USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. I > Part 20
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53
"I claim for the members of that body, who framed a fundamental Jaw which has governed a state twenty-five years-years of marvelous growth and unex- ampled development-that time has demonstrated that they had a very fair con- ception of the wants, conditions and necessities of the people for whom they acted, and, notwithstanding the wonderful increase in population and production, that instrument has accelerated rather than retarded the growth that has never been equaled on the American continent.
"I doubt whether the men of to-day, any more than those of twenty-five years ago, have given a thought or entertained a conception of what a grand. glorious and prosperous commonwealth is building up among them, how this influx of people, how this everyday intercourse between people of different sections of our own widespread domain, how this exchange of ideas and methods, how all these things, animated and dominated by the Anglo-Saxon blood, are produeing on the prairies of Kansas a race of people and a condition of government and society that will make the state the 'chosen land' of the best type of American civilization; and will ever keep green and fresh the memory of the noble pioneers whose blood will bring 'God-like' fruition to the hopes, aspiration and ultimate destiny of the glorious young commonwealth."
CHAPTER XV.
FIFTY YEARS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.
SENATOR BRISTOW'S ADDRESS-GOVERNOR STUBBS ON "KANSAS"_ HENRY J. ALLEN'S ELOQUENCE-CONGRESSMAN MADISON'S TRIBUTE- WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE ON "THE OLD INSURGENTS"-JOHN H. AT- WOOD'S SPEECH.
A semi-centennial celebration of the adoption of the Wyandotte con- stitution by the people of Kansas was held in October, 1909, and, as was befitting an occasion of such historie importance, it was ordained that the celebration be held in Kansas City, Kansas, the metropolis of Kan- sas that grew from the little village of Wyandotte of 1859. It was held in the banquet hall of the great Scottish Rite temple adjoining the his- torie old burial ground of the Wyandot Indians, and under the aus- pices of the Mercantile Club. Many men of distinction in Kansas were guests and the glories of the commonwealth, and its triumphs under the Wyandotte constitution, were sung. At that time only five men who sat as delegates in the convention of fifty years before were living:
John T. Burris, delegate from Johnson county, residing at Olathe.
C. B. McClelland, delegate from Jefferson county, residing at Oskaloosa, Kansas.
R. C. Foster, delegate from Leavenworth county, residing at Den- nison, Texas.
B. F. Simpson, delegate from Lykins county, residing at Paola.
Samuel D. Houston, delegate from Riley county, residing at Salina. Mr. Ilouston, who died a few months after that celebration, was the only one of the five survivors that did not attend.
Mayor U. S. Guyer was the presiding officer and the speakers were Governor W. R. Stubbs, United States Senator J. L. Bristow, Congress- men E. Il. Madison, William Allen White, Henry J. Allen and John H. Atwood.
SENATOR BRISTOW'S ADDRESS.
"The City's Place in National Life," was the subject on which Senator Bristow spoke. "There is no state like Kansas," he said. "I ought to be permitted to talk a little about Kansas, although that sub-
160
161
HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
jeet was assigned to someone. They may jest about Kansas. They may say that we are erratie, that we are impulsive, that we are even in- sane in Kansas. But I would rather be insane in Kansas than sane in New York. There are things that they can't and don't say about Kan- sas. They can't say that we have not convictions ; they never say that we don't say what we think and act likewise. Kansas is not afraid of any set of men. Kansas is the product of the day on which she was born. In the early day we fought for human liberty and to-day we are fight- ing for political and commercial liberty. Why should not Kansas lead in renovating the morals of men and polities of the nation? In my heart I love Kansas and my ambition in public life is to do something that will add to the prosperity of the state and welfare of its people.
"This hearty reception, I think, is not so much for me personally as it is for some of the things I have been trying to stand for. In the olden days, in other countries, the nations began with the eities and their stone walls. The nation was not bnilded until the cities were ereeted. The history of the nations was the history of its cities.
"In our country it is different. The nation np to this day has been ruled by a rural people, not an urban people. In the past the cities have not been potent in the making of our laws. The legislation has been molded by the people from the farms and the villages. But the people are drifting rapidly to the city. The urban population is to play a great part in the future of this country. Municipal government is to be potent in the government of the nation. We are to rest our destiny on the patriotism of the city voters. In time they will control. The city governments must be clean if the national government is to be good.
"There is danger ahead. I know of the governments of two cities controlled by political machines that are outrageously corrupt. I know of only one political organization that is more wickedly and criminally corrupt than the Democrats in Tammany Hall in New York City and that is the Republican machine in the city of Philadelphia.
"I had thought that such rural influences in our polities as come from Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska and other agrieultural states of few larger cities would keep our national government clean, but in the last session of congress there was a signal of danger that is vital to our nation. "
GOVERNOR STUBBS ON "KANSAS."
The governor said that the citizens of Kansas should take an interest in the development of the Missouri river. "The Lord has done wonder- ful things for Kansas," he continued. "Ile has not done any greater thing for this state than to place a great canal over there on the eastern border. Don't yon know that seagoing vessels ought to be able to come up the river and touch on Kansas soil ? Vol. I-11
162
HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
"Kansas people should take an interest in this river improvement. The river should be used to distribute the produets of this state to the world. By improving the Missouri river you can make Kansas a greater state and make Kansas City, Kansas, a greater city. The river should be improved on a large seale, not a few miles a year. A river should be improved as a railroad is built. You do not build four or five miles of railroad a year. You survey the whole route and then strike out and build it for the whole distance as fast as you can.
"Let us make Kansas as sound as a bullet in its moral and business life. We have some great institutions in Kansas. We have the great- est university and the greatest agricultural college in the country.
"It appears that the United States is to have the model government of the world. If this is true Kansas should be the model state in this model nation. All over the state the cities are adopting the commission form of government. This is an encouraging sign. It means that the eities will not be a corrupting influence in the state as they are in so many other states.
"I am glad to see the citizens of the state taking a greater interest in Kansas City, Kansas. If you follow ont your progressive plans this city will have a population of 400,000 or 500,000 before many years are gone."
HENRY J. ALLEN'S ELOQUENCE.
To the enthusiasm of youth that painted the prairies of Kansas with their wealth of green and purple and gold, Henry J. Allen, a favorite of all Kansas word painters, added the philosophieal reflections of middle age in his address on "Sunny Kansas." "I am happy to be here in this eity to-night." he said at the beginning, "because it gives me an oppor- tunity to congratulate the people of Kansas City, Kansas, on the splen- did progress they are making. And I want to congratulate yon upon the fact that you have proved that a great city can be both prosperous and respetable at the same time. Here I find you are now, at this late season of the year, building three hundred and fifty new homes, and every hammer, in the hand of a workman on those homes, drives another nail into the lie that a town can't be built without saloons. We all love Kansas City, Kansas, and with every forward stride of the city our love increases. It's because it is our Kansas City, and in touch with everything that makes our state so dear to us." Mr. Allen talked of "dimpling valleys where rest the peaceful cities of Kansas; of broad aeres that yield abundantly ; of autumnal landscapes where the great artists of nature paints with deeper colors because of the prosperity of Kansas." "But," he added with a glow of enthusiasm, "the great- est of all the manifestations of sunshine in Kansas is in the character and the quality of our civilization. True, we are laughed at and are
163
IHISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
made the subject of jest, but when it comes to aente thinking we are not as dull as Rhode Island. We are alive and thinking-every man, woman, boy and girl in the state is thinking, and acquiring a wealth of ideas. We may not have the highest degree of sanity, but we have a high degree of mental activity. We take leadership.
"My friends," Mr. Allen said in closing his address, "the germ of our Kansas citizenship is the love we have for our state, for the town he helps to make, for the home he helps to build, for the trees and grass and flowers he plants. Teach the boys and girls to love their homes, their city, their state and their nation, and Kansas will have the best civilization of earth."
CONGRESSMAN MADISON'S TRIBUTE.
The subject of Congressman Edward H. Madison's address was "Kansas Under the Wyandotte Constitution." "There are some men here to-night," Mr. Madison said, "who ought to receive the homage of every man and woman in Kansas-venerable men who helped write the constitution of Kansas liberty. It is a great thing to participate in the building of a constitution for a great commonwealth. This Kan- sas constitution exists to-day practically as it was written in the old warehouse at the side of the river in old Wyandotte. They had the United States constitution for a model, and when they selected a consti- tution they selected one which ever since has stood for freedom and liberty.
"The constitution that these men framed had nothing of retro- gression. There was nothing in it that would have to be eradicated in the future in order that the state might exist. Like the United States constitution it dealt with broad principles and was a constitution that will endure. These men who assembled at Wyandotte formulated a magnificent charter of liberties. That constitution and the laws that were framed under it were an invitation to every God-fearing citizen, wherever he might be, to come to Kansas and make his home.
"The Kansas constitution and Kansas laws have made it a great state. A few years ago they were denouncing us all over the country as a set of cranks because we had adopted a prohibitory law. Now every state in the Union is following our example. Kansas essentially
is, and always will be, a state of farmers. The great problems of this state are not settled in the cities but by the farmers in the country .. These men have declared against the saloon just as the men who assem- bled here fifty years ago declared against human slavery. And one will not return to Kansas any sooner than the other. There is another reform that has come to Kansas that is going to stay. That is the pri- mary election law. The reason that its going to stay is because its fundamentally and absolutely right."
164
HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
Mr. Madison elosed his address with a plea for fairness to the rail- roads which pushed ont into Kansas in advance of civilization, and asked that they be shown appreciation for their help in opening up the country.
WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE ON "THE OLD INSURGENTS."
"We have met to-night to celebrate the semi-centennial anniversary of the adoption of the Wyandotte constitution of the state of Kansas," William Allen White said. "That constitution is the fundamental law of our state. It is not a sacred document. It is human and faulty, now more or less out of date, and it has been considerably amended for its betterment. But when it was adopted that constitution stood for one big thing-the overthrow of slavery in the west. . It was a Free State constitution. It marked the close of fifty years of compromise on the question of slavery and brought on the 'irresponsible confliet.' And we are gathered here to honor the memory of the men who, through the long dark years of the contest, struggled to make Kansas a free state. They did not believe in freedom as a political precept. They fought slavery as a great moral wrong, with no thought of party solidarity. They battled for the eternal right as their conscience saw the right. They left party; left friends, left home and ties of blood; they risked their personal liberties and disdained to save their own lives, for the blessed privilege of fighting in the great combat. £ They were the old
Kansas insurgents. It is difficult for us to realize to-day what odds
they fought against. For the forces of conservatism were entrenched. Those who stood pat on slavery, and who believed in the saered rights of property in human beings, had with them the constitution of the United States, the armies of the United States, the eourts of the United States. They had with them the respectable majority of the people
of the United States-the upper elasses of our society.
The old in-
surgents were unconstitutional. They were in rebellion against the arms of their country. They were disturbers of the publie peace. They were disreputable, law-breaking fanatics, who had only God's sheer justice on their side in that great struggle. They were denounced as visionaries. They were abused as enemies to the flag they loved. They were outcasts from the parties. They were hanged as traitors. Presi- dents sneered at them, courts banned them, and the smug forces they were fighting laughed the old insurgents to scorn; but they fought on. They were told that government is compromise, but they refused to compromise. They were told that the constitution of the United States was against them, and it was; but they did not yield or falter. They were defeated at the polls ; they were whipped in many a border battle. They saw their canse go down to defeat time and time again, but they did not desert it; for their faith in the ultimate triumph of justice was
165
HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
supreme. And so they won by their faith-won for Kansas and humanity.
"Now these things are recited here to point a moral and adorn a narrative. It seemed in the fifties, in Kansas, as if the established order had the world by the tail with a down-hill pull. But there is just one trouble with tail holds-the tail sometimes pulls out. The thing which latter-day seientists designate as an immortal cinch may lose its immor- tality as easily as a sixteen-year-old loses her hairpins. The einch of today is liable to become the thing we try to explain tomorrow. For is it not written-that nothing fails like success. Fifty years ago the sacred institution of private property in human beings was prancing down the corridors of time as closely as a traction engine. Then the corridors of time came up kerflop, and sent the sacred institution of private property in human beings scooting through oblivion like a buck- shot ont of a bean shooter. Today the sacred institution of private property in the vested right to gonge the American people in trusts and rebates and extortionate tariffs may do well to pick a convenient star to grab as it passes into the dazzling perihelion. For the sidewalk is going to begin to flop during the next ten years. There is something dynamie in faith. The old insurgents had faith; the others had the works; and the faith of those old boys blew up the whole works. That is what you might call faith without works.
"This is a queer world; man comes forth to battle declaring that God is on the side of the heaviest artillery, and lo! there is a sunken road that swallows the artillery. The unflinching heroes behind the brick wall at Ingemount, and the day is lost : a sacred institution eleets senators, controls presidents, writes laws, dominates constitutions, and behold a half erazed fanatie appears at Harper's Ferry, and 'his soul goes marching on.' And so today-the great financial forces that dominate our American politics should profit by these examples. If this be treason-don't shoot the pianist-he's doing his best. And in closing these remarks let me leave this parting thought: As our fathers won their fight by faith, so shall our faith today be justified. And in looking back to honor them, let us honor them by consecrating ourselves in the contest now before us, that we may become worthy bearers of a great heritage."
JOHN H. ATWOOD'S SPEECH.
A humorous description of the present political situation in Kansas. "This Kansas now is a veritable Republican paradise," he said. "The Republicans have always fought and flourished in Kansas. Glick and Leedy put them out a couple of years, but that did not stop the Kansas Republicans from fighting. Why look at 'Joe' Bristow, who has shied his castor even at the president ! It is not right that I,
166
HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
a poor, beaten, whipped Democrat should be here in company with these Republicans flushed with victory.
"Daniel Boone wasn't in it as an Indian fighter, compared with
Stubbs. Stubbs goes around burning the villages of good Republican Indians and he does it cheerfully, too. There is considerable turmoil, even in the ranks of the Republicans, in Kansas. That is pleasing to observe, but then comes the realization that it don't do the Democrats any good. They're getting more and more Republicans all the time. "There was a machine once here in Kansas. But these insurgents poured water in the machine's gasoline and poured sand in the bearings. Now the machine exists no more."
CHAPTER XVI.
BOUNDARY LINE FIGHT.
THE EAST BOUNDARY OF KANSAS-THE NORTH BOUNDARY-SOUTH- ERN BOUNDARY-WHEN COLORADO WAS A PART OF KANSAS-WYANDOTTE CONVENTION CUT OFF COLORADO-DEBATE ON THE WESTERN BOUNDARY -To CUT OFF "SHORT GRASS" COUNTRY-OBJECTED TO THE MINING REGIONS-A PATHWAY TO THE MOUNTAINS-PART OF NEBRASKA WANTED TO BE IN KANSAS-NEBRASKA'S MANY CAPITALS -- WOULD MAKE THE PLATTE THE BOUNDARY-NEBRASKA'S DELEGATES TO WYANDOTTE- DEFEAT OF THE PLAN-KANSAS PAPERS INDIFFERENT-A MISSOURI OPINION OF KANSAS-STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS' SPEECHI-BEN SIMPSON'S DEFENSE OF THE BOUNDARIES-THE CONVENTION DID RIGHT-KANSAS CITY LOST ITS OPPORTUNITY-KANSAS THE " MIDDLE SPOT" OF NORTH AMERICA.
When the constitutional convention met in Wyandotte in July, 1859, one of the great questions before it for consideration was that of deciding how much of the area then embraced in the territory of Kansas should be included in the state that was soon to be admitted into the Union. The territory of Kansas at that time, as established by the act of congress of May 30, 1854, extended west from the western boundary line of the state of Missouri to the summit of the Rocky mountains, or the Continental Divide, a little west of Leadville and nearly to the east line of Utah, embracing the larger portion of the present state of Colo- rado ; while the northern and southern boundaries were respectively the fortieth and thirty-seventh parallels of north latitude, the same as now. Technically, according to the congressional act, the boundaries of the territory of Kansas were: "Beginning at a point on the western boundary of the state of Missouri, where the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude crosses the same (about thirty miles north of the southwest corner of Missouri, or 36° 30' parallel of north latitude) ; thence west on said parallel to the eastern boundary of New Mexico; thence north on said boundary to latitude thirty-eight; thence following said boundary westward to the east boundary of the territory of Utah, on the summit of the Rocky mountains; thence northward on said summit to the fortieth parallel of latitude ; thence east on said parallel to the western boundary
167
168
HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
of the state of Missouri ; thence south with the western boundary of said state (being a meridian line passing through the middle of the month of the Kansas river) to the place of beginning."
And in the solution of this great problem the delegates in the con- vention met with many difficulties, chiefly growing ont of the slavery question. In a very ably written article prepared with especial care and with reference to accuracy of statements Ilon. George W. Martin, secretary of the Kansas Historical Society, gives us some interesting information. Mr. Martin's article is here utilized, almost in its entirety.
The east boundary of Utah, "the summit of the Rocky monntains" according to what was known at that time, is a very vague and indefinite expression. Another statement of the western line says: "Westward to the summit of highlands dividing the waters flowing into the Colorado of the west or Green river, from the waters flowing into the great basin." It is usually understood that the territory of Kansas extended nearly to the present eastern line of Utah. At that time probably no one knew. A topographical map of the United States, issued in 1807, shows the summit of the Rocky mountains, called the "Continental Divide, " to be a trifle west of Leadville. West of this point the waters now flow into the Gulf of California, and east the waters flow into the Gulf of Mexico. The east line of Utah is very near the one hundred and ninth meridian west, but the summit of the mountains is shown to be so irregular as not to be stated by lines. Several of the old maps show the west line of Kansas territory following the continental divide. Undoubtedly, therefore the territory of Kansas did not include the whole of Colorado, but say about two-thirds of it, or a few miles west of Leadville.
THE EAST BOUNDARY OF KANSAS.
The western line of Missouri, "a meridian line passing through the middle of the mouth of the Kansas river," is the eastern line of Kansas. Thus is designated one of the most conspicuous points on the continent. ITere the line is a street cutting in almost equal parts the most interest- ing and promising city in the land. This street is lined with nntold millions of wealth in railroads, packing houses, stockyards and general manufactures. The month of the Kansas river was accurately deter- minated by astronomical observation, in 1804, by Lewis and Clark, the explorers, to be latitude 38° 31' 13." There has always been some controversy as to whether or not the month of the Kansas has changed. There seems to be no way of determining whether it changed between the date of the location given by Lewis and Clark, in 1804, and the date of the settlement of the boundary line in 1821. The report of the Geodetic Survey, in 1902, gives the latitude and longitude of the Second Presbyterian church spire (northwest eorner of Thirteenth and Central Kansas City, Missouri,) to be latitude 39° 05' 55.813" and longitude
169
HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
94º 35' 13.448". In 1889 Mr. W. E. Connelley made a careful study of this matter, and concluded that the line is where it always was. Mr. C. I. MeChung, who has had much experience in the engineering depart- ment of Kansas City, Kansas, tells me that the distance between the mouth of the Kansas river and Thirteenth and Central, Kansas City, Missouri, is 7,392 feet, or one and four-tenths miles.
THE NORTH BOUNDARY.
The fortieth parallel of north latitude was made the boundary line between the territories of Nebraska and Kansas by congress in the act of May 30. 1854. It seems that in the beginning the Missourians wanted the Platte river, but lhadley D. Johnson, representing more northerly interests, insisted upon the fortieth parallel. There were no surveys then. and there was no controversy in congress about any portion of the lines. Neither was there any hundred-dollar-an-acre land, and so con- gress acted like the fellow who sold a quarter section, and while the buyer was not looking, slipped in the deed another quarter to get rid of it. Nebraska was extended north to the British line, and Kansas extended to the summit of the Rocky mountains, a few miles beyond the present city of Leadville. Immediately upon the passage of the Kan- sas-Nebraska act John Calhoun was made surveyor general of Nebraska and Kansas. A contract was made with John P. Johnson to establish the northern boundary line. It was concluded to make it the principal base line whereupon to start the survey, both on the north in Nebraska and on the south in Kansas. The fortieth parallel was astronomically established in 1854 by Capt. T. J. Lee. topographical engineer, U. S. A. The survey was started on the 18th of November, 1854. The party were eighteen days running west one hundred and eight miles. When the Missouri river was closed to northern immigration in 1856, Nebraska City was a port of entry for Kansas.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.