USA > Kansas > Douglas County > Lawrence > The Kansas memorial, a report of the Old Settlers' meeting held at Bismarck grove, Kansas, Sept. 15th and 16th, 1879 > Part 17
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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
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THE KANSAS MEMORIAL.
New England press with its Kansas news. And never had a pub- lic speaker better backers than I had, in your well-meaning friends, the border ruffians. In my first year, 1854, we collected and ex- pended in Kansas about thirteen thousand dollars. Our friends in Missouri were kind enough to multiply this little sum by four or five hundred, and they proclaimed to the world that we were spending five million dollars in the Territory. If, in any part of America, there were of those people whom Col. Legate described with so much humor last night, who wanted to " better their con- dition," they were attracted by this announcement. It is possi- ble that even now, in this moral and high-toned community, you have heard of men who, if they knew that five million dollars were to be spent at Topeka, would like to be present at the spending. I am speaking, I dare say, to those who wept for Barber's death, and R. P. Brown's and Dow's. But for every drop of those men's blood, some brave man left the North, determined to avenge him. It is by one of these dramatic coincidences which make men think that the eternal Nemesis acts with human fashions and with the laws of time, that it happened that while the embers of the Free State Hotel were yet smoking, on that sad day when Senator Atchison was riding with his company, pensive or tri- umphant, through Massachusetts street, here-Preston Brooks struck Charles Sumner from behind in his seat in the Senate. Be- fore New England heard of your insult here, she knew that her own son had been wounded nigh to death by a man with the spirit of a murderer. The two typical blows were struck which are needed to awaken and confirm indignation. The two deeds were in fact the same. They sprang from one spirit. They aroused one wave of indignation. They appealed to the same rule of right- eousness, the "power which works for good " and sways the des- tiny of nations, and they brought with them the same vengeance.
But I speak too long. New England has long since rejoiced in the flow of the great Northwestern wave over these beautiful prairies. To that wave she contributed four or five thousand of her sons and daughters in the very years of battle. She never has been ashamed of them or their record. The Emigrant Aid Com- pany, which I represent here, placed $125,000 in this Territory. No subscriber to that fund ever received back one cent from the investment. But all the same we had our dividends long ago. They came in Kansas free, a nation free, in the emancipation of four millions of black men, and in the virtual abolition of slavery over the world.
The Company's operations afterward need not be described. In Western Texas, we did what we could. When the time came, we directed a few thousand free men into Florida ; and when Florida gave her righteous vote for a Republican President, that vote was due to no vulgar fraud, but to the organized emigration into Florida of Northern freemen ten years before.
The past is secure, gentlemen and ladies ; the future is in your hands. See that it be not unworthy of your history.
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THE KANSAS MEMORIAL.
ADDRESS BY COL. JOHN W. FORNEY.
Gov. ROBINSON : - Ladies and gentlemen, I am glad to be able to announce to you that Mr. Forney will address the meeting a few moments.
Col. Forney said :
Ladies and Gentlemen :
I really feel as if I were an intruder to-day. My part of the drama was played yesterday, and yet I cannot refrain from express- ing my satisfaction and wonder at the scene which I have witnessed to-day. A year ago, just a year ago, I saw what is regarded in France as the most interesting and original and instructive of all their religious festivals. The great fete of the St. Cloud or of the sun which lasted for seven days, and I was there every day. And I confess as I passed through this marvelous crowd this afternoon and witnessed the strange changes that have taken place here with- in the last twenty-five years, and saw the courteous manners, the happy faces, a singularly athletic population, marvelous display of horses and wagons, and all the evidences of honest industry ; and still more than all, the sobriety so marked, so decorous, so exemp- lary-I was filled with pride. It cast in the shade the habitual temperance of the French themselves. I am impelled to say, and I do say, that we have before us here, perhaps, the noblest off- spring, and the noblest results of the great liberties which have been secured by the Pilgrim Fathers, whose distinguished represen- tative you have just heard now. The results that have been achieved in these twenty- five years have been achieved by a sound sentiment promulgated by the original Abolitionists- the great primitive leaders of thought. These victorious and determined and daring men of whom you have heard so much just praise, were impelled to action as the result of that thought. Those of the class of which I claim to be a representative, came after the white slaves of the North were liberated by a movement which began with the Abolitionists of New England, a movement which culmin- ated when the Kansas-Nebraska act was passed on the 30th of May, 1854. Those of us who came in afterward at the eleventh hour, were laggards, brought along by the sentiment due to others. But in the end we did something-contributing, sincerely contributing, to the great results you are celebrating to day. I thank you again and again, ladies and gentlemen, for the permission given me to speak here.
ADDRESS BY GOV. JOHN P. ST. JOHN.
Gov. ROBINSON : - As our state has grown to such immense proportions, we have some here to-day that were not here yesterday, and some who have never seen our Chief Magistrate, and I there- fore, take pleasure in introducing Gov. John P. St. John, who will speak to you a few moments.
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Gov. St. John said :
Mr. President and Fellow Citizens :
This is certainly one of the pleasantest hours of my life. It is pleasant because I see so many bright and happy faces here. I am not here to say an unkind word of any one. In fact, I think that any man who would say anything to mar the pleasure that all seem to enjoy in being here, ought to seek a more congenial clime for grumblers than is found here in Kansas.
With no unkind feeling toward our neighboring State of Mis-' souri or her citizens, whom we gladly welcome here to-day, but simply for the purpose of showing the difference between the growth of the government planted by you Old Settlers, here in Kan- sas, and the one planted by the old settlers of Missouri nearly sixty years ago, I call your attention to the fact that Missouri is three times as old as Kansas. No one will deny that Missouri's natural resources are equal to those of any State in the Union. She has splen- did soil, just as good as is to be found anywhere, excepting, perhaps, in Kansas. But take out Kansas City, (which is supported and fed by Kansas), St. Louis, St. Joseph and Sedalia, and there is scarcely sufficient real, wide-awake, live, energetic spirit left in the remainder of the State to organize a town meeting. Missouri, finan- cially, is depressed. Kansas is strong and prosperous. Missouri, socially, is sour, and looks with distrust and suspicion upon the immigrant seeking a home within her borders, while Kansas gladly welcomes every body willing to obey our laws and join us in build- ing up our State and making it prosperous and great. In popula- tion Missouri is barely holding her own, while young Kansas in- creases at the rate of 150,000 a year. Of this number at least 100,000 cross Missouri to get here-hence cannot be ignorant of the fact that there really is such a State. The reason for all this is plain-Missouri was born of slavery-Kansas, of freedom. [Ap- plause. ]
In all this vast assemblage of at least 25, 000 people you will not find a single specimen of the long-haired, broad-brim, big- spurred gentry of the brush, carrying a brace or more of revolvers ; in fact, you will not see a revolver on the ground. Not a drunken man is to be found ; there are no intoxicating liquors, no policemen or necessity for any here. Everybody is in a good humor, ready to shake hands with his neighbor, without caring whether he is native or foreign born, Democrat or Republican, or whether, when admitted into the church, he was sprinkled or "plunged." He only recognizes the fact that he is one of God's creatures, and that it is true merit after all that makes the man.
When talking of Kansas, we cannot help but feel a little like a young American who was traveling in Europe. He was one of those fellows who think that no place on earth is equal to Ameri- ca. When he was shown the capitol of a foreign land he would say, "That is very nice, really magnificent, but you ought to see
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THE KANSAS MEMORIAL.
our capitol at Washington, if you would see something worthy of your highest admiration." When shown one of their largest rivers he would first compliment it, but close with the declaration that it was a mere spring branch when compared with the mighty Missis- sippi, the Father of Waters. So he continued until it became monotonous, and the boys concluded that they would see if they could not place him in some position where he would acknowledge his country beaten. With this end in view, they got him drunk, and laid him out in a coffin and placed him in the catacombs. Then they hid themselves away to await results. He seemed to sleep soundly through the night, but just after daylight he awoke, finding himself in a coffin. He did not know what it meant. He was bewildered and said, "Am I crazy, sick or drunk? Where am I, what am I and who am I?" At last, looking upward and seeing the many thousand human skulls peering down upon him from every direction, he exclaimed, "Ah, I understand it now. It is as clear to me as the noonday sun. This is the grand morn- ing of the resurrection of the dead, and I, an American, am its first fruits. Hurrah for America." [Applause.] So, when this State, springing from a Territory organized by you nearly a quarter of a century ago, is compared with other States of the Union, the result is such as to make us feel like exclaiming, "Hurrah for Kansas." You Old Settlers laid the foundation Those who came after you have nobly helped to build upon it. May we all, remem- bering our duty to God and humanity, unite our efforts in mak- ing Kansas, in her moral and material resources, the pride and ad- miration of the civilized world. [Applause. ]
LETTER FROM ELI THAYER.
Gov. ROBINSON : I have been spoken to two or three times for the letter of Eli Thayer that I supposed had been read this morning. It is very short. Now all I have to say at this moment about him is, that there never was a man found in the United States who would have done what he did, and if there had not been an Eli Thayer, or some such man, I believe to-day that Kan- sas and the country would have been filled with slaves. [The letter follows the speech of Col. Anthony elsewhere given.]
ADDRESS BY REV. DR. CORDLEY.
Gov. ROBINSON : We have with us this afternoon one who has been here so long that memory scarcely goes to the contrary, our old Congregational minister, Dr. Richard Cordley.
Dr. Cordley said :
Ladies and Gentlemen :
I have no speech to make, but the Governor insists on my say- ing a few words; and in that olden time of which we are speak-
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ing, we all obeyed the word of Governor Robinson as the law of the land. I thought it needless that I should speak, for I made my speech here in Lawrence years ago. My speech was eighteen years long, and was delivered from the pulpit of the Plymouth Church across the river, the pulpit which was graced and honored last Sabbath by the presence of our distinguished visitor, New Eng- land's honored son, the author of "Ten Times One Is Ten," a sen- timent fitly illustrated in the twenty-five years' history we com- memorate to-day.
Then I hardly feel like intruding among the scarred heroes who have appeared on this platform. I have no special tales to tell or special claim to make. I am not from Pennsylvania, like so many who have spoken, and I never marched with the Douglas Democrats when they saved Kansas and the Union. I am not from Ohio, like so many others, and so I never can have an office. I am simply from Michigan, a State which lays claim to no special service, and yet a State which never asked a favor and never shirk- ed a duty.
I am not disposed, however, to concede these special claims, of localities, or classes, or persons. It was not Pennsylvania, or Ohio, or New England that saved Kansas; it was not Douglas Democrats, or Radical Abolitionists, or black law recruits; it was the rising sentiment of freedom in the land, which saved Kansas. The whole grand army of freemen can claim a part in that conflict, and in that victory.
I can see unity, too, in another matter where others have ex- pressed diversity. The sentiment has been expressed here very often and very devoutly, that the deliverance of Kansas was not due to any human wisdom, but to the wise guidance of a good Providence. But one friend from Atchison county, last night, in- sisted that there was no Providence in it, and that God had noth- ing to do with it, but it was all a part of that " progress of humani- ty" which is ever making toward better things. Now I believe in the "progress of humanity" as heartily as any one. But to me this progress is not a blind drift which comes, no one knows whence, and goes, no one knows where, and results in, no one knows what; but to me the " progress of humanity " is an intelli- gent thing, guided by divine wisdom and sustained by divine power. Therefore, I believe this progress will be continuous, lift- ing mankind higher and higher, and that by and by the "Kingdom will come," when freedom shall be universal, and truth and right- eousness shall reign among all men; when the dream of the poet shall be fulfilled when he sings: "Ever the right comes uppermost and ever is justice done."
ANNOUNCEMENT BY MR. P. B. GROAT.
Gov. ROBINSON : I have got the chap here that I read you a dispatch from yesterday. A man who has done more than any
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other man to make this gathering a success. He has just arrived from Indianapolis. I have got him by the hand and his name is Groat.
Mr. Groat said :
Ladies and Gentlemen :
I do not deserve these complimentary remarks. I simply came up here to make the announcement that special trains will leave here for Topeka, Leavenworth and Kansas City to-night, after the evening meeting, in addition to the regular trains this afternoon. That is all.
ADDRESS BY T. D. THACHER.
The Chairman next introduced Hon. T. D. Thacher, who said :
Mr. President :
It is a matter of regret that the state of Mr. Whitman's health precludes the possibility of his presence here to-day, and deprives us of the privilege of listening to the poem which we had hoped to hear from his own lips. He was present yesterday, but the fatigues of travel and the excitement of the occasion have precluded his presence to-day. Had he been here, I should perhaps have said in introducing him that I first met him in New York many years ago, when the Kansas struggle for liberty was still being waged, and his sympathies were all on our side. How could they have been otherwise ? Despotism does not produce poets. It takes the love of liberty to produce either poems or poets. The whole his- tory of Kansas has been one of the grandest and most magnificent of poems. I know of no incident in the life of John Brown so worthy of the genius of a painter or a poet as when he was being led to the scaffold he stooped down and kissed a little black child, and went on his way to death.
Much has been said here about who saved Kansas to freedom. In my judgment it was the work of no one man, but that of the masses of her people who loved liberty and hated slavery. It was their toils, their struggles, their sufferings, their unquenchable and unconquerable love of freedom which won for us and our children the fair heritage which we to-day enjoy.
ADDRESS BY DANIEL W. WILDER.
Gov. ROBINSON : There is one gentleman on the stand that I know you all want to hear. I want to introduce to you one of the most efficient workers, although not one of the earliest, we ever had in Kansas, the Hon. D. W. Wilder, of the St. Joseph Herald.
Mr. Wilder said:
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THE KANSAS MEMORIAL.
Ladies and Gentlemen :
The State of Missouri seems to be fair game with you all here to-day. Your Governor has alluded to it in unpleasant terms, and nobody has a good word for the State of Tom Benton, Frank Blair, Gratz Brown, Franz Sigel and Carl Schurz. The border ruffians, in their own "devilish " way, precipitated the conflict, but the men I have named and thousands like them were the friends of free Kansas, although living in slave States. That was especially true of the German element in Missouri and all through the South.
When the national conflict followed the Kansas rebellion, Blair, and Brown, and Sigel led regiments to fight your battles as well as their own. Frank Blair's name goes into history with Na- thaniel Lyon's, as the hero statesmen of 1861-the two men above all others who saved Missouri and Kansas to the Union. When his- tory is written, the wretched ruffians who came here to bully, to steal and to kill, will cut no more figure than so many horse thieves and assassins, while the men of ideas, John Brown, Charles Robinson, Gen. Lyon and Frank Blair, will be found on one mon- ument, built upon the solid earth of two States and uniting them in a perpetual Union of freedom, civilization and the arts of peace. You cannot leave the good Missourians out of a history in which their bad brothers were such noisy brawlers.
And when States, and men, and political parties, are claiming so much credit, for freeing Kansas and freeing America, I hear very little said here to-day of our old-fashioned Abolitionists, Wil- liam Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips. I tell you, gentlemen, that they were the fathers of us all. [Applause. ] I thank Mr. Hale from the bottom of my heart, not only for the noble speech made here to-day but for the glorious life he has lived, but I can- not forget that Garrison, Phillips, Sumner and their reviled fellow- workers created the public sentiment that made free Kansas possi- ble. They made Kansas, and no celebration of Kansas can be complete that does not have the name of Wm. Lloyd Garrison, in - scribed all over it in letters of living light. [Applause. ]
ADDRESS BY MRS. S. N. WOOD.
Gov. ROBINSON : Some of you no doubt remember the val- uable services rendered by two ladies on a certain occasion in our early troubles. One of those ladies is present now, and I know you want to hear her. Her name is Mrs. S. N Wood.
Mrs. Wood said ยท
It seems to me but a very short time and yet it is a good while. There has been a great deal done in the last twenty-five years since my husband came home and told me he was going to Kansas, and asked me if I wanted to go. I told him that if he went, that I wanted to go too. We took our wagon and started to Cincinnati. We had two little children, one a little baby and the other a couple
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of years old. We came from Cincinnati to St. Louis on an old steamer of some kind, and from there up the Missouri, and landed at Independence. We stayed there a little while and then came out into the Territory and made our home here. While we were at Independence a meeting was held at Westport, at which a resolu- tion was passed declaring that they would hang, kill or drive out all Northern men who came to Kansas. We were very quietly warned of this just as we left Independence. Well, we came on, and met no great difficulty, and came to Kansas. But you have the history of all our troubles here, from the speakers who have preceded me. The times looked very dark sometimes. I think if I could have looked forward and have seen what was in the future for us, I should have shrunk from it, but we were enabled to meet the difficulties as they came along. We never lost our faith in the triumph of freedom, in the ultimate triumph of right. We have never become alienated from our home. Here we have lived and here we expect to stay. Kansas is dearer to us to-day than ever. Here we expect to remain and be buried.
ADDRESS BY JOEL K. GOODIN.
Gov. ROBINSON : I wish now to introduce to you a man who in our early days had a great deal to do with the running of the territorial government in one position or another. He will not take but a moment to show himself. I mean Hon. J. K. Goodin.
Mr. Goodin said :
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen :
I am very glad to meet you. You remember last night when Jim Legate made his speech some one in the crowd called out "louder " and he told them to come a little nearer. I will speak as loud as I can and try to make you all hear me.
About four years ago I went back to Ohio where my father lived (and there's where my friend Wood came from), and I atten- ded an Old Settlers' meeting, and they called upon me to make some remarks being an old settler through my father. I told them that I thought it enlarged a man to come west, that I thought I had grown a little taller-a little wider-a little brainier-had more knowledge-better ideas-better perceptive faculties-better and greater conceptions of what constitutes man, humanity in general by going out west and settling in a new State like Kansas. That is the way I talked then. But I had no idea that I had become a great man by having come to Kansas; that I had really grown to be a hero among heroes. (Laughter.) That I was such a brave soldier as all the Kansas boys have been shown to have been in all these speeches yesterday and to-day. (Renewed laughter.)
I came to Kansas early with my family-during the pendency of the Kansas-Nebraska bill and before its passage. I settled here about the 27th of May, 1854. At that time I certainly had no de-
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finite idea that I was destined to become one of a race of heroes on Kansas soil. Beyond a doubt we have done as well as the set- tlers in any new State. The common necessities which attend life on the frontier attached to all of us. Settling in a new country in- volves trouble, privation, deprivation-everything indeed that is different from what we left in our homes in the Eastern States.
I came here not knowing what I would have to endure; but I simply came knowing nothing about the country, where I was going to settle, or anything connected with it. I squatted down yonder on the Wakarusa-before a single Yankee settled on Mt. Oread. I bought a farm of one of the Curlews ; gave him fifteen dollars and a shot-gun.
I remained there one day after another, one week after another, finally put up a cabin-my wife and myself- and we lived there.
Then there was a convention called at Lawrence and I was nominated for clerk and secretary, then the same thing occurred at the conventions held at Big Springs, then at the Topeka constitu- tional convention. I made a record of what the boys did, of their big resolutions and everything. But all these things were thrust upon me without my really knowing what I was doing, without really knowing what they were doing either. (Laughter.) I took it for granted. (More laughter.)
Then came the election for the Legislature under the constitu- tion and somehow or other I got a position in that Legislature. I don't know how. I think Jim Lane, and Governor Robinson and John Speer had something to do with it. I don't know but that they all helped. It was a very important position for me to hold, but I never got any money out of it. (Laughter. )
I lived four miles from town. I walked from my cabin to town time and time again; in the severest weather of winter to at- tend those free state meetings; sometimes writing day and night. In the course of time came on the vote under the Lecompton con- stitution ; then we split. Some determined that they would not vote at all; others determined that they would. Then came the struggle, and after the struggle then came the power into the hands of the free state party and Kansas was saved. Now I don't believe that Governor Robinson-I don't believe that Jim Lane-I don't believe Jim Legate or anybody else, not even myself saved Kansas (Laugh- ter.) But I do believe this, that every single effort that was made here in Kansas, coupled as it was with the efforts that were made in the East, through all parts thereof, and in every direction, all contributed to the salvation of Kansas. And I think that the man who will assume that he saved Kansas, or that any particular thing saved Kansas, is assuming that which he cannot maintain. It took all, it took everything that we could do.
We had many antagonistic elements to deal with. . The ele- ments were largely Democratic. Early in the day it was not a politi- cal contest in the strict sense of the term; we were driven just where we were driven. I came here a Democrat; was asked " Are you
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