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13 BOY F E O I . : ? I IT IT 3 Y -L V A i\ I A "
A Ilo^rf.phy of G-ov. £ohn A. h'a r t i n, 1885-1889
Ah 2ssay for the Fortni ;htly Club
of Topeha, Kansas
Presented October 29, 1973, by
3 m e s t F. Tonsins
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time when she was to take a proud place among the other 33 states,
a keystone state in the ceuse of freedom. "To the stars through
difficulty" became her fitting motto, as John J. Ingalls lacer
framed it.
It was in 1520, when Missouri was admitted as.a slave state,
that slavery began to be a threat to the western territories. The
Kansas-Nebraska Act, signed by President Pierce, Hay 30, 1854,
ignited the issue by giving new states local option. As a newsman
later wrote, it "made Kansas the Central Figure in a tremendous
conflict". The first territorial Constitution, proposed the next
year, declared: *"There shall be no slavery in this state, or
involuntary servitude, except for crime". This Topeka Constitution
failed to survive. The Leavenworth and Lecompton constitution were
both pro-slavery, and also failed adoption, even though "President
Buchanan had declared, "Kansas is already a slave state, as much as
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Georgia or South Carolina."" Kansas settlers repudiated this
remark by rejecting the Lecompton Constitution, 6 to 1.
Into the midst of this political turbulence came a young
boy from the eastern state of Pennsylvania. He had been born
March 10, 1339, in Brownsville, had learned the printer's trade
at the' a-~e of 15 in the sho^ of the Brownsville dinner.. V/hen 18
years of age he was in Pittsburgh, a compositor in the office of
the Commercial Journal. In October, 1357, he came to Atchison,
set type for a ahort time for the Squatter Sovereign, and the
Crusader of Freedom at Doniphan. On February 20, 1853, he purchased
the S°uetter Sovereign and changed its name to Freedom's Chamnion.
The Squatter Sovereign had besun publication two years
before, on February 3, 1856. Its vituperative editorial policy
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soon mads it, as its Idzt editor, C.T.Sgort, remarhed ,Maost renowned
for sustaining border ruffian outrides". In ;.i"ust of 1856, when six
"flronths in publication, and the same day the association of the town of
iktoaison was incorporated, it printed this warning: "V,re will continue
to tar and feather, arown, lynch and hang, every white-livered
Abolitionist who dares to pollute our soil." The year before,
Pardee Butler had refused to sign a pro-slavery statement in
,-itchison. He was lashed to two logs and set adrift on the Missouri
river with his barege and a loaf of breed. Mr.Short prepared
the way tog young Martin, when he reversed the paper's pro-slavery
policy, saying: "Upon the people of this territory we shall urge
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the adoption of free institutions, and the prohibition of slavery."
Martin wrote, in the first edition of Freedom's Champion:
The undersigned, having purchased the office of the Squatter Sovereign,
will continue its publication under the title of Freedom's Champion,
h'ith an earnest faith in the principles of Freedom as opposed to
slavery in Kansas, ...we shall use every euertion to defeat the
accomplishment of th.t great wrong, and to strengthen the principles
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for which we contend." <Tohn .MLexnnder Martin was 19 years of age
when pe penned these lines, opening an editorial career which was
more soldiers per 1,000 than any other state in the Union.
A disastrous drought struck Kansas in 1359-60, causing
great privation, and lasting 15 months. Massive relief measures
brought over 7,000,000 pounds of food and other aid from a sympa-
thetic nation. John A. Martin was named secretary of the
TerritorialfRel^ef Convention, and recorded for history, in the
Champion, the sources and disposition of the relief.
Although young Martin was a state senator, and had just
been named postmaster of ^tchison, the impulse to join-the Union
army gripped him and many of his friends. On June 4, 1861, the
First Kansas Volunteers mustered at Ft. Leavenworth. On October 20,
the Eighth Kansas was organized. The commander of the Eighth was
Col. Henry V.'essels, a West Point graduate, but the chief organizer
and second in command was Lt. Col. John A. Martin, then 22 years old.
He and. his regimental compatriots did not know that the
8th Kansas was to bec;me one of the most respected units of the
•riT-'.r.- of the Cumberland, the only Kansas regiment in that command,
and one of only several Kansas 'units to see action beyond the
Ken ::.s-Missouri line. Ordered oO Corinth, Miss., in May, 1862,
Martin was elevated to commanding officer upon the natural death
of the then commander, Col. ?:. K. Graham, at St. Louis. . In
November, he was made a full colonel at the age of 23.
The 8th did occupation duty at Mashville for six months,
where he was named provost mar-shall. The citizens, upon his
leaving, presented him a gold sword in appreciation.
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His command entered the spotlight of Civil War service
when, on September IE, 1863, near Chicamauga, two small brigades,
6n-e the 8th, fought alone, in heavy woods, against two Rebel
divisions. After two days of combat, over 60 percent of the 8th
was dead or wounded, causing the survivors to retreat to Chicamauga.
A month later, the 8th captured Orchard Knob, which was to become
the headquarters of Generals Grant and Thomas during the coming
assault on Missionary Ridge.
Two days after the Orchard Knob engagement, the 8th took
part in thetfierce battle for Missionary Ridge. Along with the
6th and 49th Ohio brigades, they overran Rebels dug in at the base.
7/ithout orders to do so, they decided to move to the summit, where
the 8th was one of the first to plant a flag. The assault and * -
capture of this ridge turned the course of the war for the Union.
Martin later quoted General Gordon Granger as ssyin:: to his
"victorious soldiers, whose courage and enthusiasm had carried
then, without orders, up the blazing heights: 'Here you are, but
how did you get here? You v;ere ordered to take the line of works
at the foot of the ridge, and you have taken those on the summitJ
You ought to have known you couldn't take this position. You are
here in defiance of ali military rules, of tactics, and of orders,
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and I am goin;~ to have every one of you court-martialedl"' M0thing
came of the threat.
\£ien the 5th was finally mustered out in 1366, it had
traveled 1C,750 ..dies, se:.ved in four Union field armies, partici-
pated in 15 battles and IE skirmishes. It had lost 64 killed,
272 wounded, and 21 missing. Nearly all of the missing were found
to have been killed, end a third of the wounded died.
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Liar tin was to lose one brother, James, by diease, in the
war, at Stevenson, -'-.labana. He v,as a member of the 3th Kansas.
Upon discharge, Col. Martin, ax the age of 25, was made brevet
Prip^dier 3-ener_i.
die had named John J. In :c lis act in; editor of Freedom's
Champion during his absence. In January, 1885, he resumed the
editorship, and. in Uarch, changed the v/eelily paper to the
•i-tchisen pL»il" Champion.
Durinj the ne::t several decades, John Alexander Ida r tin
found himself, as a private citizen, involved in locrl, state and
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national politics, bux alvrays as related to the welfare of his
adopted state. He became mayor of Atchison in 1865, and was
postmaster for 12 years. He was to complete 25 consecutive 2/ears
as chairman of his county Republican co:rlixtee, which he had
organized in ICcC. He VJ&.S elected commander-in-chief of the
Teter^ns Brotherhood of iktns&j, In 188?, he and le^din- Repub-
lic ns organised the caup-izn in favor of ITevro and against
v/omen's suffrage. He v;as a delegate four tines to national
Republican conventions. He -..as one of the incorporators of the
;n;> a Id ;::i:e, and an incorporator and president, in 1S75, of
the"itcte Historic! loclety he helped brinj into deinj in 1S75.
Ofl June 1, 1271, he -..as married to Ida C. Shulliss, eldest
Prentis, in his History of Kansas, noted: "Kansas, in these
for .-native years, demonstrated the fitness of the American
.^. Republic's form of government. Without charter or grant or
proclamation, the homeseeking thousands selected the places for
their rooftrees and fires, organized the institutions of govern-
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ment, commended order, and established justice." In a speech
at the Quarter-Centennial of the admission of Kansas to the Union,
Liar tin was to 3ay: "The growth of Kansas has no parallel. The
great states of New York and Pennsylvania were nearly a hundred
and fifty years.in attaining e population Kansas has reached in
30 years."15 By 1380, 3,104 miles of railroad tracks had been
constructed. Abilene was a cow town from 1866-1372, where
Wild Bill Hickock and other marshalls held forth. The legis-
lature, in 1831, passed the Prohibition law, which Martin
voted against when it was ratified by the citizenry.
Although he was suggested for governor at the State Republi-
can cor.ven-cion in 1873, John ?. 3t. John won the nomination.
Blackmar's history of Kansas says: "For years (Hartin) lied a
laudecle embiticr- to be chief executive of his adopted state,
but he ;;:iev." Vjov; -co v;ait and prepsre himself for the duties of
"the office in case he should be called to fill it. The cf 11
c.uue in 1834 when he v.'cs nominated anS triumphantly electe;.."
The boy from Pennsylvania had attained, st 45 years of age,
wh: t he crnsidered his highest honor. He v.rs inaugurated the
10th governor of Hvu-ac, J:nu:ry 12, 1S35. He v.as re-elected
in 1££6. Cne of his appointments that first term was Daniel
"..". '..'rider, as executive clerk to the governor, who was to
become the distinguished editor of the comprehensive "Annals
of H-nsae, ieU-1365;!.
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During his tv.:o terms, events of historical import trooped
through his office. He personally crbitrated the Missouri
Pacific strike of 1635. '.Then the legislature, thet year,
authorised organisation of the Kansas National Guard, he
became the first commander-in-chief. The sane yecr, he
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supervised establishment of rational Soldiers Orphans Home
in ^tchison, and of the state Reformatory for young offenders
at Hutchinson. The year 1366 saw the first board of dentistry
appointed, the State Soldiers Home at Dodge City established,
and Haskell Indian Institute opened at Lawrence. Uartin was
succe..iful% in bringing the United States Soldiers Home to
Leavenworth, and secured the Nctional Cemetery at Fort
Leavenworth. In ten months of 1366, 94 new towns were
chartered, and 453 railroad charters filed in the^office of
the secretary of stc-te, resulting in 1,520 additional miles
of railroad track built in that 10-month period.
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woman's suffrage bill, February 14, 1387, making Kansas the
first state to give women the right to vote for city and school
officials. The next spring, Mrs. L'ec.ora Salter was elected
mayor of ---r^onia, perhaps, as Prentis says, "the first women
in the world to hold the office".16 In another year, five
towns in Kansas had woman mayors, Argonia, Oskaloosa,
Cottonwood Falls, Hos^ville, and Baldwin.
Kansas was a beehive of experimentation and discovery
in the '80s. Salt deposits were discovered in 1887 by oil
crews drilling near Hutchinson. Kansas quickly became, and
still fs, «ne of the foremost producers of fine table salt
in the world. Natural gas, an oil-well product, discovered
near Fort Scott, came into use for light and heat, one of the
first star,e institutions to use it being the State asylum
at Ossawetomie.
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Great strides were made toward completing the Capitol
building during the Martin period. The east wing had been
constructed by 1869, the west by 1381. Ornamentation of the
senate chamber was completed in January, 1386. John A. Martin
tool: part in initiating the refurbished senate room, a
shov/place even today for its elaborate Egyptian architecture,
piaster ornamentation, end hand-hammered copper columns, each
requiring different foreign artisans. A subterranean stream
was discovered in excavating for the dome in 1887, a problem
overcome with gTeat difficulty. Nevertheless, construction
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moved toward the far-away date of final completion in 1903.
When a proposal came to the 1881 legislature to build
the Topeka library on the capitol grounds, Martin wrote in -
the Champion: "The square is not at all ornamented by the
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smaller edifices which at present occupy it." Ke would
have been heartened had he know it was to be removed 80
years later by some who felt the 3ame way he did.
Governor Martin's work habits are described in the
introduction to a book of "Addresses of John A. Martin",
written by his friend, Annalist Daniel V.r. Wilder:
"During the session of the Legislature, it is not
often t&&t the Governor has a rest of ten minutes, by day,
and at night he is followed -.o his hotel and the solicitations
often continue until midnight. ,».V*'lth all of these personal
demands, entreaties, and importunities, the Governor not only
never neglects a caller, never loses his placid self-control,
but even finds time to attend to many outside affairs in his
busy life and in the ceaseless activity of the restless Kansas
life that surrounds us all."20
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Besides reversing himself about Abraham Lincoln, and
about woman's suffrage, he had a charge °? heart about
prohibition. In a speech to the 3ta-ce Temperance Union in
Topeha, June 12, 1883, he admitted: "1 never made any secret
of the fact th t I voted against the prohibition amendment."
His speech a year and a half earlier had left no doubt about
his shift, when he spoke to the Republican State convention
in the gubernatorial campaign. Almost the entire address is
given to refutation of claims that the five-year-old Kansas
prohibition law was not effective, and to strong affirmations
about the economic, social, and political advantages of
prohibition. He said to the Stcte Temperance Union: "j.n my
opinion, this state is today the most temperate, orderly,
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sober community of people in the civilized world." V/« F.
Connelly, in his history of Kcnsas, writes: "At first not a
prohibitionist,...as he saw the beneficial effects, he became
converted to be one of its most ardent champions."2^
Kartin's addresses dur ng his time as governor are, as
D.K.Kilder says, "of and for Kciisas c,y a raaa wnose whole life and
thought are wrapped up inKansas. They i-xe chapters of Kansas
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• hisuory, anc worthy of preservation."
The continuing love affair with his adopted stcte and
It$ people glows in every one of his speeches. In 1S37, at
Fort Leavenworth, he said: "Attracting the test brain and
brawn of "che civilized world, Kansas has fu^ed all into a
homogeneous and cosmopolitan people, v;hose achiev-nents have
been a weaver anc a model for all the generations of men.
In less than three decades the men and women of Kansas have
wiped a desert from the map of J_merica and replaced it \vith
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cultivated fields anc fragrant meadows, and towering forests;
Kansas in peace."
Champion. He was very tired, for he had not withheld himself a-e
years of a^e.
s or L/e.-ien^s"
He ran his thirty-one years' race well end laid down his life
honored 'z~j the whole state. He was a soldier who did his whole
it into battle by the time he v;as 23, seems lime the romance
Alexander Martin.
3I33I0CMA3EY
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