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.