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 6
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EVENING SESSION .- THE OLD SETTLERS' LOVE FEAST.
A larger assembly than that of the afternoon filled the Taber_ nacle by 7 o'clock to hear the old settlers talk over the scenes and incidents of the early days. Hon. John Speer, one of the Vice Presidents of the meeting, presided.
ADDRESS BY L. F. GREENE.
Mr. Speer introduced Capt. L. F. Greene, who spoke as ollows :
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THE KANSAS MEMORIAL.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen :
So many memories come thronging to my mind at this moment that I scarcely know where to begin. This is an hour of triumph -a call for gratitude and renewed consecration to the principles of liberty. Sixteen years ago, Gov. Willliam H. Seward said in a speech made in Massachusetts street, Lawrence: "If I should ever grow lukewarm and cold in the great struggle now going on in this new world, I will come back here to Kansas, and, in the presence of a great State saved to freedom, at her shrine renew my devotion." In that spirit, we gather this day to celebrate this, our twenty-fifth year; and, in looking back through the past eventful years, on and up to this good hour so full of hope and promise, may we not without presumption, without fanaticism, trace a power above man's power, a wisdom above man's wisdom, in the fortunes and destiny of Kansas ?
A nameless sorrow fills our hearts when we miss so many dear, familiar faces of the early pioneers who have gone from us. Their bodies are joining the silent dust in that narrow temple of rest and reconciliation in the mysterious fellowship of death. Their spirits are in the presence of Him whose service is perfect freedom. I see behind me (pointing to a portrait of Gen. Lane) a trace of the existence of one whose name will be forever linked with our early history-one whose best years were given to the struggle for tree Kansas; whose rough, sad face is yet so well remembered ; who sank down under life's heavy load just as we were entering the shining land of peace; and let me in passing, in the moving lines of the great Quaker poet, pay tribute to his memory :
"O, Mother Earth, upon thy lap Thy weary ones receiving, And o'er them, silent as a dream, Thy grassy mantle weaving, Fold softly, in thy cold embrace, That heart so worn and broken, And cool that pulse of fire Beneath thy shadows old and oaken,
"Shut out from him the bitter word Of hissing and of scorning, Nor let the storms of yesterday Disturb his quiet morning ; Breathe over him forgetfulness Of all save deeds of kindness, And save to smiles from grateful eyes, Press down his lids in blindness."
In our history we may now witness, with becoming pride, the moral of that beautiful Persian fable of the fairy doomed at times to wear a humiliating disguise, and to those who received and treated her kindly, she came afterward, in her celestial form, to crown them happy in love and triumphant in war. So, in Kansas in the early days, the genius of liberty, disguised, often came to 4
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our cabin doors in the form of a poor fugitive slave on his glad way to freedom. But she now comes in her divine form to crown us with her grateful benediction in the presence of these glad thou- sands. And here and now, in this grand presence, with the mighty engines of our ripe civilization sending the pulsations of our life- tide from ocean to ocean, thundering along the base of the moun- tains at the frontier of Aztec civilization, may we not say, rever- ently, gratefully, as did the great Judge of Israel when he looked back upon Israel's pilgrimage and deliverance, "Thus far the Lord hath brought us."
AN OLD DOCUMENT.
Mr. C. H. Crane, of Osawatomie gave some interesting facts in regard to the historic town with which the name of John Brown has been so much associated, and then read a copy of the original indictment found by the territorial court of Lykins county in 1856, against John Brown and his companions for conspiracy to resist the bogus laws. The following is the document :
United States of America,
TERRITORY OF KANSAS, 2 " } ss COUNTY OF LYKINS.
In the United States Court of the 2d judicial district, sitting in and for the County of Lykins, and Territory of Kansas, May term A. D. 1856.
The grand jurors summoned, empaneled, and sworn to inquire in and for the body of Lykins county, in the Territory of Kansas, on their oaths present, that O. C. Brown, John Brown, Sr., John Brown, Jr., O. V. Dayton, Alexander Gardner, Richard Menden- hall, Charles A. Foster, Charles H. Crane, William Partridge, and William Chestnut, late of said county, being persons of evil minds and dispositions, on the 16th day of April, 1856, and on divers other days and times, both before and after that day, in the County of Lykins, and Territory aforesaid, did unlawfully and wickedly conspire, combine, confederate and agree together mutually to aid and support one another in a forcible resistance to the enactments of the laws passed by the Legislature of said Territory of Kansas, let the attempt to inforce such enactments come from whatever source it may.
And the grand jurors aforesaid do further present on their oaths aforesaid that the said O. C. Brown, John Brown, Sr., John Brown, Jr., O. V. Dayton, Alexander Gardner, Richard Menden- hall, Charles A. Foster, William Partridge and William Chestnut, of said county on said 16th day of April, 1856, and on divers other days and times, both before and after that day, in the county afore- said, unlawfully and wickedly did conspire, combine, confederate and agree together forcibly to resist and oppose the collector of
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taxes in and for the county and Territory afor said, and to use all the means and force necessary to prevent the execution of the laws of said Territory authorizing the assessment and collection of taxes to the evil example of all others and against the peace and dignity of the Territory of Kansas.
WILLIAM BARBEE, Attorney pro tem.
Indorsed as follows :
May Term, 1856, No. 4 Court, Criminal Conspiracy.
Kansas Territory vs. O. C. Brown, John Brown, Sr., John Brown, Jr., O V. Dayton, Alexander Gardner, Richard Menden- hall, Charles A. Foster, Charles H. Crane, William Partridge, Wil- liam Chestnut. A true bill.
Filed May 30, 1856.
J. T. BRADFORD, Foreman.
CHAS. P. BULLOCK, Clerk.
(A true copy.)
I, L. McArthur, Clerk of the District Court of the U. S. and Territory of Kansas, in 2d judicial district of said 'Territory, certify that I have compared the above with the original and certify the same to be a true copy thereof.
In testimony whereof I have set my hand and affixed the seal of said Court at office in Lecompton this 7th day of August, A. D. 1857. L. MCARTHUR, Clerk.
ADDRESS BY GEO. W. BROWN.
MR. SPEER :- I want to introduce to you one of the earliest of Kansas pioneers, a man who occupied a prominent part in the history of Kansas in the early period as an editor. Although in those days there were differences of opinion and some disputes among the free state men, we may now consider them to have been mere love spats to be soon forgotten. I take pleasure in introduc- ing to you Dr. Geo. W. Brown, formerly editor of the Herald of Freedom, now of Rockford, Illinois. Dr. Brown began by giving a vision of what our State would be in 1900, which he first pub- lished nearly twenty-five years ago, and which now seems to have been almost prophetic, so accurately are events justifying the pre- dictions then made. The speaker then said :
Mr. President, Early Settlers and Citizens of Kansas :
Plutarch informs us that Solon made a law prohibiting persons from attending entertainments too often, as it encouraged effemi- nacy and indolence, while he required persons to attend when in- vited, otherwise it would be discourteous to those hospitably dis- posed. Fourteen years absence from your State has saved me from censure under the first of these provisions, while my presence
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THE KANSAS MEMORIAL.
on this occasion, in obedience to the request of your committee of invitation, exonorates me under the latter requirement.
It gives me pleasure to join you on this occasion, to commem- orate the 25th anniversary of the first settlement of this great and prosperous State. Few of us who looked out upon these broad prairies twenty-five years ago, had any just conception of the mighty changes that awaited our action. As we looked abroad over the extended landscape all was-
" Vast as the sky against whose sunset shores Wave after wave the billowed greenness pours."
We inhaled the health-laden atmosphere as it came sweeping down from the north and felt that each particle of it was fragrant with freedom. We looked upon its soil and saw there the ele- ments of perfected physical manhood. The rains descended in grateful profusion; and a cloudless sun vitalized the whole, and assured us of a glorious fruition. Turning our eyes eastward and southward a dark and threatening cloud was visible. It was por- tentous and impenetrable to human vision; and yet we trusted time would sweep it away, and light up the horizon beyond with brilliancy and beauty, and make all a scene of perpetual joy.
Many a day of gloom was ushered in, but with earnest faith and resolute endeavor, we pressed forward, conscious that we were sustained by the true and good everywhere. Finally, our desires were more than realized. A free Commonwealth, giving protection and security to every citizen was fully established, under whose ægis your population has swollen in a quarter of a century to num- bers closely approximating a million.
Flowing directly from this as a natural result, all the wide national domain north, west and south of us was converted into free States and free Territories. Incidentally to this, as day fol- lows dawn, the entire American Republic became a nation of free men, realizing the prophecy of Whittier in 1856, whose letter of regret because of his inability to be with us will probably be read in our hearing, filling us all with sorrow :
"Whereso'er our destiny sends forth
Its widening circles to the South or North, Where'er our banner flaunts beneath the stars Its mimic splendors, and its cloud like bars, There shall free labor's hardy children stand The equal sovereigns of a slaveless land."
No one then living, even in his wildest dream, dared antici- pate what we to-day witness. Amid discouragements, such as no people ever had to contend with before-cruel poverty, protracted drouths, destroying pestilence, wasting famine, desolating war, and the stealthy hand of the incendiary and assassin,
YOU HAVE TRIUMPHED !
Shelley, seventy years ago, with poetical vision saw, and in glowing beauty described the glorious transformation. Before reading let
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me revive your recollection by stating that in all our maps printed prior to 1854, all that vast region lying west of the Missouri, ex- tending thence to the Rocky Mountains, now embraced in the limits of Kansas, was marked as "The Great American Desert, inhabited by buffaloes and roving tribes of wild Indians." I read from Shel- ley's Queen Mab :
" These deserts of immeasurable sand, Whose age-collected fervors scarce allowed A bird to live, a blade of grass to spring, Where the shrill chirp of the green lizard's love Broke on the sultry silentness alone, Now teem with countless rills and shady woods, Cornfields and pastures, and white cottages ; And where the startled wilderness beheld A savage conqueror stained in kindred blood, A panther sating with the flesh of lambs, The unnatural famine of her toothless cubs, Whilst shouts and howlings through the desert rang ; Sloping and smooth the daisy-spangled lawn, Offering sweet incense to the sunrise, smiles To see a babe before his mother's door, Sharing his morning's meal With the tame and stately buffalo That lies down at his feet."
Whilst I am fully conscious that you wait with impatience the better things in store for you from the eloquent gentlemen from abroad, and the champions of free institutions at home, I know you will excuse me a few minutes longer while I read the closing paragraph of a leading editorial, published in the Herald of Free- dom, an old-time paper which all the old settlers of Kansas, I trust, will remember with some satisfaction. I read from a copy which my good wife found, with twenty-three additional numbers, under a carpet, in house-cleaning time, where they had been placed by a former owner of the property, being all that now remains to me of the fruitage of fourteen years of continuous journalism, six of which were in Lawrence. The complete and bound files of all my papers, with twenty-five sets of the Herald of Freedom, which I had preserved with great care to present to the historical and liter- ary societies of Kansas, when properly organized, were burned at. that terrible Quantrill Raid, on the 21st of August, 1863, when near two hundred of your best citizens were ruthlessly slain, and your homes were destroyed by fire.
You will please remember while I read that I left Kansas on the morning after President Lincoln's assassination, the 14th of April, 1865, at the close of the rebellion, while yet the blackened ruins of your crumbling walls remained, though here and there new structures were rapidly rising, among which was the Eldridge House, now the Ludington, the successor of the Free State Hotel. The north side of the river was yet covered with the primeval forest, and the Delaware Indians with their tribal relations, were in full possession of their reservation. I returned again but a few
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days ago, my first visit since leaving, not delaying till the year 1900, as suggested in the editorial I shall read you.
In this connection allow me in few words to state a fact which should pass into history, that the first number of the Herald of Freedom, consisting of 21,000 copies, at a cash cost to me of $600, was printed on my power press at Conneautville, Pa., and complet- ed on the 21st of September, 1854, though bearing date a month later. The press was immediately taken down, boxed and shipped to Lawrence. The cylinder and much of the working part was broken at the destruction of the office, May 21, 1856, and though originally costing, without addition of freight, $2,250, I sold the old iron to Kimball Brothers for $40 to be recast and appear in other forms. Of the first number of the paper the entire edition was distributed at my expense, not to the press for complimentary notices, but to passengers on every western bound railroad train from Buffalo, Albany and Boston, to encourage emigration to this country, to which I was about going, I bringing with me a party of nearly three hundred, all raised by my own individual efforts, mostly in western Pennsylvania, some of whom have come several hundred miles from the interior to cheer us with their presence to-day.
For fear you will think I have but recently written and printed the papers from which I shall read, it gives me pleasure to learn that your State Historical Society has gathered with much care, has bound, and will carefully preserve such portion of my labors in Kansas as they could get possession of, comprising nearly all the numbers issued, and that you can verify my reading by con- sulting No. 44, Vol. 2, of date June 27, 1857, some twenty-two years ago.
I repeat, please remember that this description is an imagina- tive one only, written in 1857, with no prospects of a civil war, a Quantrill raid, of blackened ruins, with no intention of ever leav- ing Kansas, and of course, with no idea of returning to it in fact twenty two years after. In the light of what is realized to-day, and the nearness of the year 1900, who will suggest that nearly the only prophecy remained to be fulfilled, the trip from New York to San Francisco at an average rate of sixty miles an hour, will not be fully accomplished ? I am only saddened with the reflection that if permitted in reality to meet with you on that day so few of my worthy co-laborers will remain to give me a cordial, fraternal greeting with which they have all welcomed me at this, the almost exact half-way station.
Let us visit Lawrence in 1900, and see what is passing there and then. We left it in its youth, just at the close of the civil strife, and hardly re- covered from the discord and confusion produced by vandal hordes from beyond the rolling Missouri. Then it was a little hamlet upon the prairie, though giving promise of an energetic, thriving city, rising from the far- stretching plain beside the winding Kaw, where the wigwam of the savage and the forest stood in unison.
Before we came, huge posters stared us in the face, headed, "New
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THE KANSAS MEMORIAL.
York and San Francisco-through in three days !" and leaving the splendid depot at Duane street, we are buzzing away toward the West, at an average rate of sixty miles an hour, taking breakfast at St. Louis and supper perhaps in Lawrence, where we leave the train, which stops but a moment and then speeds on its way, with a precious freight of lives to where the Sierra arises in majesty above the rolling waves of the Pacific. Crossing the splendid bridge, a single span over the river, we take the Massachusetts street cars for the Oread House, a mile or two from the depot, where we sit down to a magnificent collation served up by the good-humored host; and while en- gaged thus, revert to the trying old days of the " St. Nicholas " and " Met- ropolitan," when bacon reigned supreme, and hominy held the important part of aid-de-camp. Later came the more modern and comfortable hotels of 1857, among which we recollect the Morrow and Central Houses and commodious Whitney, close to the antique ferry.
After supper we regale ourselves by a stroll through the city, visiting places which were of interest in times agone. Passing down the street, we come to the Free State Hotel, diminutive in comparison with the more splendid structures on either hand, though standing as a memorial of other days. When last we looked upon the spot, it was rising Phoenix-like from the ashes, while around were strewed the ruins caused by vandal hands. Far to the south stand, on both sides of the broad thoroughfare, beautiful and substantial edifices, which, fifty years ago, would have been a pride to eastern cities. A Babel-like sound comes from the busy denizens of the street, and the bang of closing shutters mingles with a strain of music from the balcony of Metropolitan Hall. In what was once a handsome glen just beyond the ravine stands the church of our recollection like the old Dutch edifice of Sleepy Hollow, serving to call to the memory of age a passing thought of early days on the Kansas border, when the gruff chal- lenge of " Free State or Pro-Slavery ?" rang out upon the air, and Lane's ragamuffins !- in Border Ruffian parlance-were encamped upon the prairie sward. Other streets of equal beauty traverse the city. New Hampshire, Winthrop and Vermont streets are models in their way, and many a gem of architectural beauty pleases the vision as we pass along. We left them with an existence hardly more than a name; we return to old familiar spots as having no superiors in the State. All, all is changed ! On either hand we read the evidence of progress, architectural, agricultural, mechanical and scientific. The old woods of the Delaware reserve are standing no longer. In their stead are the superb residences of our citizens, and thither now they have mostly retired. The sonorous peal from yon towering spire strikes the hour of ten ; the gas lights burn brightly far adown the street, like an extensive torch light procession. Here and there we see crowds trooping home from the various places of amusement, some toward the Oread, and thither we wend our way.
We have visited a portion of Lawrence in 1900-when shall we visit it again ?
Gladly I witnessed the almost complete realization of this an- cient dream; and in many respects more than fulfilled. Joyfully I greet my old-time fellow-laborers for the freedom of Kansas, each one of whom did the best he knew to accomplish the desired re- sult; sorrowfully I drop a tear with you as I recall the immortal dead who fell to secure the great boon of freedom to this fair land; trustfully I look forward to the year 1900, when, in my eightieth year, if living, if health and pecuniary circumstances will admit, I shall hope again to greet some of you; again grasp your warm hands, while we, with tender memories, will recount the glowing virtues of those gone before, as we now do those who have pre-
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ceded us, before taking my own final departure for the land of the unknowable and unknown.
A KANSAS SONGSTRESS.
Noble Prentis in Atchison Champion : "After Mr. Brown's reading was concluded, Miss Zella Neill, of Lawrence, with orches- tral accompaniment, sang, 'With Verdure Clad.' The sight of this modest, sweet-faced, plainly clad young Kansas girl, singing, seemed to this, possibly, sentimental writer, a more attractive vision than all the aged politicians he remembers to have met in Kansas. She sang like a bird, without self-consciousness or any of the vanities technically known as 'frills.' That the State has produced such a singer in twenty-five years ' from the sod,' is glory enough for one day. The young singer was applauded, not with ' faint praise,' but with a tumult of joyful hands. The applause rose and rang again and again, until Miss Neill came forward and repeated the selection. At its close some fellow in the crowd sang out, ' Good for a new settler,' whereat there was a great laugh and cheer. Gov. Robinson remarked that in this case the honors were divided between the singer, who was a new settler, and the orches- tra, who were partly new and partly old settlers." The words of Miss Neill's song were as follows :
" With verdure clad the fields appear, Delightful to the ravished sense ; By flowers sweet and gay Enhanced is the charming sight. Here fragrant herbs their odors shed ; Here shoots the healing plant ; With copious fruit the expanded boughs are hung ; In leafy arches twine the shady groves ; O'er lofty hills majestic forests wave."
ADDRESS BY HON. JAS. F. LEGATE.
GOVERNOR ROBINSON: In early times, when it was a little dangerous to live here, one did not know what was going to hap. pen from one day to another. I remember when the Congressional Committee was here taking testimony ; they had started for Topeka and had stopped at Tecumseh to take some testimony; I remem- ber that that committee was composed of John Sherman, now Secretary of the Treasury, and several others. Mrs. Robinson and myself went up one day and met them at Topeka. I think it was at Tecumseh we met one of the grand jurors, and he informed us that the free state government was to be broken up; that the governor of that institution was to be indicted; and, when it sat
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in Shawnee county, the Topeka Legislature was to be indicted- and we found that what he there said was carried out. One of that grand jury was James F. Legate. We had a duel in our first constitutional convention, but it was bloodless. I was going to say that I was acting as second for one of the parties. They passed a resolution in the convention that anybody that took part in a duel should be expelled, so I turned my case over to James F. Legate, who will now address you.
Mr. Legate spoke as follows : Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen :
I came here to-day hardly expecting to speak, or expecting, if called on, to draw largely upon the only speech I ever made in my life, which was to an agricultural society up in Doniphan, and I confess to you that I am not only grieved, but chagrined, to find that the first speech that was made by Governor Robinson was composed of about one-half of that speech of mine Governor Robinson should have done better and should not have remem- bered so well what Sol. Miller printed. The other half of his speech was made up out of his message to the first Legislature, and what Charles Sumner had said. There is one thing that I can say and that is, that that portion of his speech which was a copy of mine was a most elegant address. I did not think that any one else would draw upon that speech, but it seems that my friend Holliday also reads Sol. Miller's paper, and he, likewise, appropri- ated a portion of it, which I don't think was exactly fair, so I am a little vexed at him. He went back to the days of Lycurgus, and brought him back here and made him one of the old settlers. Well, I was tolerably satisfied when he got through, but up comes Governor St. John, who pulled out his old geography and went over the Great American Desert, almost word for word, as I did up in Doniphan. I don't think it exactly fair of these gentlemen to thus rob me of the chance of making a speech. I then began to think of Geary and Brindle and old Judge Smith, and had woven in my brain the material for a pretty good speech-but, my God! George Crawford went over the same ground, and the Lord only knows what he would not have covered up if he had not stopped. My Doniphan county speech is therefore exhausted. What, then, is there left for me to talk about? We are here to-day to review the events of the past; and there are many things in the past that we have seen and realized, that taught many a lesson for the pres- ent and future. We have heard a great deal to-day about the early settlers of Kansas and the early settlement of Lawrence. Sometimes I laugh to myself about those early settlers. There was not one of them-no, not one-who realized the work he was doing. Why, I remember, twenty-five years ago, when the free state men of Kansas (and that meant Lawrence, Topeka and a few fellows over in Leavenworth) would hold a convention as often as
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