USA > Kansas > A standard history of Kansas and Kansans, Volume II > Part 26
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Another paper in reply to the charge that the prohibition amendment and the amendment repealing the $200 tax exemption were put through by combination makes the following statement: "The truth is that the prohibition amendment originated with the enemies of temperance in the Senate, where it was passed as a substitute for the legislation asked for . by the friends of the cause. When it went to the House the temperance men finally concluded to accept it, and make their fight on that line before the public. Finding it was that or nothing, they concluded to take what they could get., Thereupon the whisky men turned round and undertook to defeat the amendment also, but failed. There was no com- bination in the matter at all. The proposed amendments were passed separately, and each on its own supposed merits."
The New Year brought an increased activity among temperance work- ers, meetings were held in every village and hamlet, distinguished lecturers were in the field and the campaign was in full swing. News- papers were discussing every phase of the proposed amendment. Poli- tics were entering into the fight. St. John was called a "meddlesome governor" and the attacks upon him were continuous. In the minds of many people the governor and the prohibitory amendment meant almost
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the same thing. In spite of repeated denials the opposition papers con- tinually harped on the effort that was being made to put a prohibition plank into the Republican platform, and make it a party issue. The prohibition papers were quite as unreasonable, anyone who was not in favor of the amendment was a "whiskyite" and a "gin-slinger," and there was no truth in him ; he was a menace to society and had no place in the state body politie. Friends of the cause were called upon to see to his political downfall. By the latter part of January public sentiment had been lashed to a high degree of feeling.
On January 21st the liquor dealers inaugurated a public campaign by organizing the People's Grand Protective Union of Kansas. The meeting was attended "by a body of men, who taken as a whole, are not to be exceeded in respectability of character and material responsibility by any other voluntary organization in the whole State; men who know- ing their rights dare, and have the ability to maintain them; men of large stake in the country, and therefore the most desirous of preserving constitutional order . they come from all parts of the state and will exercise their individual as well as their collective influence in their several localities."
There were present at this meeting 125 delegates from over the state, many interested in the canse. The resolutions adopted were as follows :
Resolved-That the Prohibition Amendment of the constitution of the State of Kansas, if adopted, would be a law, in its practical applica- tion, far beyond the public sentiment of the people, and would be in- operative, that its adoption would take the whole subject of Temperance out of the power of the Legislature, leaving the people without remedy. Laws so stringent that they cannot be enforced, are destructive of all good, because they teach men not to respect the restraining power of the law. The laws now upon the Statutes of the State, are as stringent as can be enforced. and may be amended or repealed as public interest or public sentiment shall demand. The amendment if adopted, would do what no Constitution of any state in this Union now does; it would legalize the manufacture and sale of liquor, unrestrained by law, and the liquor once purchased and in the hands of the purchaser, its use cannot be controlled; thereby offering a premium to falsehood, perjury and in- temperance.
Interviews were given out by prominent liquor dealers of Leaven- worth and elsewhere in which it was stated that the People's Grand Pro- tective Union had money to spend on the campaign to defeat St. John and the prohibitory amendment. It was claimed that the governor was using the amendment to carry himself into a second term.
Subordinate Unions of the People's Protective Union had been organ- ized and the opposition papers were filled with encouraging reports from every Union. The central committee of the Union, with offices in Topeka, sent out statements of the flourishing condition of the association. Of their financial backing, and of the "Numerous letters and telegraphic dispatches received, full of encouragement, from friends of equal rights in other states, breathing the true spirit of loyalty to the Nation and to its constitutional and free government, and extending the best sympa-
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thy of the writers to the Union, in the struggle now before it." Similar letters and dispatches were received from "individuals of known reputa- tion for private and publie worth, pledging their support in most encour- aging terms." Every public meeting of the central committee of the Union brought forth an outburst of rhetoric from its supporting news- papers. The high moral tone of its platitudes spread over the state. Its sympathizers demanded a slaughter of all temperance candidates. Tabu- lations were published showing the amount of grain used by distilleries, the number of men employed, the cost of labor, and the taxes paid to the government. It was repeatedly published of the Union that it was "a strong organization, and meant business." All of which was true, but its "organization" was late in the field, and it underestimated publie sentiment.
The Kansas State Journal, George W. Reed, editor, was the organ of the liquor dealers while the Topeka Daily Capital under Maj. Hudson was the staunch supporter of the prohibitionists. Each aceused the other in furious editorials, and indulged in the bitterest personalities. It was claimed that money was being sent into the state from Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri and Iowa with which to buy up newspapers and conventions in order to defeat the prohibition amendment. A return charge was that the State Temperance Union was using money for St. John's campaign that had been sent to help carry the amendment. The following pur- ported to have been copied from the New York Independent, of date some time during July or August, 1880: "Ye who have money to spare, hear the voices from Kansas that ery for help, and draw your checks at sight, forwarding the same to Gov. St. John or Rev. A. M. Richardson, of Law- renee, the first president, and the second the secretary of the war depart- ment that carries on the battle. How a few thousand dollars would brace them for a harder fight."
A temperance paper at Newton claimed that it had received an anonymous letter "threatening us with dire destruction of property and maltreatment of person if we don't mind our own business and let the whisky interests alone."
Gov. ROBINSON AGAINST PROHIBITION
Topeka was said to be the headquarters of the "whisky ring" and papers over the state were placing nearly every candidate under suspi- eion from one side or the other. Speakers were hurried here and there, and debates were the order of the moment. Gov. St. John, Sidney Clarke and others were prominent on the affirmative side, while ex-Governor Charles Robinson and S. N. Wood were the leaders of the negative.
In a debate at the Bismarck meeting Gov. Robinson spoke of his own record and of the practical temperance of his life. IIe said that he felt this ought to insure him freedom from the attacks of the temperanee people. Ile made the usual points that the exceptions in the amendment would make the liquor traffie free-that local option was the best pre- ventive of drunkenness. John B. Finch of Nebraska replied to him.
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After these two speeches the meeting resolved that its faith in the wisdom and efficacy of "our" contemplated prohibitory "experiment" was unshaken, rather "materially strengthened" and they also reaffirmed their implicit confidence in the personal and official integrity of Gov. John P. St. John.
The National Christian Temperance Union met at Bismarck Grove, August 26 and 27, "it is the solemn duty of every temperance advocate from every state and territory to flock to the standard and lend assistance during the momentous crisis. (Kansas) will be a beacon light leading her sister states to the same harbor of safety and sunshine," was the admonition to temperance workers. This meeting brought into the state Frances Willard, J. Ellen Foster, Miss Youmans, Maj. George Woodford, and many more prominent temperance speakers. After the meeting they made a round of speeches through the state contributing much to the brilliancy of the campaigns.
Meanwhile the State conventions of the parties were being held and prohibition and anti-prohibition lines were being more closely drawn. The Republican party refused to incorporate the prohibitory amendment as a party measure in its platform. The Capital in commenting on it says : "An entirely unnecessary omission . . and one that has created much unfavorable comment, is the absence of a plank on temper- ance. . Whatever may have been the motive, or whether there was any motive at all, . the impression that goes abroad is that the issue was dodged-that like the late Greenback and Democratie con- ventions, the Republicans were afraid to take the bull by the horns." Col. Jennison tried to force a resolution through the Republican State convention after the nomination of St. John, pledging the party to an enthusiastic support of its nomince "because of his devotion to the cause of temperance and prohibition," and because his "nomination is due to his vigorous opposition to the traffic in intoxicating drinks." No action was taken on the suggestion, however.
As election day drew nearer more aggressive work than ever was done by the temperance element. At the other extreme was a surprising inertness on the part of the liquor dealers. Whether they were lulled to a false security by the action of the Republicans in refusing to endorse the amendment or whether their money gave out, is hard to prove. But soon after the Republican convention, which was September 3rd, their own newspapers ceased publishing vituperative editorials, and open let- ters were no longer to be read on their sheets. However the evening before the election they circulated at Topeka a circular addressed "to the Voters of Kansas" saying that "The falsely so-called 'Temperance Party' or 'St. Johnites,' have presented the question of a prohibitory amendment to the State Constitution, forever outlawing the manufacture and use as a beverage, of alcoholic liquors. Let the voters of Kansas stop and reflect upon the effect of the passage of this amendment." The arguments used in the body of the circular were those which they invariably used. The law was an innovation, derogatory to public liberty, it was "sumptuary and gustatory," it would retard immigration,
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depreciate farm values, and engender bitterness and contention and finally it would involve an endless and expensive litigation. The tem- perance people did not abate their activity a partiele. Clergymen were asked to deliver on the Sunday before election, sermons on prohibition, and there was a very general response to the request. In some churches it was almost a day of prayer and fasting. The last issnes of the tem- perance newspapers. especially those established for work during the campaign, were full of warnings and advice. The Lawrence Palladium
MRS. CARRIE A. NATION, THE FAMOUS SALOON SMASHER AND ADVOCATE OF PROHIBITION
[Copy by Willard of Portrait in Library of Kansas State Historical Society ]
said, "Don't hesitate to serateh every doubtful name-vote for no one whose record on this question is not beyond dispute-pay little attention to mere party lines. Be sure of your men, no matter to what party they belong! The other side will vote their principles regardless of party. So far as our state election is concerned, it is a square fight between the prohibitionists and the anti-prohibitionists."
VICTORY AT THE POLLS
The day of reckoning was at last at hand, the votes were cast and when the returns were made up it was found that the vote for the amend-
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ment was 92,302, while the vote against was 84,304; it had carried by 7,998 votes. The first battle had been won and it now remained for the newly elected Legislature to justify the faith of its constituents and crystallize into law the spiritual force that had swept the state.
THE BANNER
As a farewell the Temperance Banner, a paper established at Osage Mission in the interest of the prohibition movement, published the follow- ing editorial in its last issue, November 11, 1880:
GOOD-BYE
Over two years ago we started the BANNER in the interest of Con- stitutional Prohibition, and have urged the measure in our weakness with all the energy we possessed. The battle has been fought, and the result is before our readers.
We had a single purpose in view when we embarked in the news- paper business. Our eye has been steadily fixed upon that objeet. Our readers can judge how nearly we hit the mark.
If the BANNER has added a blessing to any home, or benefited our fellow man. we have our reward. If it has not, we rest content in the consciousness of having performed our duty according to the light we had. That we have made mistakes, is evidence of our humanity.
We are grateful to the editorial fraternity for the courtesy extended to us and shall ever look upon the past two years of our life with pleas- ant memories. While we verily believe that we have given a valuable consideration for all we received, yet we extend our hearty thanks to all our patrons for favors they have so liberally bestowed upon us, and while the newspaper enterprise has not paid us a financial consideration, the experience has been a valuable schooling for us. We have learned some- thing of the blackest and brightest phases of human character. We have come in contact with men whose souls have been steeped in avaricious selfishness until they are withered and shriveled up so small that they could fly through the eye of a cambric needle four-abreast. We have met others whose hearts swelled with philanthropie sentiments and sent forth an electric current of human kindness that inspired us with new hopes, new desires and grander purposes.
We fold our tent in peace, camp on the field, rest on our arms, sleep in security, to be awakened at the first sound of Gabriel's trumpet.
CHAPTER LV
GEORGE W. GLICK
BY MRS. EDITH CONNELLEY ROSS
George W. Glick was born at Greencastle, Fairfield County, Ohio, July 4, 1827. He was of German extraction, his great-grandfather having come to America from Germany in time to fight in the war of the Revolution. His father was prominent in local polities, and the boy learned much of honorable public service early in his youth. When he was five years old the family removed to a farm near Fremont, Ohio. Here he lived till he was twenty-one. He received a good education, and showed himself to be of a studious and practical disposition.
When twenty-one years old he entered the office of Buckland and Hayes, as a law student. Two years later he was admitted to the bar with the Cincinnati Law School students by the Supreme Court. He immediately opened an office in Fremont, where his intelligence and capacity for hard work gained him a rapidly growing patronage. He later removed to Sandusky City, where, in 1858, he was nominated for Congress for his district, by the Democrats. He declined the honor, but the same year, ran for State Senator. In this venture he was defeated. Later he was elected Judge Advocate General of the Second Regiment, Seventeenth Division of Ohio Militia, ranking as a Colonel.
In 1858 he was married to Miss Elizabeth Ryder, of Fremont. Two children were born of this union, a son, Frederick, and a daughter, Jennie.
Late in the year of 1858. Glick came to Kansas, and settled in Atehi- son. He became the partner of Mr. Alfred G. Otis in a law business. The firm was very successful and continued until 1873, when an affection of the throat compelled Glick to discontinue the business.
Glick was a soldier in the Second Kansas Militia, under Colonel M. Quigg. He was wounded at the battle of the Big Blue.
Gliek was elected to the Legislature of 1863. He was re-elected in 1864, 1865, 1866, 1868, 1874, 1876, and 1882. In the session of 1876 he held the position of Speaker pro tem, in which place he evinced great fairness and wisdom. Also, in this year, he was appointed Treasurer of Managers of the Centennial Exposition by Governor Osborn, which place he ably filled.
Glick was always a firm Demoerat, and was sent by that party as a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions of 1856, 1868. 1884, and 1892. In 1868 he had been nominated for Governor by his party,
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and, though sure of defeat, he answered the party call, and ran. Again in 1882 he was nominated, and entered heartily into a most strenuous campaign. This time he was elected, over great odds, defeating Governor St. John, the Republican candidate, for a third term. He entered upon his administration in 1883. It was an administration marked by economy, foresight, and fairness. In spite of party prejudices this has been generally admitted.
Kansas had grown so prosperous, that, in 1884, aid was sent by the
Gov. GEORGE W. GLICK [Copy by Willard of Portrait in Library of Kansas State Historical Society ]
farmers of the State to the flood-sufferers of Ohio. Sixty-one carloads of corn, the golden treasure of Kansas, were shipped that year, for charity. Also a trainload of corn was shipped by the Kansas G. A. R. to aid in building a Confederate Soldiers IIome, in Virginia.
Governor Gliek, while not favoring promiseuous dealing in intoxi- eants that had existed before the Prohibitory law passed, considered the act premature, rash, and unwise. So he recommended the re-submission of the Prohibitory amendment. Nothing came of it.
On March 31, 1883, the Executive Council of Kansas appointed the
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first Board of Railroad Commissioners, consisting of three members for the State of Kansas.
On the eighteenth of March, 1884, a special session of the Legislature was called to deal with the "foot and mouth disease," prevalent to an alarming degree among the cattle. Few bills other than those relating to the cattle situation were passed at this session.
In 1884 the Government of the United States established at Law- rence, a school for training and educating the Indians. This school is known as Haskell Institute.
During Governor Glick's administration, the State Woman's Suffrage Association was organized. It was at this time, also, that Congress passed an act establishing a National Soldiers Home at Leavenworth.
At the election of 1884 Governor Glick was again the Democratic nominee. But the Republican candidate, Jolm A. Martin, was elected. In 1885, Governor Glick was appointed Pension Agent, at Topeka, by President Cleveland, to which office he was reappointed when Mr. Cleve- land again came into office. IIe served several terms as President of the State Board of Agriculture, and in 1908 was President of the State His- torical Society. His life, after his retirement from politics, was spent alternately between his home in Atchison and an orange grove which he owned in Florida. In the winter of 1910, he fell, while at that place, and sustained the injury of a broken hip. His advanced age made it impossible for him to recover, and after a year of suffering, he died, on the thirteenth of April, 1911. He was eighty-three years old.
Governor Glick was an honorable, upright man. He gave freely of the best that was in him for the good of the State whose destinies he was guiding. Republicans and Democrats heartily agree as to the honesty, foresight, and kindness of Governor Glick.
The Legislature which met in 1913 appropriated the sum of $6,000 for a marble statue of Governor Glick to be placed in Statuary Hall, Washington. This statue was placed in the Hall June 24, 1914, and formally accepted July 18, 1914.
CHAPTER LVI
JOHN A. MARTIN
BY MRS. EDITH CONNELLEY ROSS
John A. Martin, tenth Governor of Kansas, was born at Brownsville, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, March 10, 1839. He received a fair education in the common branches, and in his youth perfected himself in the printer's art. In 1857 he was in the office of the Commercial Journal at Pittsburgh. During the fall of that year he came to Kansas, a boy of only 19 years. But his experiences in the early days tended to make him a man in courage and intelligence-in everything but years.
Martin worked a few months in the office of the Squatter Sovereign at Atchison, and then entered the service of James Redpath as a com- positor on the Crusader of Freedom. In the fall of 1858, he purchased the Squatter Sovereign and changed its name to the Freedom's Cham- pion. This newspaper he conducted till the day of his death, and its columns were always devoted to the cause of the oppressed. Later, the name of the paper was again changed, this time to the Atchison Champion.
Martin was a fervent Free-State man, and an enthusiastic Republican. Kansas was quick to see the value of such a man, and in 1859 Martin was elected Secretary of the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention- an honor and responsibility coveted by much older men. This was before he was twenty-one years old. He served as a delegate to the Territorial Convention of 1860, at Lawrence, and later in that year was sent to the Chicago National Convention. In 1859 he was elected State Senator from Atchison and Brown counties. Thus he was a member of the First State Legislature.
In the summer of 1861 Martin helped organize the Eighth Kansas Infantry, of which he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel. He served on the Missouri border during the fall and winter of 1861. In 1862 he was made Provost-Marshal of Leavenworth, and he went in command of his regiment to Corinth in March of that year.
Colonel Martin fought gallantly all through the Civil War. He was with four great armies during that time-the Army of the Frontier, the Army of the Mississippi, the Army of the Ohio, and the Army of the Cumberland. IIe was present at the battle of Missionary Ridge, where his heroic fighting was as gallant as in his numerous other battles. Soon after being mustered out, at the close of the war, he was brevetted Brigadier-General, for gallant and meritorious service.
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Colonel Martin always retained his love for his old comrades and was always certain of their unfaltering loyalty. He was the first Depart- ment Commander of the G. A. R. in Kansas, and was always active in any service for the veterans. The Soldiers Orphans Home at Atchison was in a great measure due to his labors. In 1878 he was appointed on the Board of Managers of the National Soldiers' Homes.
On June 1, 1871, he married Miss Ida Challis. Seven children were born to them.
Gov. JOHN A. MARTIN
[Copy by Willard of Portrait in Library of Kansas State Historical Society ]
In 1884 Colonel Martin was elected Governor of Kansas, and in 1886 he was re-elected. The beginning of his administration was very difficult, and he was besieged by hordes of office-seekers. This, on account of the previous Democratic administration.
At first, Governor Martin was not a prohibitionist, but in time, as he saw the beneficial effects of prohibition, he became converted to be one of its most ardent champions. During Governor Martin's administra- tion six educational institutions were established in Kansas, and 182 school houses were built in 1887. Also, the State Reformatory was located at Hutchinson, and opportunities for reform were provided for Vol. II-16
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young law-breakers. During this administration, The Annals of Kansas, a compilation of Kansas history extremely valuable, was written and published by D. W. Wilder.
In March of 1886, a strike and serious disturbances on the Missouri- Pacific Railroad, in Missouri and Kansas, demanded the attention of Governor Martin. Rioting caused the Governor to send the First Kansas Militia to the scene of action. After being the cause of great incon- veniences and suffering, the strike was settled in April.
A bill was passed by the Legislature of 1887, conferring on women of Kansas the right to vote at school, bond, and municipal elections. This was one of the first steps toward the complete suffrage the State enjoys today.
Kansas had steadily progressed in prosperity and her towns and broad farming lands had increased immensely in value. This led to a "Boom" during which magnificent cities were erected-on paper-real towns increased in size. Many syndicates were organized to deal in Kansas real estate. Long blocks of buildings were erected in unneces- sary towns, and the prairie was long after dotted with rusting pipes and hydrants-the only tangible evidences of these useless towns. The end of 1888 saw the great Kansas "boom" collapse, and, as this year had also had a failure of crops, Kansas experienced a panic. But this check in prosperity was comparatively brief.
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