Read at the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the state of
Kansas.
BEAR CAMP HOUSE, WEST OSSIPEE, N. H.,
Eighth month, 29th, 1879.
To J. S. EMERY, R. MORROW, AND C. W. SMITH, COMMITTEE:
I HAVE received your invitation to the twenty-fifth anniversary
celebration of the first settlement of Kansas. It would give me great
pleasure to visit your state on an occasion of such peculiar interest,
and to make the acquaintance of its brave and self-denying pioneers, but
I have not health and strength for the journey. It is very fitting that
this anniversary should be duly recognized. No one of your sister states
has such a record as yours,--so full of peril and adventure, fortitude,
self-sacrifice, and heroic devotion to freedom. Its baptism of martyr
blood not only saved the state to liberty, but made the abolition of
slavery everywhere possible. Barber and Stillwell and Colpetzer and
their associates did not die in vain. All through your long, hard
struggle I watched the course of events in Kansas with absorbing
interest. I rejoiced, while I marvelled at the steady courage which no
danger could shake, at the firm endurance which outwearied the
brutalities of your slaveholding invaders, and at that fidelity to right
and duty which the seduction of immediate self-interest could not swerve,
nor the military force of a proslavery government overawe. All my
sympathies were with you in that stern trial of your loyalty to God and
humanity. And when, in the end, you had conquered peace, and the last of
the baffled border ruffians had left your territory, I felt that the doom
of the accursed institution was sealed, and that its abolition was but a
question of time. A state with such a record will, I am sure, be true to
its noble traditions, and will do all in its power to aid the victims of
prejudice and oppression who may be compelled to seek shelter within its
borders. I will not for a moment distrust the fidelity of Kansas to her
foundation principle. God bless and prosper her! Thanking you for the
kind terms of your invitation, I am, gentlemen, very truly your friend.