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 THE THIHTY-FOURTH STAR,
As far as the eye could sec stretched the monotonous landscape. No
tree shielded'the grass from the rays of the sun. Ho friendly ollff
intercepted the heated breaths of the southland. No sound broke the
stillness, save the unmusical bark of the prairie dog| while all around
to an unbroken horizon, lay yhe drowsy, wearisome prairie. How different
was this land to that of which Ooronado had dreamed. No cities had closed
their gates. No people had fled in terror from his troops. So gold,
no silver, no treasure had awaited this lusty Spaniard, Treeless, trackless
windswept, and sunbaked, it lay before him as a desert In the tropic sun.
The seven cities of Cibola had already fallen before him, when news
had come from the north of this region of Quivira. Here, it was Baid,
people lived in palaces, rivers were leagues wide, while gold and silver
abounded in enormous quantities. The exploits of Cortez in Mexico, and
Pizarro in Peru, Coronado had hoped to repeat in Quivira. Crossing the
staked plains, he had forded the river now known as the Arkansas, and with
his little band of followers, had reached the fabled Quivira, on the banks
of the Osage.
As he stood in the midst of this endless prairie, with the sun beating
unmercifully on his head, his visions of Quivira faded. His imagined cities,
towns, rivers, gold and silver, were replaced by traokless plains. Dis-
gusted, downcast, and broken spirited, he turned his face to the southland,
his expedition considered a failure by himself and by his countrymen.
But in this region, which this doughty Spaniard explored three hundred and
seventy years ago, by the help of time, patience, and toil, was to arise a
fairer and firmer f4rimfrc than could the Montezumas or the Incas boast.
Here, on this desert, was to arise a state, whose duty would be to save a
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nation in the greatest crises of all history. Here, on the ruins of line
fabled Qulvira, was to have its foundation, the State of Kansas.
Quivira, this geglon discarded by Coronrdo, was a part of Louisiana.
In the early part of the Eighteenth century, it was claimed by Spain, because
of disoovery, and by France, because of exploration. In the treaty of
176S, France relinquished all her claims to Spain, who in 1800 deeded back
the whole region, with the express stipulation, that no part should ever be
sold tfa the United States. In 1803, France, under the leadership of
Napoleon, sold all to our nation. With the Louisiana Purchase, Quivira
became the territory of the United States. But Spain, disputing the sale
of this territory by France, erected outposts within its boundaries, which
she stolidly held until 1806, when Zebulon Pike, with a small band of
followers, tore down the flag of Spanish oppression floating over $he terri-
tory. .That event narked a new era in the history of the United States.
When that flag was lowered, and the emblem of Castile and Ar^agon was re-
placed by the stars and stripe^ it meant, that the English people should
rule the western continent, and that the sturdy, robust Anglo-Saxon had won
the prize of a three-hundred year struggle. Upon the ruins of the fabled
Quivira, the Stars and Stripes now first floated over Louisiana, dedicating
forever that new territory to liberty and Justice.
Upon the first entrance of Louisiana, the one question was, wshall!t
be slave or free?" Greater and greater became the agitation, until in
1820 it became a National issue. In the Missouri Compromise, which split
Louisiana in halves, a north and a south, we first find Quivira figureing
in the battle of slavery. Thirty-six thirty was the dividing line oftthe
slave and free territory, and thirty-six thirty was the southern boundary of
Kansas.
 For over a generation the Missouri Compromise quieted the slavery factions
of the south} hut the acquisition of more territory again brought up the
old question, and slavery again became the National issue* The Wilmot
Proviso was the notorious bill which was the undoing of all the good that
the Compromise of 1820 had accomplished* For four years it was debated in
Congress, when in 1850, Clay, fearful lest the rising contentions would prove
disastrous to the country, proposed a compromise. The eminent union savers,
who proposed, and oarried through Congress the Compromise of 1850, fully
believed that it would drive XOJEBXS the question of slavery, forever out
of National legislation. But the drowsy syrups of Compromise had been
swallowed in vain. Slavery, so recently banned from Legislative halls,
returned again, almost before the applause greeting its exit had died away.
While the Legislators were congratulating themselves, the notorious Kansas-
Nebraska bill stalked into the midst of that august assemblage. The debate
which followed, has few equals in history. The bill repealed the Missouri
Compromise, and established Squatter Sovereignity in the territory west of the
Mississippi. Town meetings, conventions, and State Legislatures, denounced
its passage as infamous, and severely criticised its repeal of the Compromise
of 1820, while the establishment of Squatter Sovereignity, had a decidedly
pro-slavery aspect to the people of the north. But the bill, although
infamous in principle, performed a service for the country, in, that on the
site of the fabled Quivira, it staked off the territory of Kansas. Situated
in the heart of the Union, substantially unhlstoried, and with no meddlesome
past to mar the trial, Kansas became the courtroom in whioh Squatter Sovereign*
ty was to be tried as a Union saving expedient.
With the passage of this bill, virtually began the great Civil War.
There was at that time no secession, nor any declaration of war, but every
body predicted and Imer that the outcome of the battle in Kansas, rcould
determine the policy of the Union, and the fate of slavery.
Thither hurried partisans of the north and of the'south,—representatives
of ihcompatable civilizations,— to take a hand in the impending struggle.
Missouri, knowing what the verdict of this territory meant to either oause,
rushed hundreds of slave holders across the border, and captured the polls
by violence, and murder. The Free-state men of the north, in order to
overcome the depredations of the Missourians, established Immigrant Aid
Bureaus, which immediately began an exodus to Kansas. It was a cross-purposed
and diversified migration—hirelings, adventurers, reformers, philanthropists,
and patriots,-- representing peoples from Maine to the Rio Grande. Drought,
disease, and death followed these early settlerp, causing MHyaafc hundreds to
return, but those who remained were strong in their beliefs, and determined
to wage the battle to the bitter end.
For the first three years the cause of freedom suffered. Armed invasions
from the Missouri border, aided the Pro-slavery people in their licentious
acts. They dominated the elections; destroyed the free-state newspapers;
burned the homes of the free-state men; murdered their occupantsj sacked
and burned cities, and wade the life of the free-soiler a veritable burden.
By these unlawful methods, the first Territorial Legislature was made unan-
imously pro-slavery. Upon its first meeting, it furnished the territory
with a most brutal and shameless slave code. According to it, nothing could
be written or printed in the territory against slavery, while the bringing of
a Hew York Tribune into that region was a penitentiary offence. Besides
the Territorial Legislature, tr.e Government at Washington waB fully committed
to the extension of slavery. All the officers were radical on the subject,
for it was the one point on which all elections and appointments were deter*

mined. In the face of these difficulties, which at times seemed insurmount-

#5
able, under the despotism of the law of the border ruffians, and with no
protection, except their own strength, these Free-State men of Kansas kept
up the great battle for freedom. They were prosecuting squatter sovereign-
ty, while the Nation, realising the significance of the conflict, awaited
the outcome with marked interest.
:
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Twice the Free-soilers, rallying to a cause noble and just, elected

Constitutional Conventions to formulate a free-state constitution for Kansas.
But the government at Washington, dominated by slaver* factions, and without
regarding the ooneequenceB, laid the petitions of the Kansas Patriots on the
table, and turned a deaf ear to the voice of this virgin state. The
Slavery factions, emboldened by government aid to their cause, and by succor
from the Missouri border, twice elected Constitutional Conventions to fasten.
I
the yoke of slavery on the sunflower state. But twice the Free-statemen,
realizing the high and noble cause dependent on them, concentrated their
strength, rejected the infamous bills, and relegated the Leavenworth and
Lecompton documents to history.
??hen the Lecompton Constitution fell before the onrushing Free-soilers,
their eyes were opened to their own strength, For the first time they
Realized that they were masters of the situation. For three years they
had waged the bitter war in "Bleeding Kansas." She two sections of the
country had become separate nations. laut Kansas, by a majority of over
ten-thousand, had raised her voice against slavery, and the south knew
then that hers had become a losing fight. gggxtkwxftitstxttgaxKk She had
learned at last that neither force, violence,or murder, could conquer a
people steeped in their convictions of Justice and right. She knew now
the verdict that the Kansas patriots were going to present.
In 1858, the free-state men by arced forces, and increased numbers.
 tftT* piro * 'SUVTJJOX aapaoq &i{% 3.0 tuvi &i{% j o ms^odsep ouq. aoptm *«iqw
•

captured the polls, and for the third time elected a Free-state Constitut-
ional Convention. In this assembly, the great Wyandotte Constitution took
form, was ratified by the people, approved by Congress, and Kansas became a
free state. For a moment there was a lull. Then a shout of jubilation
arose, a shout that heralded the death of slavery, forever. The echo of
that shout was heard amid the roar of battle In the great Civil War. The
Free-state men of Kansas, that little feeble territory on the western f ronp*
tier, had handed their verdict to the states of the Union, a verdict that
struck the death blow at slavery, killed Squatter Sovereignity, and pointed
out the way of justice and right for the States of the Union to follow.

Thus came Kansas) & commonwealth with a history which has no parallel
among the states? with a history unique in purpose and spirit; with a
history unrivalled in achievrnents In war and peace. Here, on these treeless,
trackless plains discarded by Coronadoj on this larld of desolation where
Pike first raised the Stars and Strinesj on this great American Desert
of the geographers, was inaugurated that great civil strife which freed a
race, and in the end established more firmly,"this government, of the people,
for the people, and by the people, that should not perish from the earlh."
The explorers of Qulvira found gray, Monotonous plains, stretching to
a horizon unbroken, unmitigated by the habitation of man, barren, vapid,
intpV^- tele to the eye. Today no fairer landscape stretches to the sun.
Ho thing bold or sublime In it. No towering peak. No sparkling waterfall.
No gloomy gorge holds the heart in awe. Only the beauty of hearty, ordered
line, of well tilled field, peaceful, and smiling in the Kansas sunshine.
But the sun that smiles on us today is the same as looked down on our fore-
fathers. Just the same as in olden days, it gilds the dawn, and setsiin
oloudless splendor. The same air that inspired our forefathers breathes
 on us today. Fresh and invigorating as the ether of creation, it inspires
and exalts us, and impels our hearts with faith and courage. How as then,
now as always, the *ym who faces a Kansas dawn knows no doubts, no fears,
no trepidations. For him, the furure holds no terrors, the past no regrets.

•
But the men who made Kansas are passing away. The reins of power are
slipping from the hands of age, into the hands of a generation born in
Kansas, Eone of the Kansas hone, flesh of the Kansas flesh* At best lihese
early pioneers brought with them but a divided allegiance. But this new
generation, cradled and nourished on the bosom of KanBae, knows no otharr
motherj they have no past but hers; they ask no other future. They
are strong with the brawn and-vigor of the new lafld. They are brave with
the blood of martyrs, and ^ pioneers. They take up the reins of power
under the Thirty-Fourth Star of that flag, on whose far flung glory the
sun never sets, and here, on these plains of Kansas, where the Stars arid
Stripes first floated over Louisiana, they shall rear the grandest Common-
wealth this world has ever seen, since the morning stars first sang together,
and their children's children will shout 6n the future, as do their sons
today, "To he a Kansas is greater than to be a king J"

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