The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-10-28

The volumes throw much light on
events that happened in the Blue
Grass commonwealth which had a
great bearing on the development of
the nation. In them us told how 1t
was the agitation in kentucky that
caused jefferson to make the Louisi-
ana Purchase which gave to the ma
ton the whole of the middle west.
The Kentucky agitation, it Is ex-
planned, was prompted by a desire to
make certain the navigation of the
Mississippi river by placing it wholly
within the borders of the United
States and giving this country con-
troll of the New Orleans mouth har-
bors.
In the history are accurate accounts
of the struggle that was waged in Ken
lucky when slavery and abolition tore
the nation asunder. of the heroic eff
forts made by a Kentuckian, Henry
Clay. to avert the Civil War, and of
the way Kentucky divided her heart
and her sons when the bloody conflict
came, giving half to the North and
half to the South. And in the giving
she gave Abraham Lincoln to the
North and jefferson Davis to the
South.
Also. the history corrects a widely
circulated error which has caused
thousands to believe that the word
Kentucky" meant Dark and Bloody
Ground. Mr.. Connelley, who also is
an Indian scholar and an adopted
Wyandotte Indian. explains that the
word, Kentucky" means The Land
of Tomorrow"
Mr.. Connelley also tells how the real
vision of the true republican form of
government began in Kentucky when
the pioneers who had crossed the AL
leghanies demanded more freedom and
separated from Virginia and wrote
their state constitution and began the
development of the spirit of democ-
racy and freedom which has been de-
veloped to its highest point in such
states as Kansas and Missouri, which
were largely settled by Kentuckians
who moved onward towards the set
ting sun
The part that Kentuckians have
played in the westward march of civil
ization is touched upon and there is
told how from Missouri, the Daugh-
ter of Kentucky" the pioneers over
the old Southwest trial opened up
trade with Mexico and filled in the
gap that carried civilization to the Pa
cific,
A Native of Kentucky.
Mr.. Connelley is a native of Ken
lucky and is perhaps Kentucky's most
distinguished writer on historical sub
jects. A son of the Connelley family
that helped to settle Charleston,
South Carolina. his family moved into
Virginia after the Revolutionary war
and then moved on into Kentucky in
1910.
Mr.. Connelley was born in johnson
county, kentucky. in 1855. and lived
thru as a lad the trials of the Civil
war period. He came to Kansas in
1881 and first lived at Bonner Springs.
For the last forty years he has been
collecting data for his Kentucky his
tory and when it was finally decided
upon publication he made most elabo-
rate plans for getting every available
document that would add to the worth
of the work. f. NJ. Coulter. of the
University of Georgia, was employed
and gent to Washington, where he
went thru the Breckenridge and other
documents on Kentucky in the library
of congress. Mr.. Connelley and Coul=
ter made a special investigation of
the records of the Wisconsin State
Historical society and together they
made a search OF the Ruben Durrett
documents in Chicago. Mr.. Connelley
made several trips to Kentucky and
obtained additional information.
much of which came from old fami-
lies and from the collection of the
Henry Clay family,