John Alexander Martin

“ I welcome you as the accredited representatives of one of the largest bodies of American workmen. I welcome you as representatives of a craft whose knowledge of affairs, and familiarity with events of current importance, is more general and intimate than is that of any other body of American workmen. I greet you as men whose art preserves all other arts; whose skill is the voice of every craft; whose labor instructs all other laborers; whose work exalts and inspires the active brains and trained fingers of every man and woman employed in any of the activities of this busy world. ”

“ Has it allied humanity with justice? Has its rule promoted enterprise, fostered agriculture, encouraged industry, and nourished commerce? Has it endeavored to further morality, to promote sobriety, to suppress vice, to punish crime, to abolish drunkenness, and to curb and scourge lawlessness? Has it, in brief, in the discharge of its public trusts, made this State a great, prosperous, intelligent, law-respecting commonwealth, in which every citizen enjoys the largest possible liberty consistent with social order and a due regard for the rights of his fellow-men? ”

“ Plodding along in all the walks and ways of our now peaceful and quiet Kansas life are men who have fought on every battle-field of the civil war; men who were active participants in all the events of the greatest and most stirring drama of the world’s history; men whose personal recollections embrace the story of every march, camp, bivouac, skirmish and battle in which the armies of the Union engaged; men whose blood has been poured out in every combat where patriotism maintained the supremacy of our flag. ”

“ A million and a quarter of people, living in the richest and most prosperous State of the Union—a State gridironed by railways, dotted with school-houses and churches, and growing steadily, not only in wealth and power and influence, but in all the elements of the most advanced civilization—the Kansas of to-day is alike the pride of her own citizens, and the wonder and admiration of the whole civilized world. ”

“ Contempt for and disregard of law naturally lead to anarchy, and anarchy, soon becoming intolerable, invites despotism. Nations prosper, peoples thrive, as their laws are wise, humane, and just; but even a bad law is better than no law at all. Lawlessness means disorder, tumult, crime; it means the oppression of the weak by the strong; and, in the end, it means despotism. A people who cannot make and obey their own laws will, just as certainly as the sun will rise to-morrow morning, at last invite the rule of an autocrat who will make laws for them.
No system of government is perfect. ”

“ The best government is that which makes all men equal before the throne of its Constitution and its laws. This country, this government, as I firmly believe, is the United States. You share in this belief, and so believing, you have taken our National Festival to your hearts, and made it your Festival, to celebrate, to be proud of, to honor and to revere. I greet you, therefore, not as Swedes, but as fellow-citizens. I rejoice in your prosperity. I acknowledge the brave, energetic part you have taken in the work of developing the resources of Kansas. ”

“ Looking back over the records of our eventful, often stormy past, and contemplating the prosperous present and hopeful future of Kansas, it has seemed to me that one great duty this State of ours has forgotten. All nations, all States, have delighted to perpetuate, in the names they have given to their cities or counties, the memory of those who, in times of great trouble and danger, testified their devotion to the welfare of the people by a courageous, steadfast, self-sacrificing defense of their rights and liberties. ”

“ Fields and meadows are rich with herds and flocks. The face of the land has been transformed with forests, orchards and hedge-rows. Everywhere is growth, improvement, increase; everywhere are the evidences of culture, thrift, and enterprise; everywhere the promise of a larger, broader life, and a firmer, deeper faith in the greatness and glory of Kansas. Here is the Central State, the Sunflower State, the Soldier State, and within its borders prosperity and order, intelligence and sobriety, industry and enterprise, go hand in hand. ”

“ Attracting the best brain and brawn of the civilized world, Kansas has fused all into a homogeneous and cosmopolitan people, whose achievements have been a wonder and a model for all the generations of men. In less than three decades the men and women of Kansas have wiped a desert from the map of America and replaced it with eighty-two thousand square miles of cultivated fields, and fragrant meadows, and towering forests; have dotted the whole of this vast territory with prosperous cities, towns and villages; have sent a locomotive whistling through nearly every county ”

“ Rally around the old banner of Republicanism—the flag of Lincoln, and Grant, and Garfield, and Logan, and Blaine. Vote with and for the party that gave liberty to the slave, and restored the Union and brought back peace and prosperity to bless a distracted and impoverished land. Vote with the party that has made Kansas famous throughout the civilized world as a State where unexampled material growth has gone hand in hand with unexampled social and intellectual progress. Vote with the party that is striving to make every home in Kansas a prosperous and happy home. ”

“ The impulse which sent millions of men into the field to defend the honor of our flag, will be celebrated, in song and story, as long as the world shall endure. The march of the armies of industry and peace across the plains, peopling their solitudes, conquering the wilderness, and forcing from a reluctant soil its fatness, is an achievement equally romantic and inspiring. And you, people of Western Kansas, are the heroes of this conquest—the leaders in this great victory of peace, no less renowned than those of war. ”

“ It is no wonder that public indignation is intensifying against these miscreants, and that the demand for laws that will deal with them promptly and sternly, is swelling into a popular clamor. Less than a quarter of a century ago more than two million men rallied around their country’s flag, and cheerfully offered their lives that the Republic might be preserved. It is a glorious banner—the brave old flag of the stars and stripes. It is the flag of Yorktown, and Gettysburg, and Chicamauga, and Vicksburg, and Appomattox. Every man who lives where it floats is a freeman and a sovereign. ”

“ So if you make a practice of inviting Kansans to visit you to see something you have to show, and then call on them to talk, you may not be able to catch them again. Kansans are not accustomed to blowing their own horns. You never heard a Kansan exalting the wealth and prosperity of his State, did you? Or telling any one that Kansas was the center, the glory, the bright particular star of the Universe? ”

“ They will welcome you as men who brought from the gloom of the past the lights of the present and the hopes of the future. They will welcome you as soldiers who rescued the Republic from anarchy; as heroes who brought Union, Liberty and Peace out of the smoke and flames of civil war. They will welcome you as fellow-citizens whose energy, enterprise and industry are building up, here in the heart of the Continent, the greatest and most prosperous State in the Union. ”

“ If every saloon in Kansas should be closed to-morrow, and never reopened, would any man, woman or child within the limits of the State be injured? Has whisky, since the first drop was distilled, ever benefited any man who drank it, or made the life of any wife, mother or sister any happier, or brought joy to the heart or smiles to the lips of a little child? Has any good ever come out of the saloon? Has any human being been hurt or harmed, in any town or city of this State, by the closing of the saloons? ”

“ It embraces within its ranks the best heart and brain of the American people. It is the party of proud memories and glorious aspirations. It has never done anything it has to apologize for or feel ashamed of. It has governed the country wisely, honestly, bravely. It is as great a party to-day as it was when Abraham Lincoln led it to victory, or when Ulysses S. Grant was its commander, or when James A. Garfield was its chosen candidate. Alike in fields of war, or finance, or administration, it has justified the highest expectations of the loyalty, the honesty and the intelligence of the Nation. ”

“ The excitement of a soldier’s life, the changing scenes of march and camp, the inspiration of comradeship, the pride of duty well performed, the sustaining power of organization and numbers—all these were denied them. Powerless except to suffer, voiceless except to pray, and yet patient, self-sacrificing and brave, mothers, wives, sisters and sweethearts of this land felt every shot that echoed on the battle-fields of the war as a wound, and staggered under the load of every hardship or privation our soldiers were called upon to endure. ”

“ A fertile soil, a healthful climate, an intelligent, enterprising and brave people—these are the enduring foundations on which has been built our great and prosperous Commonwealth. Kansas is, so to speak, “all wool and a yard wide.” Kansas is sound in wind and limb. Kansas is the electric light of the Union. Kansas is the State of great crops, great herds, great flocks, great railroads, great school-houses, great development and great prosperity. ”

“ And in that single sentence what volumes of precious history, what glorious records of heroism, sacrifices and patriotism are condensed! What a noble lifting of all that is exalting in human nature, what a splendid record of patient devotion to duty, what self-forgetfulness and magnificent courage does it stand for! What centuries of human progress does it typify! It was a war for Freedom and National Unity. It was not waged for conquest, nor glory, nor ambition. It was a war to preserve, for all the generations of men, the priceless 104heritage of self-government. ”

“ Ours is a people’s government, a Republican government, in which the majority rule and ought to rule. And he is neither a good Republican nor a true American who refuses to subordinate his own opinions, his own preferences or prejudices, to the decision of the majority. This is the very foundation-stone on which the whole fabric of our government rests. Destroy it, remove it, and lawlessness, anarchy, civil war, are the natural and inevitable consequences. I believe in the right of the people to rule. ”

“ There is in me, therefore, no lack of gratitude for the signal honor conferred upon me by the people of Kansas. Indeed, the measure of my gratitude is so full and overflowing that it weighs upon me. I feel under obligations to so many people, I am profoundly grateful to so many, that when I think of it all, and of how I am to testify my gratitude or requite the obligations I am under, I am overwhelmed with a sense of the poverty of my vocabulary of thankfulness, and of the vain aspiration of my desire to return even a tithe of my multitudinous obligations. ”

“ The map of Kansas is dotted all over with prosperous, steadily-growing towns and cities, where beautiful homes abound, where pleasant school rooms welcome throngs of eager children, where church bells chime, where the roar and clatter of mills and factories blend with the clangor of hurrying trains, where the streets are noisy with commerce, and where business and industrial thrift, and the charms of congenial and intelligent society, unite to make life opulent and happy. ”

“ No man who belonged to it ever made money out of the war. One and all, officers and men, they came out of the army as poor in purse as when they entered it; but they brought back and deposited in the State House at Topeka three torn and tattered flags that all the wealth of this year’s harvest could not buy. Kansas will preserve among her priceless treasures, as long as her government shall endure, these ragged and faded flags—all that remain of the Eighth Kansas Volunteer Infantry except its few hundred scattered survivors and the history with which it glorified the name of the State. ”

“ I appeal from Philip drunk with partisan prejudice, to Philip sober enough to realize the wonderful growth and to be proud of the splendid State we inhabit. Here is the Kansas of our love and our faith—look around you and see it. Every citizen of the State, no matter what his political opinions may be, is proud of Kansas. And yet Kansas, more than any other region under the shining stars, is the product, the child of the Republican party. ”

“ I am speaking of and criticising, not this class of farmers, but the farmer who, having secured a good farm and a fair competency, goes on living his old life of monotonous drudgery, and compels the faithful wife, who has been the companion of his toils and his struggles, to live it with him.
Of what benefit is money, if it does not purchase some of the comforts of life? Of what value are expanding acres and luxuriant crops, if they do not bring in their train the delights of a pleasant and cheerful home? ”

“ I am grateful, especially, to the thousands of earnest, enthusiastic young men whose torches, for weeks, turned night into day from Doniphan to Barber, and from Cherokee to Cheyenne, and who, with flashing flambeaux, blazing rockets and loud hurrahs, often did what neither the logic, the eloquence nor the wit of orators could do, to arouse the sluggish and convert the doubtful. I am grateful to the bright, enterprising, enthusiastic journalists of Kansas—and no State in the Union can boast of brighter or better newspapers than can Kansas—who so ardently and intelligently supported me. ”

“ With the exception of my own regiment, I had, during the war, a more familiar acquaintance with the First than with any other body of Kansas troops. And the First represented, probably more than any other regiment, that magnificent uplifting of national pride, patriotism and enthusiasm which succeeded the first shot at Sumter. No man who cannot remember the spirit of that hour can have any conception of the fierce, strong, irresistible outburst which flowed over the whole land when the flash of that gun revealed the Nation’s danger. ”

“ They are educated by the State, as teachers, for the purpose of elevating the standard and qualifications of its public educators, and they should feel in honor bound to fulfill this implied personal obligation.
And surely there can be no nobler ambition than to be a really great teacher—such a teacher, for example, as Arnold of Rugby, or Horace Mann. To rule and shape human minds, to mould and fashion children and youth for the highest and noblest duties of life—is not this a work which should enlist in its service the best heart and brain of all the land? ”

“ It is no vain-glorious or empty boasting to declare, as I do, that to have served in the Eighth Kansas is a fact of which any man has a just right to be proud. No regiment in the army of the Union during the civil war can cite participation in campaigns of greater magnitude, events of more romantic and exciting interest, or marches over a vaster scope of country. Nor did any regiment more conspicuously illustrate, in camp or field, a loftier devotion to duty, a more unselfish patriotism, or a more constant courage. ”