The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-05-31

flict, which afterwards draped our
land in mourning and filled our
theater of action and bone of conten-
ton. Here's where the preliminary
battles for freedom were fought and
won during the border-ruffian war. In
1861, when the storm burst forth in
all its fury, and President Lincoln
called on the lovers of liberty to rally
around their standard and march to
the rescue of the union, Kansas was
the first state, or rather territory, to
place her gallant soldiers in the front
ranks of the army.
Born in tribulation, Graded in the
arms OF justice, and favored by the
providence of God in her struggling
infancy, Kansas stepped into the I'm
ion, and to indicate her tragic birth
and noble aspirations, she had inscrib-
ed on her banner as the motto of her
sovereignty, the words, Ad astra, per
aspera.' Words never to be forgotten.
They have been written in her history
in characters of blood; they have been
engraved on her great seal of state,
to be transmitted to generations yet
to come a lasting monument ito her,
glory. With record Ike hers
crowded with the glorious achieve
ments of the past, we refer with pride
to the fact that in the beginning of
the struggle, her virgin soil was trod-
den, marked by the footprints and
hallowed by the presence of that mar
tyr, whose name gave inspiration in
song to the grand armies of the Union,
from the bugle call to arms until they
closed in triumph at Appomattox, the
work begun by John Brown of Osa-
watomie. ,.
Memories Are Still Alive.
Some of the men who answered
to the roll call then do not answer
now. but memories of them are still
alive.
Our home coming was an event
n hOf Tory
we had won glorious victories, joy be-
cause we were going home, joy be-
cause We had abolished oppression;
and sorrow because after the surren-
der and before our muster out, a dark
shadow fell across our pathway. The
stealthy tread of the assassin's foot
step had marked the secret walks of
the nation, and our beloved president
the big-hearted, Hberal-minded, pa
triot and gentle-natured statesman,
Abraham Lincoln, had fallen at the
hand of a vile degenerate, whose
name we scorn to mention, and had
gone to join the three hundred thou
sand men we had lost on southern
battIefieldA.
Sorrow, because the three hundred
thousand had not been spared to re-
turn with us to their love ones at
home. We were compelled to leave
them in the south and, oh, my coun-
trymen what sorrow there was!
Death Entered Homes Also.
"Our return was a happy one to
those who had no sorrow, but they
were few. In many cases sad changes
had taken place in our absence. Death
had not been confined to the hospital,
the battlefield and the prison den, but
had invaded the sacred precincts of
home and taken away loved ones.
Father, or mother, or sister or broth
err had been taken away"
Col c.. N Bacon called the meeting
to order, and Captain c. H. Titus was
master of ceremo nies.
The musical program was appro-
pirate to the occasion. The Modoc
club sang patriotic airs; a vocal solo
was rendered by Mrs. Grace Bacon
Burr, the "Star Spangled Banner"
was sung by the school children, and
a vocal solo was rendered by Dana
Parkhurst. NJ. C. Holman led in the
singing.