time, the loyal
people OF Kansas had determined that
It was useless to vote in competition
with those who came to Kansas across
the Missouri border and so very few
votes were cast in favor of the Lee
compton constitution without slavery.
President Buchanan sent the constitu-
tion to congress for its approval, stat
ing in his message that Kansas was as
much slave state as Georgia or
South Carolina. The whole force of
the administration was rallied to Sc
cure from congress an approval of the
constitution. If it had been DONE
Kansas would have been admitted as
a slave state. That it was not was due
/ largely to one man in the senate.
Rarely has one senator occupied a po-
siuon of so much power To Stephen
A Douglas the credit is due for the
4 defeat of the Lecompton constitution.
/ He could not defeat It in the senate,
1 for only two senators of his party
voted with him on the final vote, but
I the opposition was so strong in the
/ house that bill could not be passed. To
save It from defeat, an amendment was
1 PAeASGQ CAl II piONlG4AtE 4OI lie S0D1liAo-
\ sion of the constitution to the people
! OF Kansas for their approval or rejec-
j ton. Everyone knew what the result
would be. There was a fair vote that
time and the constitution was over
whelmingly defeated. John Brown
lived TO see the failure of this last de-
/ termined effort to make Kansas a
slave state. The next year he gave up
1 his life in desperate and daring at
4 tempt to give freedom to the slave.
John Brown fought here that Kansas
might be free and he died for freedom
everywhere.
1t Ended Best for All.
mo one can fully measure the value
or the results of these early conflicts
in Kansas. If the people of Kansas
/ had meekly submitted to the outrages
that were perpretrated, the conscience
of the nation might not have been
| quickened. These early encounters in
this state impressed the people of the
| whole nation with the gravity Of the
conflict and finally resulted in the cleo
/ ton Of Abraham Lincoln, the preser-
walton of the Union and the destruc-
ton of human slavery.
And SO it is that today we meet
| here not 10 revive the animosities and
! bitterness of those early struggles, not
to review the incidents of the war but
1 to impress upon the people of Kansas
/ and the people of the country that on
this soil the great struggle for the ex-
termination of slavery really began. It
! is, indeed, appropriate that we should
4 have with US today the vice president
/ of a reunited country. In the fifty years
| that have passed not only has slavery
been banisheG from our domain, but the
nation has grown in wealth, power and
/ influence, until it is second to none.
If the war had been unsuccessful and
/ the union divided, there would have
been a t first a slave republic and a free
| republic side by side By this time
| there would have been other secessions
and instead of one nation with one flag
we would have had several nations with
several flags. All Of them would have
been weak and powerless and none
| would have had any influence among
the nations of the earth.
J Il am glad, personally, to have the
! privilege of being with you today. As
a boy, I was attracted to Kansas by
reading about your early struggles.
| They appealed to me as they did to
| thousands of young men throughout the
! country ! was born in an eastern state
and was taken when a child to Missouri
| AS soon as I was old enough to move
myself, I crossed the border and came
to Kansas. I came to this county and
for time taught school in sight of this
i town. I know many Of you personally
and am happy to meet you here today.
I esteem it great privilege to particl-
| pate with you in these exercises and to
refer to the incidents and events which
| occurred here and in the surrounding
| country. I trust that what has happen
| ed here today will cause US to appreciate
! more highly what the early settlers of
| the state did to make Kansas free and
! great, and may our attendance here help
and assist US to consecrate ourselves to