Those most familiar with the Governor’s office during recent years know
what a busy place it is. During the session of the Legislature it is not
often that the Governor has a rest of ten minutes, by day, and at night
he is followed to his hotel and the solicitations often continue until
midnight. Governor Martin usually reaches the office at eight in the
morning and remains until five or six, never going out for a lunch.
During these hours he sits and listens to the crowds of callers,
dictates letters, and, rarely, reads or writes. With all of these
personal demands, entreaties, and importunities, the Governor not only
never neglects any caller, never loses his placid self-control, but even
finds time to attend to many outside affairs in his own busy life and in
the ceaseless activity of the restless Kansas life that surrounds us
all. The busy man is the one who finds the most time; he loses none.
Before coming to Topeka our Governor had passed all of his active life
in a printing office or in the editorial room. He began at the case,
setting type, and has remained in the same office, the _Atchison
Champion_,—soon buying the paper, and changing its form from a weekly to
a daily when the growth of town and State demanded it. During the war he
was the Colonel of the Eighth Kansas, one of the youngest in the
service, and one of the most successful. That is the only “rest” he has
had since boyhood. But change is rest, and his election to the office of
Chief Magistrate he appears to have enjoyed as a vacation; no cessation
of labor, but great intellectual activity and real enjoyment.
The speeches and addresses in this volume are not the efforts of a man
of leisure who is trying to see what he can say and how handsomely he
will say it. They are all hastily prepared; no corrections, no
re-writing, no polishing. But they need no apology.
They are of and for Kansas by a man whose whole life and thought is
wrapped up in Kansas. They are chapters of Kansas history, and worthy of
preservation. For this reason they have been cut out of the newspapers
in which they originally appeared and are now presented in permanent
form. That they will be highly prized by our people there is no doubt.
Kansans are a reading and writing people; they are proud of their
history, and they preserve all the records of the past. Governor Martin
was one of the founders of the State Historical Society, has been its
President, and if he did not have this spirit he would not be a Kansan.
The historical facts in this book will be eagerly prized and gladly
treasured. Governor Martin was one of the Secretaries of the convention
that organized the Republican party of Kansas, at Osawatomie; he was the
Secretary of the convention that framed our State Constitution; he was a
member of the first State Senate; he has been President of the Kansas
and Missouri Associated Press, and has long been Vice President of the
National Board of Soldiers’ Homes. Thus he has been an active
participant in the scenes and events that he describes.
The work was not intended as a history, but it abounds in historical
narratives, relating to war and peace; the part played by our State
during the great Rebellion; the growth of the State in population; its
agriculture, and manufactures; its schools and colleges; its civic and
benevolent organizations; in brief, illustrations of the full, eager
life of our people—a picture of the Kansas of these years.
A century hence it will appear strange that all of these things took
place in the life of one man, before he had reached his fiftieth year.
John Winthrop and William Penn had no such story to tell of
Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Those commonwealths became only
clearings in the wilderness during the lives of their founders. Future
readers of these records will know the man revealed herein, his standard
of manhood and patriotism, and the people who chose him as their leader.
They loved courage and truth; they honored labor; they believed in
education; coming to a desert, they planted trees and flowers and made
it a garden; wayward and feverish at first, they soon started the church
and made a land of steady habits. And so our own children will read this
book in their school libraries.
The most important address in the volume is the one delivered when the
State was a quarter of a century old. Its statistics will be of enduring
interest. One of the most graphic is the Address at Wichita, describing
the different types of Kansas soldiers,—with its tribute to the flag.
The happiest literary effort is the picture of an army on the march, in
the speech to the Loyal Legion, at Topeka. The Scandinavian Address,
delivered at Lindsborg, was translated and printed in the Swedish papers
in this country and in Sweden. Probably no other Kansas speech has
enjoyed that distinction. The speech that has had the widest circulation
and has done the most good is the one entitled “Republicanism in
Kansas,” delivered in Topeka. It was called for all over the Union, but
especially in Texas, Tennessee and Michigan, where the friends of
Prohibition were endeavoring to have that principle placed in their
State Constitutions. The most distinctive feature of Governor Martin’s
administration has been the enforcement of the Prohibitory law and the
redemption of the State from the liquor traffic.
Should this book be read in any European country the reader will know
just what Kansas is, and the greater his familiarity with the history of
other lands and peoples, the greater will be his surprise and delight.
Kansas has added a new page to the progressive history of humanity, and
is still marching on.
TOPEKA, May 16, 1888.