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 3
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THE CANNON "EIGHTEEN-FIFTY-SIX."
The cannon which was brought out from Milwaukee, Wiscon- sin, in 1856, for the defense of the free state men, and which is now kept at the state capital, had been brought from Topeka for use on this occasion. At the close of Judge Usher's speech, and at intervals between speeches, it was made to talk with its old-time energy.
TELEGRAM FROM GENERAL POPE.
The following telegram was received from General John Pope, of Ft. Leavenworth, and read to the meeting :
FORT LEAVENWORTH, Sept. 15, 1879.
Hon. John Speer, Bismarck Grove :
I will be with you on Tuesday, but cannot make an address ; so I wish my name withdrawn from the programme.
JOHN POPE.
Whereupon Mr. Speer offered the following resolution, which was passed with immense cheering :
Resolved, That the old settlers always recognized the patriotic
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army of the Union, and that we surrender to General Pope, and invite him to visit us upon his own terms.
The hour of noon having arrived, the President announced an adjournment to 2 P. M.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
Gov. Robinson, in calling the meeting to order, said : As an evidence that universal harmony has taken the place of the strife of twenty-five years ago, I wish to announce that Thos. E. Irvine, who has charge of our salutes and is superintending the firing of that cannon, the " old 1856," was brought up a strong pro-slavery man, and was in the rebel army. And yet I do not know a man on the ground that is more jubilant than that same gentleman.
ADDRESS OF WELCOME BY COL. C. K. HOLLIDAY.
Introducing Col. Holliday, Gov. Robinson said: We all take a great pride in the capital of our State. It is one of the most beautiful towns in this country, to say nothing of Kan- sas. It has a brilliant future before it, and those who are here twenty-five years from to-day will see it a city of not less than fifty thousand inhabitants. I want to introduce to you a certain gentle- man, but before doing so, I want to tell a little anecdote.
In 1854, after we had started Lawence, a party came here to Lawrence from the east under the auspices of the Emigrant Aid Company, and reported to its agent at this place. A commit- tee was accordingly appointed to look at the country and find a location for this new company, and they went up as far as Topeka and Fort Riley, and then south and back to Lawrence. The com- mittee saw three places where the country had so many advant- ages that they failed to make a selection, and they could not make a report in favor of any particular place. Well, the party said, "what shall we do?" I suggested to them, "the little place up here at Topeka," but said I, "if you say anything about it here in Law- rence, the chances are that some Yankees will go up there and jump the site. You had better go or send some four or five trusty men up there to squat upon it at once." Before the company ar- rived on the ground, a young man of fine address, good clothes, good looking, came to our settlement at Lawrence, from Pennsyl- vania. He introduced himself to the agent of the Emigrant Aid Company. The agent looked him over from head to foot, took
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several days to make his acquaintance, and finally concluded that he was just the man to superintend the erection of the capital of the State of Kansas, and so he sent him up there to represent the Emigrant Aid Company in the town of Topeka. He is now here to make an address of welcome in behalf of the old settlers of Kansas. I introduce to you, Col. C. K. Holliday.
Col. Holliday spoke as follows :
Mr. President, Fellow Old Settlers and Fellow Citizens :
This is no ordinary assemblage. This is no ordinary occa- sion. The assemblage is composed of the founders or early set- tlers of a great State. The occasion is to commemorate the early settlement of the State ; and, looking back from the standpoint of a quarter of a century to measure the success of this great under- taking, and to contemplate, perhaps, from the success of the past -possibly, with a little vanity withal-the still greater success in store for them in the quarter century to come.
It is an impulse of the human heart to pay homage to the orig- inator of any great movement having for its object the welfare of mankind; the discoverer of any great invention which contributes to the good of our fellow men; the promulgator of any great truth which is calculated to make men better, wiser, or more prosperous. To the founders or settlers of a great city, or great State, the high- est meed of honor is due.
Surely, then, the meed of "well done" must be accorded to those who, a quarter of a century ago, bidding "'good by " to their homes and friends and all the world held dear, turned their backs upon the lands of their births and their faces toward the set- ting sun. They came to subdue the desert; for did not all our geographies teach us that that vast and almost unknown plain be- tween the Missouri river and the Rocky Mountains was the " Great American Desert ?" They came to subdue the desert, and out of the desert to make a State; and in so doing to suffer all the dan- gers, toils and privations incident to the herculean task; to endure hunger; to suffer cold; to encounter fevers; to run the risk of border strife; to guard against savages; to contend with death. And now, at the expiration of a quarter of a century, it is well that those of the old settlers who still survive, with the kindly sym. pathizing thousands of later settlers, should assemble together in re-union, as we are doing here to-day, rest a moment, review the great work accomplished, and take heart for the accomplishment of still greater achievements in the future.
They came-a quarter of a century ago-to subdue the desert and erect thereon a State. To-day the State is erected in all its magnificent proportions; to-day the "Desert blossoms as the rose."
" What hath God wrought" was the divine recognition in the first message ever transmitted by the electric telegraph. May we
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not with equal fervor and with equal faith, ask "What hath God wrought ?" when we behold the wonderful transformation that has taken place upon the plains of Kansas in the quarter of a century just closing.
No such transformation-no such change-has ever been made, in the same length of time, heretofore, anywhere upon the broad surface of the globe. Then, a quarter of a century ago, an absolute void, and absolute waste, a-nothing; nothing at least but the earth, the air and sky. Now a State with nearly a million souls, ranking with the great States in population and wealth among all the States in the Union, and leading all the great States in some of the staple productions of the soil, and leading most of them in the other staple productions of the soil.
But I am reminded that it is not the productions of the soil, but-
"Men, high minded men, Who know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain, These constitute a State."
Then, I ask, where are the laws more liberal, or more just, or more conscientiously administered ? Where do temperance, vir- tue, morality and religion find more cherished homes? Where does education shower her blessings more kindly, or more profuse- ly upon rich and poor alike, and upon the children of all nations, races, colors, creeds and sects? The archives of our govern- ments, both state and federal, exhibit the astounding fact that Kansas furnished more of those brave and heroic soldiers who, in in the great rebellion, upheld the banner of the republic high above the blazing clouds of battle, than she had citizens eligible to vote.
This, then, is the State we exhibit to-day, and these the men who compose it.
" Men, high minded men, who knew their rights, and know- ing dared maintain." Men with the stern convictions and high moral courage of the descendants of Plymoth Rock, and the chiv- alrous dash and daring of the descendants of Jamestown com- bined ; men, " who in peace prove their faith by the sweat of their brows, and in war by the blood of their hearts."
If so much has been accomplished in the twenty-five years gone by, amid the hardships of frontier life, the terrors and dan- gers of border strife, and the devastation of a great internecine war, with all the hindrances incident to the settlement of a new and remote country, what may not be accomplished in the twenty- five years to come? That distinguished gentleman and earnest friend of Kansas in her early history, and of freedom everywhere. Hon. Eli Thayer, predicted a year ago while riding with some friends through the State, that at the termination of the next twenty-five years Kansas would rank in population and wealth as the second State in the Union. I put the prediction on record to-day, not so much that it flatters our pride to be told that we shall soon be next to the first in the grade of States; but that when our children as-
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semble again in Bismarck Grove-then a park in the city of Law- rence-at the half centennial celebration, they may pronounce a proper eulogium upon him who has been our unswerving friend in our darkest hours, and now lights up our pathway of State by this brilliant prediction of our future.
While I may not have pinions to follow my friend as far as he has gone, yet / may say, and I say it reverently, employing the language of the apostle, that "eye hath not seen, neither hath ear heard, nor yet hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, the glories which shall be revealed" in our great and prosperous State; in the near future, as occupying the grand central position in the Union, in the language of Pierre Soule, "a hundred States shall revolve around her and strive for the honor of saluting her Queen."
On a day, and on an occasion, like this, all reference to polit- ical topics should be sacredly avoided. All are invited to partici- pate in this great ovation to the successful founding and the suc- cessful building of a State; and no utterance must fall from my lips that could wound the most sensitive heart. But that which was politics a quarter of a century ago, has become history to-day ; and brief as my remarks should be, they would be incomplete if I did not advert to the position Kansas was forced to assume in the determinatiou of the greatest governmental problem of the century, and the greatest question of human rights and human freedom determined in any age.
" Come on, then, gentlemen of the slave States," said Mr. Seward, when all further effort to resist the passage of the Kansas- Nebraska bill, and with it the repeal of the Missouri Compromise became useless, "since there is no escaping your challenge, I accept it on behalf of freedom. We will engage in competition for the virgin soil of Kansas, and God give the victory to the side that is stronger in numbers, as it is in the right." By the passage of that act the wall which had excluded slavery from the free Ter- ritories beyond the Missouri was broken down. Under the doc- trine of "popular sovereignty," the controversy was transferred from Washington to Kansas, from Congress to the people. And what Congress had not the manliness nor the courage to do, the people of Kansas-the old settlers-had both the manliness and courage to accomplish. Congress broke down the wall, and said to slavery, "go!" The old settlers, God bless them, a remnant only of whom I see around me here to-day, said: "Thus far shalt thou come; no farther ; here let thy proud waves be stayed."
Mr. President, I want to be prudent; I want to be conserva- tive ; I don't want to be inconsiderate; but it does seem to me that no sterner devotion to principle, no more heroic action, has ever been exhibited in the whole world's history than that exhibited by the early settlers of Kansas in their successful resistance to the spread of human slavery over the virgin prairies of their State.
How our blood tingles! How our hearts beat! How our admi-
4
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ration leaps from our excited brains, as we read of the three hun- dred Spartans who stayed, at the Pass of Thermopyla, the mighty army of Xerxes in its impetuous march. But how vastly greater was the endurance, the courage, the heroism of the men and women-of the early settlers-of Kansas, as they successfully resisted and beat back this more than Xerxes pro-slavery host from the limits of their Territory.
In the logic of events, this preliminary skirmish and repulse had almost necessarily to be followed by a grander movement along the whole line, and the great four years' conflict which ensued between the national government and the seceding States --- or, more properly speaking, between freedom and slavery-was but the continuation of the struggle begun in Kansas in her early territorial days. As years go by, the importance of that great event will become more and more conspicuous! And the historian will assign to Kansas, and to the brave sons and daughters of her early territorial days, the honor of having turned the current of human affairs and human government into the channel of universal lib- erty; that the defeat of slavery-the slave power-of the slave spirit-upon the plains of Kansas was the defeat of the same power and the same spirit in our own and all other nations; and that the triumph of freedom upon the plains of Kansas was the triumph of freedom throughout the circuit of the globe.
In the attainment of this grand result, the distresses inflicted upon the early settlers will never be recorded by human hands ! the poverty entailed ! the sufferings borne ! the privations endured! the lives sacrificed! Yet, in view of the great good to mankind, of the universal emancipation of the human race, as the glorious compensation for the poverty, sufferings and privations endured, and lives sacrified, I even bless the troubles in which our Territory had its origin, and almost envy those whose lives were offered up. in a cause so just. Their distresses may never be recorded by human hands; but are they not all recorded, for future good, by Him who numbers the very hairs of our heads, and who suffers not a sparrow to fall to the ground without his notice ?
Our good friends here at Lawrence inaugurated this quarter centennial gathering two years ago. They then said when we get to be twenty-five years old we will have a big meeting, and it shall be local. But other good friends at Leavenworth, Topeka, Atchi- son and all over the State, said: "Here, we are twenty-five years old, also, and you must make your meeting general. And they said: "Yes, we will make it general." And then it was all at once remembered that Kansas in her early struggles, and, in fact, ever since, had some very warm and earnest and distinguished friends in the older States, and we said, "maybe these good friends would like to come out to Kansas and see what 'manner of men ' they had been befriending for 'lo, these many years.'" So they were invited, and they said they would come. And then Judge Adams, with the Historical Society at his back, said this is getting
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interesting, I guess I had better look into this thing. So Judge Adams and his Society were invited. And then the new settlers, who are beginning to outnumber the old settlers by a million or two, and who, I am afraid, are not quite as modest as the old set- tlers, said, " Oh, we are going to that 'Old Settlers' meeting' at Lawrence, whether we are invited or not." You see they are not very modest. So we came to the conclusion to invite the new set- tlers, also, as we knew they would come whether invited or not.
But we said we will steal a march on the new settlers in this ; we will hold it as an old settlers' organization. That an old settler shall preside, and another old settler shall be secretary, and another old settler shall do the first talking, and the distinguished friends of the old settlers from abroad shall make the big speeches; and thus we will mortify the new settlers. For, I think I had bet- ter tell it out, if there's any one thing under heaven that a Kansas man, be he old or new settler, would rather do than any other thing it is to hold an office or make a speech.
But we think, Mr. President, we may heal the wound we have thus inflicted in the breasts of the new settlers by promising that at the next quarter centennial they may "run the machine." God help us all.
Some one-now a new settler, then an old settler-I hope as worthy a man, will occupy your seat. Some other than the pres- ent speaker will be delivering the opening address; and most of us shall have joined that other and larger gathering of "old set- tlers," on the other side of the river, among whom is he whose "soul goes marching on."
That the strong friendships forme l amid the dark and trouble- some times of our early history may be quickened; that old acquaintances may be revived; that new friendships and acquain- tances may be formed; that the old stories may be told again, and the old songs sung; that pleasant remembrances of those who shall be with us again here no more forever, shall be revived ; and that after a delightful two days' gathering for all, we return to our homes inspired with higher hopes, animated with a loftier appreci- ation of each other ; with enlarged views for the prosperity of our State ; with a profound regard for our whole country, and an acknowledgment of that divine goodness which sustains us all, in behalf of the old settlers, I bid you each and all a cordial welcome and kindly greeting to the quarter centennial reunion and celebra- tion of the old settlers of Kansas.
TELEGRAM FROM MR. P. B. GROAT.
Gov. Robinson read the following dispatch from Peter B. Groat, General Passenger and Ticket Agent of the Kansas Pacific Railway, a gentleman to whose enterprise and liberality, the Gov- ernor said, was largely due the gathering of the multitude who had come to this celebration. The telegram was as follows :
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INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 15, 1879.
Governor Robinson :
I regret my inability to be present with you all, to-day, at Bis- marck Grove. Please present my best respects to the old settlers of Kansas, with my best wishes for the future exalted prosperity of our glorious State. May all persons with you to-day live to re- assemble on many joyous occasions; and may peace, good will, joy and plenty crown all with supreme happiness.
P. B. GROAT. ยท
ADDRESS BY GOV. JOHN P. ST. JOHN.
Gov. ROBINSON : It has been suggested by our friend who has spoken in behalf of the old settlers that this celebration has grown upon us. It started somewhat as a local affair. It has been extended from one class of citizens to another, and finally to the whole State, and we could not do less than to ask the representa- tive of the State to be present and speak for the State, extending, as I know he will do, words of welcome to all. I take pleasure in introducing to you Gov. John P. St. John.
The Governor spoke as follows :
Mr. President and Fellow Citizens :
I learned that I was expected to participate in the exercises of this day only last Saturday. I look upon this as one of the great occasions in the history of Kansas, and every one who talks to you ought to have an opportunity to prepare what he says.
My friend Col. Holliday has said that this is peculiarly an old settlers' meeting. I do not know whether I am included in the list or not. I believe, however, that I was here before my distinguished friend. I was in Kansas twenty-seven years ago. The only differ- ence between my friend and myself is that he staid and I did not.
I have watched, however, with great interest the history of the State, and when we call to mind the fact that but a little over a quarter of a century ago, the Territory which now constitutes the State of Kansas was laid down upon the map of that day as a part of the "Great American Desert," and then witness here to-day 20,000 citizens, representing almost every portion of our State, that upon that same desert has sprung up, as if by some magic power, with its population of a million people, we are impressed with the fact that truly the progress of civilization of the day and age in which we live is wonderful.
I shall not talk to you old Kansans who were here in the beginning about the history of our territorial days. You know it. Your lives constitute a part, or rather the brightest pages of that history, and I leave you to tell the people about it. You are fa- miliar with it. You lived in the midst of the events as they tran- spired, and none can tell it so well as you whose lives have made
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it. Many States have been admitted into the Union without any apparent struggle or commotion, but not so with Kansas. There was an irrepressible conflict between slavery and freedom being waged in this country, and it seems that God, in his wisdom, had willed that here in these broad prairies, in the geographical center of the Union, on Kansas soil, the liberty-loving freemen of this land should settle that conflict, and none know better than you old settlers how well the task was done, and how thorough was the consecration of this soil to the cause of human liberty.
It was not, Mr. President, in my opinion, the beauty of these broad prairies or the richness of their soil, that induced you to come to Kansas Territory. I believe, sir, that yourself and those who came with you were actuated by a higher and nobler motive. You came to battle for a principle, and to make the Territory of Kansas forever free, and the result of that battle was the entering wedge that opened the way to the total destruction of the accursed institution of human slavery, and makes Kansas to day the pride and admiration of the civilized world. We are told that in the olden time, at the building of a great temple, a peculiar stone was found, that was neither oblong nor square, and it was cast into the rubbish. After a while it was found that the structure could not be completed without this particular stone, and then it was that the workmen went to the rubbish and took from it this stone, and with it made the building complete. So, as the workman took from the rubbish the stone so necessary to make the building complete, you old settlers took Kansas, as it were, from the rubbish of the land and made it the grand keystone in the mighty arch that cements and holds together the union of the States that constitute this great nation.
What is the harvest that we are reaping to-day from the seed sown by you twenty-odd years ago? Let us see: A free State and a free nation ; a free ballot and free schools, with five thou- sand free school houses; freedom of speech and freedom of the press, with full protection to the life and property of every law- abiding human being; a permanent school fund of nearly $1, 700,- ooo, with sufficient school lands when sold to swell the amount to $13,000, 000 ; our state institutions in successful operation and paid for; nearly three thousand miles of railway; a state debt of only about $1,000, 000, two-thirds of which is owned and controlled by the State; our obligations met promptly with the cash as they ma- ture, commanding a premium everywhere; contracting no new debts, but paying our way as we go, while having nearly one-half million dollars in the treasury of our State with which to do it; and a population of nearly one million people-as law-abiding, temper- ate, moral and loyal as are found anywhere. Here, to-day, where 20,000 people are congregated in this beautiful grove, not a drunk- en man is to be seen-not a profane or unpleasant word heard, no revolvers, no policeman, and no necessity for any. This is the harvest of a State planted in freedom.
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Many of the slaves made free sixteen years ago by the procla- mation of good Abraham Lincoln (God bless his sacred name) are now ragged, breadless and penniless, fleeing from the tyranny and oppression of their late masters, asking for shelter and a chance to earn their living in this, to them, the "promised land." Let us Kansans in our treatment of these unfortunate people, not blot out or mar a single page or line of the grand history of Kansas, in be- half of freedom, but rather let us, remembering the sacrifices of her early martyrs to human liberty, keep our doors in the future as they have ever been in the past, without regard to politics, relig- ion, race, condition or color, open to every human being, willing to obey our laws, and put forth an earnest effort to better his con- dition and make for himself an honest living. Let us do our whole duty, and God will take care of the results.
And now, Mr. President, in conclusion, it is my pleasant duty, in the name of all the good citizens of Kansas, to extend to each and every man, woman and child here to-day a cordial wel- come, and to our friends from abroad I desire to say (turning toward Hon. J. W. Forney and Walt Whitman), though it has been many years since the early struggles in Kansas, we have not forgotten that you were our friends, and that with the pen (which is mightier than the sword), as well as your money, you extended to us all the aid in your power, and for the true friendship that you have ever shown us, and for your presence here to-day, I know I but express the sentiment of every citizen of our State in extending to you our heartfelt thanks, and a cordial welcome, trusting that God may ever guide and protect you, as well also our State and its people.
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