Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1911-10-05

moved on the shores OF the Atlantic,
to take up the case against Missouri
and make the fight for freedom
against slavery. 1t could not have
done this, | think, but for an asso-
citation of remarkable men who car
ried on the fight with persistence, a
shrewdness, tenacious purpose, and
clear line Of progress that has never
been eXcelled so far as | know of in
this country's history or any other.
Eli Thayer, Charles Robinson and
Amos Lawrence, all of Massachusetts,,
were the triumvirate who defeated
the purposes of the pro-slavery men
in the Kansas-Nebraska bill and the
repeal of the Missouri compromise
and made Kansas free state They
conceived the idea that they would
promote immigration into Kansas
from the Northern states of men hav-
ing no sympathy with slavery, under
the auspices of the Emigrant Aid So
ciety, and that they would increase
the anti-slavery element in Kansas to
such point that they must make her
free The violence with which their
efforts were INSTRUCTED, the desperate
methods resorted to by the Missouri
cabal that sought to prevent this
emigration and the bloody lawless-
ness that prevailed for a full five
years in Kansas present a picture
that finds no counter part anywhere
else in the settlement of this country.
Finally, the Lecompton constitu.
ton was adopted, known as such be-
cause adopted at Lecompton, in
which the issue of slavery or nom
slavery was left to the voters, and
was overwhelmingly defeated. Rob-
inson, at the head of the free state
movement, exhibited a wonderful
shrewdness and nerve in keeping to-
gether the naturally warning elements
that were in favor of free state.
kansas was admitted to the Union
as free state with Charles Robin
son elected her governor on the 28th
of January, 1861; and her history
from the time of the passage of the
Kansas-Nebraska bill in 1854 until
that time was one of political chican-
cry, bloody violence, domestic turmoil
and popular suffering. The only
thread of high and consistent pur-
pose that can be traced through it's
history is that of Robinson and his
associates in maintaining the fight for
the free state with as much suppress
sion of violence on the part of their
partisans as they could effect, and
with a constant and renewed stirring
appeals to their supporters and SYM
pathizers of the North, based upon the
mfr nf ha CT nj co q
as they were committed. These ap-
peals brought the immigrants and Sc
cured the funds by which their pur-
pose was accomplished and their
cause made triumphant.
mo sooner did Kansas become a
state than they were plunged with
the rest of the nation into civil war.
Kansas furnished larger quota, con,
sidering her population, for Northern
army than any state of the Union. At
one time the governor wrote to the
president that more than half of all
the youths and men of the state be-
tween 10 and 60 years of age were in
the army.
"The civil war extended the time
during which Kansas was being born,
from half decade to a whole decade.
During this time it was impossible
for agriculture to prosper for enter
prise to be encouraged, for the popu-
lation to grow Not until 1866 when
the railroads began to be built did the
prosperity which is now in evidence
first showed itself. From 1854 to 1870, |
and later, of the 1874 to 1878 Indian |
hostilities brought about loss of at |
least 1000 Kansans. In 1874 came |
the invasion of locusts; and then in |
the half decade, between 1888 and |
1892, there was serious decline in |
the population-a loss of nearly 200,- |
600. The progress of the state was |
seriously checked. The cause was |
to be found chiefly in the collapse of |
building and loan speculations, in |
which there had been vast waste Of |
money. Fifteen years of unbroken |
prosperity had led to a reckless ex-
plotting of towns in eastern Kansas,
and there was a carnival issue OF |
bonds and contracting of sorts of liza !
bilities. More than this western Kan
sas suffered from the failure of the !
annual rain fall Many emigrants
ndu US6u JulGu lHlO lhS
region, towns were built up, but with |
the recurring droughts, the struggling |
settlers found starvation facing them;
they deserted their houses and their
towns, and western Kansas became |
again wide, unpopulated expanse.
Since that time the scientific |
knowledge of agriculture has in
creased to such point that the dry
farming of the semi-arid land of this
state is one of its great achievements,
and today we have Kansas prosper
Gus.
1.-THE trials through which the state
has come have undoubtedly given a
character to its inhabitants They are
bold and original in thought, cour-
ageous in execution. One may differ
with them in their conclusions either
upon politics or upon other topics,
but he must respect the sincerity and
the energy, independence and cour-
age with which they support their !
conclusions and carry them to their
logical result. 1t was to be expected |
that people of the enterprise and in
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