Speech delivered at Topeka, September 15, 1886.

Mr. Chairman, and Ladies and Gentlemen: The campaign in Kansas this year is what is called an “off-year” contest. The intense enthusiasm, the fierce excitement, the great processions, with flags and banners and music and resounding hurrahs; the marvelous interest, dwarfing and absorbing all other concerns, and even paralyzing for months the every-day business pursuits and industries of the people—all these will be wanting in the campaign of 1886. And yet the interests involved in the election that will be held in November next are as momentous, and the issues depending on its result are quite as important to the State, as were the interests and issues depending upon the result at the ballot-box in 1884. The one officer who was to be elected then, and is not to be chosen now, was the President. We are to choose, in November next, as we did two years ago, a full board of State officers, seven Congressmen, a State Legislature, a Judge of the Supreme Court, and nearly half of our county officers. We are to elect men who will make our laws, National and State, as well as men who will execute our State laws. And as good local government really concerns each individual citizen far more than do the acts of the President, because it touches each and every citizen more directly, it has always seemed to me that the people, if they have a proper regard for their own interests, ought to regard the “off-year” elections with quite as deep interest, if not more anxious solicitude, than they do the choice of a President.

DEMOCRACY IN KANSAS.

I appear before you as the candidate of a great party, honored by its confidence and proud to bear its standard, to ask you in its name for your support. I have been a citizen of this State for nearly thirty years. I came here, a boy of 18, when Kansas was a poor, weak, distracted Territory, rent and torn by civil war, invaded by hordes of ruffians and marauders, and suffering under all the evils of the worst government that ever harassed and oppressed a free people. For more than two years this intolerable lawlessness had prevailed—for nearly three years longer it continued; and the party that confronts us to-day, and is asking your support, is the same party that, from 1854 to 1861, held Kansas by the throat, and by fraud, and murder, and arson, and turbulence, and every crime that ever disgraced humanity, endeavored to fasten upon it the curse of Human Slavery.

Beaten in its attempt to enslave Kansas, the Democratic party plunged the whole country into civil war, and for four long and bloody years the Nation struggled on to universal freedom and national unity; and this young State, that had been fighting for five years to get into the Union, now had to fight for four years more to preserve the Union. Republicanism and Kansas were wedded together in this long and terrible struggle. When Jefferson Davis marched out of the Senate, William H. Seward moved to take up the Kansas bill, and as the coat-tails of the Rebel chief disappeared through one door, young Kansas, smiling and triumphant, marched in at the other.

REPUBLICAN CONTROL IN KANSAS.

For twenty-four years the Republican party controlled the government of the Republic, and from that day to this the Republican party has moulded, directed, and controlled the affairs and destiny of Kansas. Has the trust reposed in the Republican party by the people of this State been misplaced or betrayed? Has it administered the government wisely and humanely? Has it justified, by its conduct, the reasonable expectations of an intelligent people? Has it enacted wise laws? Has it honestly collected and disbursed the public revenues? Has it maintained peace? Has it made liberal provisions for the education of our youth? Has it fostered institutions for the care and maintenance of the unfortunate? Has it remembered that the only liberty that is valuable, is liberty founded on just laws, and connected with public order? 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? If these questions can be answered in the affirmative, the Republican party has a just right to expect that the people of Kansas will continue to give it their confidence and support.

What, then, are the facts? Kansas celebrated only a few months ago, the first quarter-century of her existence as a State. During all that period, as I have said, the Republican party has controlled its destinies and administered its government. The accidental break in the Governorship four years ago does not modify this assertion, for the Legislature was, during that period, Republican by an overwhelming majority; all the other State officers were Republicans, and the local governments of the State were, as a rule, of similar faith. The Republicans, therefore, controlled public affairs just as certainly and as firmly, during the years 1882 and 1883, as they did before and have since.

What, then, has been the history of Kansas under Republican rule? Its growth is without parallel in the history of American States. In 1860 Kansas had a population of only 107,206, and ranked as the thirty-third State of the Union. To-day our population is fully 1,500,000, and Kansas ranks as the fourteenth State. During the past quarter of a century Kansas has passed ahead of all the Northern States except eight, and all of the Southern States except five. All of the other great States of the Union were from fifty to a hundred years in attaining the population Kansas has reached in thirty years. In 1860 we had only three towns with a population exceeding 1,000; we have now over one hundred each having a population in excess of 1,000; twelve having each over 5,000, and four with over 15,000 inhabitants.

Twenty-five years ago we produced only 6,000,000 bushels of corn and 194,000 bushels of wheat per annum; last year we produced 194,000,000 bushels of corn and 11,000,000 bushels of wheat. In 1860 the farm crops of Kansas were valued at less than $150,000; last year their value exceeded $92,000,000. In 1860 the farm products of Kansas, including crops, products of live stock, etc., were valued at less than $5,000,000; in 1885 their value was nearly $144,000,000. In 1860 less than 150,000 acres were under cultivation; last year the area was nearly 15,000,000 acres. In 1860 only 1,778,400 acres were taxable; in 1885 over 27,710,000 acres. In 1860 the live stock of Kansas was valued at less than $3,000,000; in 1885 the valuation reached nearly $118,000,000. The value of the farm products of Kansas for the year 1885 aggregated near three-fourths of the value of the gold and silver products of the whole civilized world, and were more than double the value of the products of all the gold and silver mines in the United States. In 1860 the assessed valuation of all the property of Kansas, real and personal, was less than $23,000,000; for 1885 it was nearly $249,000,000. The railroads of Kansas are assessed, for the year 1886, at $32,434,936, or more than double the valuation of all the real estate in 1860. We had not a mile of railway within our borders in 1864—we now have 5,117 miles. Every county in the State, except twenty, is now traversed by one or more railroads, and within the present year fully 500 miles of new road will be added to the lines we already have.

In educational privileges, what State can equal Kansas? Our State University, Agricultural College and Normal School are institutions of which every intelligent Kansan is justly proud, and our common-school system, supplemented by dozens of denominational or private academies and colleges, is wonderful in the scope and extent of the educational facilities provided. We had only 154 school houses and employed only 189 teachers in 1860; we now have more than 7,000 school houses, in which fully 9,000 teachers are employed to instruct 350,000 scholars. In 1861 the amount expended for the support of common schools was only $1,700; the expenditures in 1885, for the same purpose, aggregated $2,977,763. During the past quarter of a century Kansas has expended, for school buildings and the support of public schools, including our institutions for higher education, fully $35,000,000.

Churches have multiplied with proportionate rapidity. In 1860 we had only ninety-seven church buildings, costing an aggregate of only $143,950; in 1885 we have over 3,000, valued at more than $3,000,000.

In 1860 only twenty-seven newspapers were published in Kansas; we now have over 650, of which fully forty are dailies, and their aggregate circulation exceeds 400,000 copies. Every county in the State, organized or unorganized, now has one or more newspapers, and no other State in the Union can boast of a more enterprising and intelligently-conducted press than that of Kansas.

The provisions made for the unfortunate have been most generous. Two asylums for the insane have been erected; and the institutions for the blind and for the deaf and dumb are among the largest and best in the United States. An asylum for feeble-minded children has been provided. The Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home, a noble charity, illustrating the grateful loyalty of our people, will soon be completed. A Reform School for wayward boys is in successful operation; and the State, following the example of the most advanced commonwealths, is now erecting an industrial reformatory for the confinement of law-breakers who are not hardened criminals, thus removing this class, who may possibly be reclaimed by wholesome discipline, from the degradation of the penitentiary.

In citing these facts and figures showing the marvelous growth of Kansas, I am not asserting or intimating that our fellow-citizens of other political organizations have not contributed their full share of the revenues necessary to build and maintain the institutions enumerated. Nor do I claim that to Republicans alone is due all credit for the marvelous growth of Kansas. That would be a folly of which I hope I am not capable. But it is true that this wonderful development could not and would not have occurred if the government of the State had been what our political opponents assert it has been—corrupt, tyrannical, weak and bad. I appeal to the average common sense of any good citizen to make answer whether Kansas could possibly be what it is to-day, one of the greatest and most prosperous States of the Union, if its government had been the weak and wicked thing Democratic orators and newspapers assert that it has been? 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. Republicans have guided and directed its growth and development from its infancy to the full stature of its splendid manhood. Republican intelligence, Republican policy, Republican courage, enterprise and sagacity, have inspired its laws, established and moulded its institutions, and controlled every step and stage of its marvelous development. There is no State in the American Union where there are, in proportion to population, so many happy and prosperous homes as are found in the State of Kansas. There is no State where so many men sit down every day to substantial meals, nor where so many wives and children are comfortably clad—no people anywhere on earth of whom so large a proportion are sober, intelligent and contented with their lot, as here in Kansas. And this great State, as I have said, is the child of the Republican party—bone of its bone, and flesh of its flesh. It has grown great and powerful and prosperous, because it has grown up under Republican laws and Republican direction. Its schools, its churches, its charities, its institutions, its industries, have been planted, nurtured and promoted under the encouragement of Republican intelligence. Kansas is a shining illustration of the beneficence of Republican policy and principles. Its growth has surpassed that of any other American State, because Kansas has always been a Republican State. The people know this. The most bitterly prejudiced Democrat in the land realizes it, wonders at it, and in his secret heart rejoices over it.

THE TWO PLATFORMS.

Our Democratic opponents, however, challenge the right of the Republican party to a renewal of public confidence. And on what grounds? Read their platform, and you will see that the first and principal plank is a general and very bitter denunciation of “all sumptuary laws, State or National,” and an emphatic demand for a return to the license system. They are opposed, the platform declares, “to the principle of constitutional prohibition.” They regard it as an invasion of “the individual liberty and manhood of the citizen.” And they favor, “instead of constitutional or statutory prohibition, a well-regulated and just license system.”

The Republican platform, on the other hand, declares that “the people of Kansas have adopted prohibition as the settled policy of the State, and have declared that the saloon, with its corrupt and demoralizing influences, must go.” The Republicans are, therefore, the platform declares, “in favor of carrying out this verdict of the people, by enacting laws to enforce it, and by faithfully executing those laws, so that the sale of intoxicating liquors, except for the purposes specified in the Constitution, may be made impossible.”

On this question, as you will see, the two parties radically disagree. The Republicans take their stand fairly on the Constitution of the State—on the action of the sovereign people of the State, who by their votes have placed the liquor traffic and the saloon under the ban of their organic law. The Democrats denounce the Constitution and laws of the State, and favor a return to the license system.

Prohibition, it should be remembered, was not originally a party or partisan policy. Neither the Republican nor the Democratic party is responsible for the fact that the prohibition amendment to the Constitution was adopted. That was the act of the sovereign people of Kansas, acting in their individual capacity, without partisan or party indorsement or direction.

HISTORIC PARALLELS.

But in another sense, the Republican party is responsible for prohibition. It was always and is everywhere the party of law and good government. It stood for the constitution and laws during the dark and desolate days of 1861–5, and grew to manhood amid the perils and trials of a monstrous rebellion against a people’s government, and the people’s verdict that the aggressions of human slavery must cease. When the people of Kansas adopted the constitutional amendment of 1880, and decreed that the saloon, with its corrupt and demoralizing influences, must go, the Republican party accepted this decision, and a Republican Legislature enacted laws to enforce it. The Democratic party, from that day to this, has constantly and persistently endeavored to nullify the constitutional amendment and the people’s verdict against the saloon. History, it is said, repeats itself, and certainly the history of the Democratic refusal to accept the decision of the people of Kansas on the question of prohibition, and the Democratic refusal to accept the result of the election of 1860, afford striking parallels. In 1860 slavery crouched behind armed rebellion; in 1886 the saloon crouches behind Democratic nullification. The Republican party was the party of the Constitution and the laws in 1861; it is the party of the Constitution and the laws to-day. In 1861 the Democratic party advocated and defended that sum of all villainies, human slavery; it is to-day advocating and defending that fruitful source of vice, poverty, and crime, the liquor traffic. The Republican party was right in 1861; it is right now. In 1865 it made every man beneath the flag free and equal, and to-day it is striving to make every home in Kansas a happier home. It has loyally and honestly accepted the solemn duty devolved upon it by the people’s verdict against the sale of intoxicating liquors except for certain specified purposes, and it intends to enforce this verdict faithfully and firmly.

THE GROWTH OF KANSAS SINCE THE PROHIBITION LAW TOOK EFFECT.

Our opponents assert, however, that prohibition has damaged the material prosperity of the State.

Where are the evidences to establish this fact? What is the truth? The prohibition amendment was adopted in 1880, and the first law to enforce it went into effect in May, 1881. We have had, therefore, more than five years of actual experience, and I appeal to the facts of the census to answer the assertion that prohibition has done injury to the material interests of Kansas.

In 1880 the population of the State was 996,096. We had been twenty-five years in attaining that population. To-day Kansas has not less than 1,500,000 inhabitants. In five years we have gained half a million. In 1880 only 55 towns and cities had a population exceeding 1,000, and six had each over 5,000. In 1885, 91 towns and cities each had over 1,000, and twelve had each over 5,000. In 1880 we had only 8,868,884 acres under cultivation; in 1885 we had 14,252,815 acres. In 1880 the farms of Kansas were valued at only $235,178,936, and the farm products for that year aggregated only $84,521,486; in 1885 the farms of the State were valued at $408,073,454, and the farm products of that year aggregated $143,577,018. In 1880 the live stock of Kansas was worth only $61,563,950; in 1885 it was worth $117,881,699. In 1880 the assessed valuation of the property of Kansas, real, personal and railroad, aggregated $160,891,689; in 1885 it aggregated $248,845,276. In 1880 we had only 3,104 miles of railway; we have now 5,117 miles. In 1880 we had 5,315 school houses; in 1885 we had 6,673. In 1880 we expended $1,818,336 for the support of our common schools; in 1885 we expended $2,977,763. In 1880 we had only 357 newspapers and 2,514 churches; in 1885 we had 581 newspapers and 3,976 churches.

Do these figures prove the assertion of those “weeping Jeremiahs” who believed, or affected to believe, that the prosperity and growth of Kansas depended upon the saloons? Do they not, on the contrary, establish the fact that the growth of Kansas during the past six years—the six years of prohibition—has far exceeded any other period of the State’s marvelous development?

DOES PROHIBITION PROHIBIT?

Our opponents allege, again, that “prohibition does not prohibit;” that the saloons are simply transformed into drug stores, and keep on selling liquor as before; and that drinking and drunkenness have really increased since the prohibition law went into effect. If these assertions are true, what have they to complain of? If prohibition does not prohibit, why do the men who want to open saloons, and make a living by making their fellow-men drunk, oppose prohibition? If a saloon can be so easily transformed into a drug store, why don’t all the saloon-keepers adopt that course? If drinking and drunkenness have increased, why are those who profit by drinking and drunkenness, and all their allies and supporters, so bitterly opposed to prohibition?

The distress of the gentlemen who so vehemently argue that “prohibition does not prohibit,” recalls one of President Lincoln’s quaint stories. Gen. Grant was winning victories in the West, but his success inspired the usual jealousies and rivalries, and the President was frequently advised that Grant was a failure, and urged to remove him. This criticism and fault-finding continued even after the surrender of Vicksburg. The wiseacres insisted that Grant had made a fatal mistake in paroling Pemberton’s army, and argued that the paroled men would, in a brief time, swell the ranks of other Confederate armies. The President had been patient until then, but when this argument was made, he turned on the critics, and, with a sly twinkle, asked: “Did you ever hear about Bill Sykes’s yellow dog?” They said they hadn’t. “Well,” said Mr. Lincoln, “Sykes had a yellow dog he set great store by, but there was a lot of boys in town who didn’t share Sykes’s opinion. In fact, they regarded Sykes’s yellow dog as a nuisance. So they finally fixed up a cartridge with a long fuse, put the cartridge in a piece of meat, dropped the meat in the road near Sykes’s house, and then, having perched themselves on a fence near by, with the end of the fuse in their hands, whistled for the dog. When he came out he scented the meat, and bolted it, cartridge and all. The boys touched off the fuse, and in a moment there was an explosion. Sykes rushed out to see what was the matter, and found the ground covered with pieces of yellow dog. He picked up the biggest piece he could find, and after mournfully regarding it for a moment, sorrowfully said: ‘Well, I guess he’ll never be much account again—as a dog.’ And,” added the President, “I guess Pemberton’s army will never be of much account again—as an army.” Looking at the fragments of the whisky traffic scattered over the State, in jails, or seated on store-boxes swearing that “prohibition doesn’t prohibit,” or across the border in Missouri—looking at these scattered fragments, it may fairly be said that, like Sykes’s dog, the whisky business in Kansas will never be of much account again—as a business.

SALES OF LIQUOR BY DRUGGISTS.

It is unfortunate that the law does not require probate judges to make returns, to some State officer, of the sales of intoxicating liquor reported to them by the druggists of the State. In the absence of such returns accurate figures cannot of course be furnished. But it is possible to make up, from such official reports as are attainable, a reasonably accurate estimate of the liquor traffic in Kansas, and this I shall endeavor to do. In one of the oldest and most populous counties of this State—a county having nearly 25,000 inhabitants, and not a saloon within its borders—the official returns made to the probate judge, for the month of July last, show less than 1,500 sales. There are now ninety-three organized counties in the State. Seventy-nine of them have populations ranging from 2,500 to 25,000; and only fourteen have populations in excess of 25,000. In more than one-half of the counties of Kansas the sales of liquors by druggists will not reach 1,500 per month; in less than one-half the sales will probably exceed that number. Considering all the facts, however, it is fair to accept the official sales made in the county to which I have referred as an average for each other county. On this basis, with ninety-three counties, each averaging 1,500 sales per month, the aggregate for the entire State would be 139,500 sales per month, or 1,674,000 per year, or not much more than one sale per annum for each inhabitant.

It has been ascertained, also, by thoroughly competent and reliable investigation, that the sales of liquor by druggists do not average, in value, to exceed 40 cents for each sale. I will, however, make the estimate liberal, and call the money value of each sale 50 cents. And as the sales by druggists aggregate 1,674,000 per year, their pecuniary value, at 50 cents each, aggregates $837,200.

THE SALOON TRAFFIC IN LIQUORS.

Now, compare these figures with the saloon traffic in liquors. In this city, the capital of the State, there were, in January, 1885, seventy saloons. It has been ascertained, by the most careful and accurate investigation, that the expenses of saloons for rent, fuel, lights, city license, taxes, lawyers’ fees, help, liquors, etc., cannot average less than $20 per day. The expenses of some, of course, do not exceed $5 or $10 per day, but those of others reach $30 to $50 per day; so that $20 is a fair average. Hence, the seventy saloons open in Topeka until January, 1885, must have received an aggregate of $1,400 per day to cover their expenses, or, allowing 10 per cent. for profit, $1,540 per day. And as the saloon, where it exists, is open 365 days in the year, the seventy saloons of the city of Topeka, in order to meet their expenses and realize a profit of 10 per cent., must have received the enormous sum of $562,100 per annum. In other words, the 23,490 people of the city of Topeka then expended in the saloons more than two-thirds as much money for alcoholic liquors as all the people of the State of Kansas now expend in the drug stores for the same purpose.

Let me make the comparison still more plain. There were, in Topeka, seventy saloons, which would be one for every 335 of its then inhabitants. A like ratio for the State would give Kansas, with its 1,500,000 inhabitants, 4,477 saloons. The expenses of these, at $20 per day, and 10 per cent. profit, would aggregate the enormous sum of $35,950,310 per year. In other words, while the sales of liquor in Kansas by the druggists now aggregate only $837,200 per annum, if we had in Kansas as many saloons in proportion to population as had this city from 1881 to 1885, their sales, in order to meet their daily expenses, must aggregate $98,494 per day, or $35,950,310 per annum—$35,113,110 more than the sales by the druggists now aggregate.

A still more startling comparison is afforded by the statistics of the saloon business of Leavenworth. There are, it is reported, 230 saloons in that city, or one for every 127 of its 29,268 inhabitants. To meet the expenses of these saloons, estimating them at an average of only $15 per day each, requires receipts aggregating $3,450 per day, or $1,259,250 per annum—$422,250 more than is received by all the druggists of Kansas for all the liquors they sell. A like ratio for the whole State would give Kansas 11,811 saloons, whose daily expenses, at $15 per day, would aggregate the enormous sum of $177,165 per day, or $64,665,225 per year—just $63,828,225 more than the sales by the druggists now aggregate.

I want to add, too, that in my judgment, the assertions sometimes made, that the drug stores of Kansas have all been transformed into saloons, are absolutely false. I am acquainted with many of the druggists of this State, and know them to be honorable, law-respecting, conscientious citizens, who would not only scorn to do an illegal act for pecuniary profit, but who are far above and beyond the meanness of selling liquors as a beverage. There is no class of business men in the State who stand higher in the esteem and respect of all good citizens than do our druggists, and the attempt on the part of the Democratic party and its allies to degrade their business to the low level of the saloons, and to blacken and stain their reputation as honorable and law-respecting citizens, is unspeakably outrageous. It is true, no doubt, that there are men engaged in the drug business who disgrace it by violating the Constitution and laws, and who, for pecuniary profit, sell liquors for other than the excepted purposes of the Constitution. But these men are the exception, and not the rule, among the druggists of Kansas, and sooner or later the law will reach and punish them, and drive them out of the business they degrade. Those, however, who place druggists generally in this class, are either stupid or malicious slanderers of men who, as a class, are honorable citizens, engaged in a reputable and legitimate business. The sale of liquor for certain purposes is expressly authorized by the Constitution and the laws, and sales for these purposes are far larger than most people suppose. Alcohol is sold for hundreds of mechanical and scientific uses, strictly within the permission of the Constitution, and all varieties of intoxicating liquors are prescribed by learned and reputable physicians, for medical use. The sales for these legitimate and lawful uses constitute, I have no doubt, a very large proportion of the sales made by the druggists of Kansas; so that the quantity of intoxicating liquors sold as a beverage is reduced to a very small amount, and this amount will grow smaller year after year.

THE SOBER, LAW-RESPECTING STATE.

My fellow-citizens, those who assert that the drug stores have been transformed into saloons, or that drinking and drunkenness have increased in Kansas, ought to know that they are not telling the truth. There is not an intelligent, observing man in Kansas who does not know that drinking and drunkenness have been enormously diminished in this State during the past five years. It is no doubt true that liquor is sold in many places, in violation of law. But no intelligent, truthful man, who knows what the condition of affairs was six or eight years ago, and is to-day, will deny that a great reform has already been accomplished. I have traveled over the State a great deal during the past two years. I have attended public meetings in a hundred different towns and cities—political meetings, soldiers’ reunions, fairs and other gatherings, at which from 3,000 to 50,000 people were assembled—and it is one of the rarest of things to see a single person under the influence of liquor. I have heard hundreds of people speak of this remarkable fact, and always with satisfaction and pride. Wherever the saloon has been banished, nineteen-twentieths of all the drinking and drunkenness prevailing have been abolished with it. The social feature of the drinking habit goes with the saloon, and this social feature—the American habit of treating—is responsible for nine-tenths of all the drinking and drunkenness in America. The loafing-place the saloon afforded, with its crowd of hangers-on, has gone with the saloon. The bad example set before young boys, the allurements of good-fellowship which tempted so many, the appetite developed and nurtured by treating—all these have gone with the saloon. And yet, not to-day, nor next year, nor for a decade to come, will all the good results of this abolition of the saloon be realized. The old generation of drinkers will, many of them, probably continue to get liquor in some way—but their boys, our boys, all the happy, hopeful, bright-eyed and rosy-cheeked young fellows who are growing up on the prairies of Kansas, will grow to manhood untempted by the social allurements of the saloon, soberer, healthier, happier men than their fathers were.

FATHERS, MOTHERS, WIVES, AND CHILDREN REJOICE.

And where is the father who does not rejoice over this prospect? The man does not live who is so degraded, so brutal, that he would wish his boy, or the husband of his daughter, to acquire the drinking habit. Where, then, is the man who is not willing to give his voice and his vote to sustain the party which, respecting and obeying the formally expressed will of the people, proposes to abolish the saloon, and the frightful crime, poverty, wretchedness and vice of which it is the fruitful source? Suppose that not another drop of liquor should ever be sold as a beverage in Kansas, would any human being in the State thereby suffer harm? 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? Not one—not a single one. In hundreds of Kansas towns whence the saloons have been banished, there are thousands of homes where wives and children wear better clothes, and sit down every day to better meals, than they had provided for them before the saloons were banished. Is there a home anywhere in the State that is less peaceful, prosperous and happy, or a child that is clothed in rags, or a wife whose love and happiness have been blighted, because the saloons have been closed? Not one—not a single one.

THE SALOON, THE SCHOOL HOUSE AND RECRUITING STATION OF THE ANARCHISTS.

Another, and if possible, more urgent reason why the saloon must go, has recently been brought home to the people of this country with convincing force. Americans have believed that this was the freest, happiest land under the sun, and it is. Its government is the perfection of human wisdom. It is, as the greatest of our Presidents has said, “a government of the people, for the people, by the people.” No limitations or restrictions are placed on the rights or liberty of any citizen, except such as are necessary to protect the rights and liberty of all other citizens. The humblest man in the land may aspire to the highest official place, and it is a fact that a vast majority of those citizens who have attained the loftiest honors sprang from the humblest walks in life. Lincoln, Grant, Garfield, Blaine, Logan, and thousands of others who might be named, are conspicuous illustrations of this truth. Ours is a government of liberty, regulated by law. Its delegated and reserved powers embody the ripest fruits of man’s experience with and knowledge of man’s weakness and strength, selfishness and generosity, cruelty and justice—embody, in fact, the experience of thirty centuries of human progress. Only a few brief years ago, the people gladly and proudly sacrificed 500,000 lives, and billions of treasure, in order to preserve, for themselves and their children, this heritage of free government.

But within the past decade there has been spawned upon our hospitable shores a school of depraved and vicious foreigners, who are poisoning and polluting the very atmosphere they breathe. Incapable of comprehending the difference between absolute despotism and republican freedom, confounding liberty with license, regarding all restraints of law as tyranny, and denouncing all government as oppression, these apostles of anarchy are sedulously sowing the seeds of discord, envy, hate, rapacity, and murder. And where do these miscreants find the most willing converts to their atrocious theories? Where do they assemble to plot, to declaim, to conspire, and to argue? Read the reports of the trial of the anarchists in Chicago, and you will ascertain. Read, in the journals of any of our large cities, reports of anarchist and socialist assemblies. Follow Most, and Schwab, and Spies, and Fielden, and Parsons, to their favorite haunts. Do this, and you will find that the saloon is always and everywhere the assembly room, the school house, the tabernacle of these wild, vicious and dangerous apostles of lawlessness. There they teach their ferocious doctrine, “burn, and murder, and plunder, in order to live.” There they find the ignorant and brutalized human beings whose besotted minds and deadened consciences make them ready converts to the monstrous theories that property is robbery, that law is oppression, that government is tyranny, that religion is a cheat, and that everything mankind has been taught to revere should be proscribed and destroyed.

THE CONFESSION OF AN ANARCHIST.

One of the most prominent men in this State told me, some months ago, of a conversation he had with a well-known New York socialist. The Kansas man said to the New Yorker: “You claim you desire to elevate humanity. You know, as every intelligent man does, that for a very large proportion of all the poverty, crime and woe of this world the liquor traffic is responsible. Why, then, don’t you endeavor to close the saloons of this city?” The reply was prompt and conclusive. Said the New Yorker: “Close the saloons? Why, if that was done we should have no meeting-places. We find and make most of our converts in the saloons!”

Here, then, in the saloons, where poverty, vice, crime and suffering are bred and nurtured, are the haunts, and homes, and recruiting offices of the dynamiter and bomb-thrower. From the saloons come the miscreants who parade with red flags, and who revile and denounce the brave old banner of the “Stars and Stripes.” From the saloon issue the wild-eyed and crack-brained enthusiasts, and the brutal and vicious emissaries of envy and hate, who want to substitute for a republic of reason, order, security, liberty, and law, the inconstant, uncertain, unknown, and arbitrary government of the mob.

THE LABOR QUESTION.

Another prominent question upon which the two platforms express opinions, is that of labor and capital. And in discussing this question, as all others, the Republican party deals not in vague promises or glittering generalities, but in definite statements. It points to what it has done; it presents accomplished facts to sustain its assertion that it will honestly favor “all legislation tending to secure to the laborers their just proportion of the proceeds of their work, to protect them against the encroachments of organized capital, and to provide easy and speedy redress for all wrongs suffered by them, or threatened to them.”

A political party making professions of devotion to the interests of any class of the people should be able to show by its record, that when in position to control legislation, it originated or adopted some policy beneficial to that class. Can the Democratic party present such evidence of friendliness for or sympathy with the laboring masses? For nearly thirty years it had supreme control of the National Government. Did it, during that time, devise or perfect any measure or policy to ameliorate the condition of the laboring classes, or shape and direct legislation to the end that human selfishness or rapacity should be held in check, and the opportunities of all men be equalized?

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY THE ENEMY OF HONEST LABOR.

No, it did not. On the contrary, during that period every measure of the Democratic party was directly against the interests of laboring men. The homestead law was repeatedly defeated by Democratic Congressmen, and was never enacted until the Republicans came into power. Every attempt of the Democratic party to legislate on the subject of the tariff was made in the interest of foreign capital and low-priced labor, and against home enterprise and American workingmen. The Democratic party formed an alliance, offensive and defensive, with an aristocratic oligarchy which held to the monstrous doctrine that capital should own its own laborers—own and buy and sell them as cattle are owned, bought and sold. The stronghold of the Democratic party was and is to-day this community of great planters, and the favorite candidates of the Democratic party are men with “bar’ls”—monopolists and millionaires, who are expected to buy their way to place and power.

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ALWAYS THE HELPFUL FRIEND OF THE WORKINGMEN.

On the other hand, the Republican party has always been the real, practical and helpful friend of the poor man. Before it had been in power a year it had opened the public domain to the people, by the passage of the homestead law, giving land to the landless and free homes to the homeless. It has changed 4,000,000 of slaves into freemen and paid laborers, thus relieving every workingman and woman, North and South, from the ruinous competition of slave labor. It has steadily insisted on protecting American enterprise and industry against foreign competition and the poorly-paid labor of Europe. It has insisted, at all times and under all circumstances, that the real, pressing need of the country was not cheap manufactured goods of any kind, but prosperous and contented mechanics. It destroyed the great landed aristocracy that was built upon the ownership of labor, and has raised another and humbler class of men to power. Its candidates have been taken from the people. Its first President was a flat-boatman, a rail-splitter, a poor country lawyer, who was the architect of his own fortunes. Its second was a poor tailor whose wife had taught him to read. Its third President, the son of a poor tanner, lived for years in obscurity, and knew the bitterness of poverty and friendlessness. He filled the world with the glory of his achievements, but preserved to the end the simple manhood of a modest citizen. Its fourth President was also a man of the people. After him came a man who had been a carpenter and a schoolmaster; and then followed the son of a poor Irish minister. Its last candidate was another self-made man of the people, who had been in turn, schoolmaster, reporter, editor, Congressman, Senator, and Secretary. Not one of the Republican candidates for President was born to the purple. One and all, they came up, by their own exertions, from the humblest walks of life. Working-people themselves, they have understood and sympathized with the aspirations, the interests, the well-being of the real working-people.

THE LAWS OF KANSAS TOUCHING THE LABOR QUESTION.

In this State, one of the first acts of the Republican party was of vast importance and general benefit to workingmen. The Wyandotte Constitutional Convention, which assembled early in 1859, was the first distinctively Republican official body ever assembled in Kansas; and one of its most notable actions—and as novel and beneficent as it was notable—was to adopt a constitutional provision exempting from forced sale, under any process of law, the homestead of every citizen. Years ago, too—long before labor questions were much discussed—Republican Legislatures of Kansas enacted laws protecting the wages of the laborer, laws providing for a mechanics’ lien broad enough to fully secure all demands for work or materials, and laws making liberal exemptions from taxation to small manufacturers and dealers. And these beneficent acts have been supplemented, during later years, with laws authorizing the incorporation of associations of workingmen, and providing for the safety and health of miners; while during the legislative sessions of 1885 and 1886, an act establishing a Bureau of Labor Statistics, charged with the duty of collecting facts and statistics concerning the moral, financial and educational condition of the laboring masses, and a law providing for the legal arbitration of all differences between employers and employÉs, were enacted.

Thus from its first accession to power down to the present time, the Republican party of Kansas has been enacting laws to protect workingmen against the encroachments of capital, and to provide remedies for wrongs done them, or threatened to them. The statute books of no other State of the Union contain so many laws designed especially to protect workingmen, and to secure justice for them. Claims for labor take precedence, under our laws, over all others. No contractor can, in Kansas, cheat a mechanic out of the wages he has earned, for his wages constitute a first lien on any structure he has aided in building. Every home in Kansas, no matter how humble, is protected by the constitution against forced seizure or sale for debt, and any body of workingmen believing themselves aggrieved, can now appeal to any judge in the State for the appointment of a board of arbitration to consider and adjust such grievances. In brief, the Republicans of Kansas have, for a quarter of a century past, been enacting law after law to protect the laboring-man, to shield him against wrong or injustice, and to secure for him a just proportion of the proceeds of his work. Such a record of steadfast devotion to the interests and rights of workingmen is the best pledge of justice for the future. But the platform of the party, adopted in July last, speaks on this question with an earnestness and frankness that leave no room for question or doubt. It does more than this. It draws a wide distinction between the honest, law-respecting, intelligent workingmen of this country, and those noisy, turbulent and vicious demagogues and loafers who muster under the red flag of the anarchist and communist. To the interests and rights of the real workingmen, no matter how poor or humble they may be, the Republican party of Kansas pledges its constant and unfaltering support, while to the doctrines and aims of the anarchist and communist it pledges unalterable hostility.

REVIEW OF THE ISSUES.

And now, my fellow-citizens, I have presented for your consideration, fairly and correctly, I think, the principal issues and interests involved in the approaching election. I have established the wisdom and beneficence of Republican administration in Kansas, by presenting facts and figures from the census, and letting them tell the story of the marvelous growth and development of the State under the fostering influences and wise direction of the Republican party. I have demonstrated that the Republican party is the party of the constitution, and is, therefore the people’s party; that it has honestly accepted, and is endeavoring honestly to enforce the decision of the people of Kansas on the question of prohibition. I have shown by the facts of the census, that the assertions of our opponents that prohibition has hurt or harmed the material growth or prosperity of Kansas, is without foundation. I have presented facts and arguments illustrating the hypocrisy and falsehood of the assertion that drinking and drunkenness have not been largely diminished since the prohibitory law went into effect. I have shown, by citing historical facts, and presenting the record of Republican legislation, National and State, that the Republican party has always been the real and helpful friend of the working-people, and has constantly and faithfully labored to improve their condition and protect their interests. In brief, I have maintained, and fairly and conclusively shown, I think, that the Republican party of Kansas, by its acts, its policy, its clear and honest administration of public trusts, its steadfast and courageous devotion to the best interests of the people, and its loyal and consistent respect for the constitutional law of the land, has deserved the confidence the good citizens of this State have always reposed in it, and deserves their confidence and support to-day, as fully and fairly as at any time during the past quarter of a century.

PERSONAL.

As for myself, I am the candidate of this great party for reelection to the office of Governor. Two years ago, after a campaign of remarkable interest and excitement, I was elected by a majority of nearly 40,000 votes. I have been unspeakably proud of the confidence thus reposed in me by the patriotic and intelligent people of Kansas, and profoundly grateful to them as well. I have endeavored to deserve their confidence and regard by a faithful, impartial, honest discharge of my official duties. In addressing the convention which renominated me, I said: “I have never cared, I never shall care, whether any person says that my official life was brilliant or distinguished, so that all good citizens are compelled to say that it was clean, just, safe, honest, and industrious.” I repeat this statement, with earnestness and emphasis. I came to Kansas nearly thirty years ago, and have lived in the full blaze of public life ever since. I have served the people of this State in many capacities—as an editor, a soldier, a legislator, and a public officer. And although painfully conscious that I have made mistakes, I can stand up here in your presence, or in the presence of any audience of Kansas people, and challenge any man to say wherein I was ever unfaithful to a public trust, or guilty of a corrupt or dishonest action.

As to my opinions concerning questions of State policy, no intelligent citizen can be deceived or misled, for they are fully and fairly set forth in the two messages I have had the honor to transmit to the Legislature. The questions of prohibition and labor I have already discussed at some length. Other questions discussed in my messages may be briefly summarized.

In my first message to the Legislature I called the attention of that body to the enormous aggregate of our municipal indebtedness, then aggregating nearly $16,000,000, and now perhaps nearly $20,000,000. I cited the fact that while our State debt was very small, the debts of its local subdivisions were enormous, and I earnestly urged the passage of a law limiting and restricting the debt-creating and tax-levying authority of counties, cities, townships and school districts, to the end that the tax burdens of the people might be reduced.

Second—I urged a thorough revision of our laws touching the assessment and equalization of taxes, so as to secure, if possible, uniform values, and a material reduction of the percentage of taxation.

Third—I recommended reforms in our laws for the disposition of school lands, calling attention to the defects and shameful abuses of our present system, and urging that stringent legislation should be adopted to protect the school domain of the State from despoliation by speculators.

Fourth—I urged radical changes in our present system of managing the State charitable institutions, so that the vast sums of money annually expended for public charities should be disbursed under systematic, intelligent and constant supervision, with a rigid accountability.

Fifth—I earnestly recommended such changes in our insurance laws as were necessary to protect our citizens against wrongs and abuses clearly pointed out.

Sixth—I recommended important modifications in our present railroad law, and urged that railroad corporations should be prohibited from establishing rates that enable them to pay large dividends and interest on stock and bonds issued in amount double or three times the cost of the construction of their roads.

Seventh—I urged a thorough revision of our laws concerning public highways, calling attention to the fact that the present system of making and improving country roads was not only wasteful and unjust in its operation, but unsatisfactory in its results.

Eighth—I urged the necessity of protecting our vast stock interest against loss or damage from contagious diseases, or from the introduction of Texas cattle.

Ninth—I recommended a revision and codification of the entire body of our laws, suggesting that this work would enormously reduce the expense, delay and perplexities of litigation in our courts.

Tenth—I urged a revision of the fee-bills of many local officers, so that all might clearly understand how much the law allowed for such services as officers are required to perform.

Eleventh—I advised a repeal of our cowardly law which abolishes the death penalty by indirection.

Twelfth—I recommended a reduction of the legal rates of interest from 7 per cent. or not to exceed 12 per cent. by special contract, to 6 per cent. or not to exceed 10 per cent. by special contract.

Thirteenth—I urged the creation of a State Board of Pardons, so that the Governor, in exercising the gravest responsibility vested in him by the constitution, should have the benefit of the advice and counsel of a tribunal charged with the duty of investigating the facts and reasons urged for a pardon.

Fourteenth—I called attention to serious defects in the crimes act, and the law regulating the assessment of improvements by occupying claimants.

Fifteenth—I urged complete enrollment of the soldiers of the State, and a record of that enrollment, so that honorably-discharged Union soldiers might, on application to the Adjutant General, ascertain the post-office address of surviving comrades, whose testimony was necessary to establish just pension claims.

In my second message, I renewed the recommendations made touching all those subjects that had failed to receive legislative attention, and added the following additional recommendations:

First—The passage of a law providing regulations to govern the arbitration of disputes between employers and employÉs. I stated that such a law was, in my judgment, vitally important to the prosperity and happiness alike of employers and employed, as well as to the peace and order of civil society.

Second—In view of the fact that the State debt aggregated only $815,000, of which amount only $256,000 was held by individuals or corporations, I urged that it was neither wise nor just to impose upon the present generation of tax-payers the burden of paying our outstanding bonds on their maturity; that our bonds could readily be re-funded at not to exceed 3½ or 4 per cent.; that the present is paying for public buildings future generations will occupy, and that the future should provide for the payment of outstanding bonds.

Third—I recommended that a constitutional amendment should be submitted, striking the word “white” from section 1 of article 8 of our organic law. This limitation prevents colored men from serving in the militia. During the civil war the colored troops demonstrated the courage and patriotism of their race, and it should be, not their right alone, but their duty, to bear arms in any emergency calling for a military force.

Fourth—I suggested that the Legislature should demand the establishment of military posts along our southwestern frontier, in order to protect our borders against Indian raids, and give our citizens full assurance of protection.

Fifth—I urged that Memorial Day be made a legal holiday.

Several of the recommendations thus made were favorably acted on by the Legislature, and bills to carry all these suggestions into practical effect were introduced. Experience in the duties of the Executive office, and a closer observation of the practical workings of our laws and institutions, and of the needs of the people, have only confirmed and strengthened the opinions I expressed touching all these questions. And if I am reËlected, I shall regard it as a solemn duty to again urge favorable legislative action upon all the interests and subjects I have thus enumerated and discussed. Every recommendation made in either message was, I believe, practical and just, and I am convinced that affirmative action by the Legislature, touching one and all of these questions, would not only promote the best interests of the people, but be earnestly approved by them.

LAWS ENACTED IN 1885 AND 1886.

It has also given me sincere satisfaction, since assuming the duties of the Executive office, to approve a number of measures which mark a decided reform in the conduct of State affairs and the administration of justice. Some of these I deem it proper to briefly mention.

First—A Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics has been established, charged with the duty of collecting information relating to the commercial, industrial, social, educational and sanitary condition of the laboring classes, with a view of furnishing suggestions and facts for the guidance of the Legislature.

Second—An Industrial Reformatory has been established, for the confinement, instruction and reformation of the large class of lads and young men whose wrong-doing was the result of bad surroundings or intoxication rather than of a naturally criminal or vicious disposition. Not one-half of the prisoners in our penitentiary belong naturally to the criminal classes, and more than one-half of them are under 25 years of age. Hundreds of these can, by a course of judicious instruction and discipline, be reformed and reclaimed, and the new Industrial Reformatory marks a decided advance in the method of dealing with law-breakers who are not hardened criminals.

Third—A Home for the Orphan Children of loyal soldiers has been established, and will in a few months be completed. The beneficence of the State could find no better field for the exercise of its generous impulses than will be afforded by the establishment of this home for the care and education of the orphan children of those who periled their own lives that the country might live.

Fourth—The laws of Kansas now provide legal machinery for the arbitration of differences between employers and their employÉs. This law is not, perhaps, perfect, but it is a movement in the right direction, and I am satisfied that it will in time demonstrate its usefulness.

Fifth—Twelve new counties have been fully organized during the past twenty months, and seven of these were organized under the law recently passed, requiring a population of 2,500 and property assessed at $150,000 as a prerequisite to organization.

Sixth—Laws have been enacted providing that preference in public employment and appointments shall be given to honorably-discharged Union soldiers, and for the burial of Union soldiers at the public expense.

THE AUTHORITY OF A GOVERNOR.

In considering all these things, my fellow-citizens—and I have tried to present my views and action touching them with entire frankness, and as fully as is possible in a speech of this character—it should not be forgotten that the Governor of an American State possesses no authority that is not expressly vested in him by the laws. His duties and powers are clearly defined and limited by law, and he has no more right to do any act or exercise any authority not explicitly within the scope of the laws than has any other citizen. Hundreds of men thoughtlessly say, when something they think ought to be done is left undone, “If I were Governor, I would do this and that,” when, if any one of them were Governor, he would find that he had no legal right to do what he says he would do. I have frequently, since assuming the duties of my present office, found my authority thus restricted, and although this fact has occasionally caused embarrassment and vexation, I know the limitations placed on my official power are proper and just. This is a government of laws, and not of men, and no interests, either of justice, morality, or the public welfare, will be promoted by vesting any officer with arbitrary powers or authority. If, therefore, any good citizen thinks that I have on any occasion failed to do what he believes I should have done, let him, before condemning me, ascertain whether I had any legal authority to do it; whether I had not, in fact, done all that the laws of Kansas authorize me to do; and whether, all things considered, it is not always safer and wiser to follow Davy Crockett’s rule: “Be sure you are right; then go ahead.” True courage is not illustrated by yielding to public clamor; nor are right and justice exemplified by hasty and ill-considered zeal for a good cause. The American faith in “level-headedness” is not, after all, misplaced, and the public man who, possessing the judicial quality of seeing both sides, or all sides, of any question, does the safe and the just thing in dealing with it, can afford to trust to the clear judgment and the honest instincts of the American people for his vindication and approval.

REPUBLICAN ACHIEVEMENTS.

I have not, my fellow-citizens, attempted to discuss those questions which divide the people in the larger domain of national politics. It has seemed to me that, on an occasion of this character, I should confine my remarks to a discussion of State affairs. But I am not indifferent, I could not be indifferent, to those issues of principle or of policies on which the Republican party bases its action and its faith. I am before you as a candidate of the Republican party. I have been a Republican from boyhood—an earnest, enthusiastic, loyal Republican; a Republican from conviction; a Republican who believes that the Republican party embraces in its ranks the best brain, and heart, and conscience of the American people. On every great question presented during the past thirty years, the Republican party has taken the side of justice, liberty, and eternal right. Never ashamed or afraid to espouse the cause of the poor, the ignorant, or the alien, and make their wrongs its own, it has never, on the other hand, pandered to vice or crime or cupidity for support. When it took control of the General Government, this country was a weak collection of discordant States on the verge of civil war and disunion. It crushed armed rebellion, brought the old flag back to the places from which it had been driven, and made the American Republic the greatest of civilized nations. It struck the shackles from 4,000,000 slaves, lifted them up, and enfranchised them. It opened the public lands to the people under the beneficent provisions of the homestead act. It spanned the continent with railways. It gave to the people a sound financial system and a stable currency. It revived and fostered American manufactures. It encouraged public education. It enriched our history with a long list of imperishable names that will be an inspiration and an example to our youth for generations to come—the names of Lincoln, and Grant, and Seward, and Thomas, and Garfield, and a host of others. And finally, when fraud and terrorism in the South and vilification and falsehood in the North had accomplished their ends, and this great party surrendered the trusts it had so long controlled, did its opponents and traducers, after the most patient and careful investigation, discover any facts or evidence to justify the ignorant and brutal accusations they had made against Republican honesty and competency? Not a single fact. Not a shadow of evidence. They “counted the money,” and it was all there—every penny of it. They investigated the books, they scanned every account, they scrutinized every item and figure, and they found nothing to criticise. And at last, one of the most prejudiced Democrats in the country was compelled to declare, and did declare, that he had been amazed at the perfect system, accuracy and integrity with which the business of his department had been conducted by the Republicans.

But they “turned the rascals out.” Oh, yes—that business has been attended to with promptness and regularity. An unending procession of “rascals” has been moving out for a year and a half. “Rascals” who had invaded the sacred soil of Virginia and Kentucky; who had stolen negroes and made them free; who had been with Grant at Vicksburg and in the Wilderness, and with Thomas at Mission Ridge, and with Sherman on the march to Atlanta and the sea, and with Meade at Gettysburg. Some of these “rascals” had grown old and gray; some limped out painfully, because of old wounds; some wore a vacant sleeve; some had voted against that great Democratic patriot, Vallandigham; and some had, years before, been guilty of singing a song about hanging a great Democratic statesman on a sour-apple tree. Men guilty of such “rascalities” as these of course deserved to be “turned out,” and they were promptly bounced.

DEMOCRATIC PATRIOTS AND MARTYRS WHO CAME IN.

In their stead, a long line of Democratic martyrs and patriots marched in—men who had “fought four years for their Democracy” under Lee, or Bragg, or Joe Johnston; men who had expatriated themselves to the wilds of Canada to avoid Lincoln’s “bastiles;” men who had wandered through the timbers of the Wabash or the Miami bottoms hunting their lodge of “Knights of the Golden Circle” or “Sons of Liberty;” men who had rejoiced over every disaster to the Union arms, and mourned over every Union victory; men who had denounced that gentle and loving Greatheart, Abraham Lincoln, as a “tyrant,” a “baboon,” and an “ape;” men who had assailed our great commander, Ulysses S. Grant, as a “bloody butcher” and a “drunken tanner”—these, in large measure, were the “honest patriots” who marched in, while the drums beat and the fifes whistled the old familiar tune, “Turn the rascals out;” and the Democratic party of Kansas, assembled in State convention, formally indorsed and approved this programme by adopting a resolution that “the soldiers and sailors of the late war”—not Union soldiers, not loyal soldiers, mind you, but “soldiers of the late war,” Confederate as well as Union—“are entitled to the first consideration in appointments.”

My fellow-citizens, the issues of this campaign are of vital importance to the prosperity and happiness of this State and this Nation. Republicans of Kansas, remember that in less than two years from this time we will be in the midst of a Presidential campaign. Do your duty now, and the result then will be assured. Support with voice and pen and vote, the candidates of your party—the men who represent convictions, principles, and policies approved by your judgment, and dear to your hearts. There has never been a time, from 1860 down to the present moment, when the Republican party more fully deserved the support of all loyal and just-minded men than it does now. 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. Vote for the party that is always and everywhere the party of good government, of social order, of liberty and law. Do this, do it earnestly and faithfully, and the benediction of an approving conscience will fall upon and abide with you forever.