As to my opinions concerning questions of State policy, no intelligent citizen can be deceived or misled, for they are fully and fairly set forth in the two messages I have had the honor to transmit to the Legislature. The questions of prohibition and labor I have already discussed at some length. Other questions discussed in my messages may be briefly summarized.
In my first message to the Legislature I called the attention of that body to the enormous aggregate of our municipal indebtedness, then aggregating nearly $16,000,000, and now perhaps nearly $20,000,000. I cited the fact that while our State debt was very small, the debts of its local subdivisions were enormous, and I earnestly urged the passage of a law limiting and restricting the debt-creating and tax-levying authority of counties, cities, townships and school districts, to the end that the tax burdens of the people might be reduced.
Second—I urged a thorough revision of our laws touching the assessment and equalization of taxes, so as to secure, if possible, uniform values, and a material reduction of the percentage of taxation.
Third—I recommended reforms in our laws for the disposition of school lands, calling attention to the defects and shameful abuses of our present system, and urging that stringent legislation should be adopted to protect the school domain of the State from despoliation by speculators.
Fourth—I urged radical changes in our present system of managing the State charitable institutions, so that the vast sums of money annually expended for public charities should be disbursed under systematic, intelligent and constant supervision, with a rigid accountability.
Fifth—I earnestly recommended such changes in our insurance laws as were necessary to protect our citizens against wrongs and abuses clearly pointed out.
Sixth—I recommended important modifications in our present railroad law, and urged that railroad corporations should be prohibited from establishing rates that enable them to pay large dividends and interest on stock and bonds issued in amount double or three times the cost of the construction of their roads.
Seventh—I urged a thorough revision of our laws concerning public highways, calling attention to the fact that the present system of making and improving country roads was not only wasteful and unjust in its operation, but unsatisfactory in its results.
Eighth—I urged the necessity of protecting our vast stock interest against loss or damage from contagious diseases, or from the introduction of Texas cattle.
Ninth—I recommended a revision and codification of the entire body of our laws, suggesting that this work would enormously reduce the expense, delay and perplexities of litigation in our courts.
Tenth—I urged a revision of the fee-bills of many local officers, so that all might clearly understand how much the law allowed for such services as officers are required to perform.
Eleventh—I advised a repeal of our cowardly law which abolishes the death penalty by indirection.
Twelfth—I recommended a reduction of the legal rates of interest from 7 per cent. or not to exceed 12 per cent. by special contract, to 6 per cent. or not to exceed 10 per cent. by special contract.
Thirteenth—I urged the creation of a State Board of Pardons, so that the Governor, in exercising the gravest responsibility vested in him by the constitution, should have the benefit of the advice and counsel of a tribunal charged with the duty of investigating the facts and reasons urged for a pardon.
Fourteenth—I called attention to serious defects in the crimes act, and the law regulating the assessment of improvements by occupying claimants.
Fifteenth—I urged complete enrollment of the soldiers of the State, and a record of that enrollment, so that honorably-discharged Union soldiers might, on application to the Adjutant General, ascertain the post-office address of surviving comrades, whose testimony was necessary to establish just pension claims.
In my second message, I renewed the recommendations made touching all those subjects that had failed to receive legislative attention, and added the following additional recommendations:
First—The passage of a law providing regulations to govern the arbitration of disputes between employers and employés. I stated that such a law was, in my judgment, vitally important to the prosperity and happiness alike of employers and employed, as well as to the peace and order of civil society.
Second—In view of the fact that the State debt aggregated only $815,000, of which amount only $256,000 was held by individuals or corporations, I urged that it was neither wise nor just to impose upon the present generation of tax-payers the burden of paying our outstanding bonds on their maturity; that our bonds could readily be re-funded at not to exceed 3½ or 4 per cent.; that the present is paying for public buildings future generations will occupy, and that the future should provide for the payment of outstanding bonds.
Third—I recommended that a constitutional amendment should be submitted, striking the word “white” from section 1 of article 8 of our organic law. This limitation prevents colored men from serving in the militia. During the civil war the colored troops demonstrated the courage and patriotism of their race, and it should be, not their right alone, but their duty, to bear arms in any emergency calling for a military force.
Fourth—I suggested that the Legislature should demand the establishment of military posts along our southwestern frontier, in order to protect our borders against Indian raids, and give our citizens full assurance of protection.
Fifth—I urged that Memorial Day be made a legal holiday.
Several of the recommendations thus made were favorably acted on by the Legislature, and bills to carry all these suggestions into practical effect were introduced. Experience in the duties of the Executive office, and a closer observation of the practical workings of our laws and institutions, and of the needs of the people, have only confirmed and strengthened the opinions I expressed touching all these questions. And if I am reëlected, I shall regard it as a solemn duty to again urge favorable legislative action upon all the interests and subjects I have thus enumerated and discussed. Every recommendation made in either message was, I believe, practical and just, and I am convinced that affirmative action by the Legislature, touching one and all of these questions, would not only promote the best interests of the people, but be earnestly approved by them.
It has also given me sincere satisfaction, since assuming the duties of the Executive office, to approve a number of measures which mark a decided reform in the conduct of State affairs and the administration of justice. Some of these I deem it proper to briefly mention.
First—A Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics has been established, charged with the duty of collecting information relating to the commercial, industrial, social, educational and sanitary condition of the laboring classes, with a view of furnishing suggestions and facts for the guidance of the Legislature.
Second—An Industrial Reformatory has been established, for the confinement, instruction and reformation of the large class of lads and young men whose wrong-doing was the result of bad surroundings or intoxication rather than of a naturally criminal or vicious disposition. Not one-half of the prisoners in our penitentiary belong naturally to the criminal classes, and more than one-half of them are under 25 years of age. Hundreds of these can, by a course of judicious instruction and discipline, be reformed and reclaimed, and the new Industrial Reformatory marks a decided advance in the method of dealing with law-breakers who are not hardened criminals.
Third—A Home for the Orphan Children of loyal soldiers has been established, and will in a few months be completed. The beneficence of the State could find no better field for the exercise of its generous impulses than will be afforded by the establishment of this home for the care and education of the orphan children of those who periled their own lives that the country might live.
Fourth—The laws of Kansas now provide legal machinery for the arbitration of differences between employers and their employés. This law is not, perhaps, perfect, but it is a movement in the right direction, and I am satisfied that it will in time demonstrate its usefulness.
Fifth—Twelve new counties have been fully organized during the past twenty months, and seven of these were organized under the law recently passed, requiring a population of 2,500 and property assessed at $150,000 as a prerequisite to organization.
Sixth—Laws have been enacted providing that preference in public employment and appointments shall be given to honorably-discharged Union soldiers, and for the burial of Union soldiers at the public expense.
In considering all these things, my fellow-citizens—and I have tried to present my views and action touching them with entire frankness, and as fully as is possible in a speech of this character—it should not be forgotten that the Governor of an American State possesses no authority that is not expressly vested in him by the laws. His duties and powers are clearly defined and limited by law, and he has no more right to do any act or exercise any authority not explicitly within the scope of the laws than has any other citizen. Hundreds of men thoughtlessly say, when something they think ought to be done is left undone, “If I were Governor, I would do this and that,” when, if any one of them were Governor, he would find that he had no legal right to do what he says he would do. I have frequently, since assuming the duties of my present office, found my authority thus restricted, and although this fact has occasionally caused embarrassment and vexation, I know the limitations placed on my official power are proper and just. This is a government of laws, and not of men, and no interests, either of justice, morality, or the public welfare, will be promoted by vesting any officer with arbitrary powers or authority. If, therefore, any good citizen thinks that I have on any occasion failed to do what he believes I should have done, let him, before condemning me, ascertain whether I had any legal authority to do it; whether I had not, in fact, done all that the laws of Kansas authorize me to do; and whether, all things considered, it is not always safer and wiser to follow Davy Crockett’s rule: “Be sure you are right; then go ahead.” True courage is not illustrated by yielding to public clamor; nor are right and justice exemplified by hasty and ill-considered zeal for a good cause. The American faith in “level-headedness” is not, after all, misplaced, and the public man who, possessing the judicial quality of seeing both sides, or all sides, of any question, does the safe and the just thing in dealing with it, can afford to trust to the clear judgment and the honest instincts of the American people for his vindication and approval.
I have not, my fellow-citizens, attempted to discuss those questions which divide the people in the larger domain of national politics. It has seemed to me that, on an occasion of this character, I should confine my remarks to a discussion of State affairs. But I am not indifferent, I could not be indifferent, to those issues of principle or of policies on which the Republican party bases its action and its faith. I am before you as a candidate of the Republican party. I have been a Republican from boyhood—an earnest, enthusiastic, loyal Republican; a Republican from conviction; a Republican who believes that the Republican party embraces in its ranks the best brain, and heart, and conscience of the American people. On every great question presented during the past thirty years, the Republican party has taken the side of justice, liberty, and eternal right. Never ashamed or afraid to espouse the cause of the poor, the ignorant, or the alien, and make their wrongs its own, it has never, on the other hand, pandered to vice or crime or cupidity for support. When it took control of the General Government, this country was a weak collection of discordant States on the verge of civil war and disunion. It crushed armed rebellion, brought the old flag back to the places from which it had been driven, and made the American Republic the greatest of civilized nations. It struck the shackles from 4,000,000 slaves, lifted them up, and enfranchised them. It opened the public lands to the people under the beneficent provisions of the homestead act. It spanned the continent with railways. It gave to the people a sound financial system and a stable currency. It revived and fostered American manufactures. It encouraged public education. It enriched our history with a long list of imperishable names that will be an inspiration and an example to our youth for generations to come—the names of Lincoln, and Grant, and Seward, and Thomas, and Garfield, and a host of others. And finally, when fraud and terrorism in the South and vilification and falsehood in the North had accomplished their ends, and this great party surrendered the trusts it had so long controlled, did its opponents and traducers, after the most patient and careful investigation, discover any facts or evidence to justify the ignorant and brutal accusations they had made against Republican honesty and competency? Not a single fact. Not a shadow of evidence. They “counted the money,” and it was all there—every penny of it. They investigated the books, they scanned every account, they scrutinized every item and figure, and they found nothing to criticise. And at last, one of the most prejudiced Democrats in the country was compelled to declare, and did declare, that he had been amazed at the perfect system, accuracy and integrity with which the business of his department had been conducted by the Republicans.
But they “turned the rascals out.” Oh, yes—that business has been attended to with promptness and regularity. An unending procession of “rascals” has been moving out for a year and a half. “Rascals” who had invaded the sacred soil of Virginia and Kentucky; who had stolen negroes and made them free; who had been with Grant at Vicksburg and in the Wilderness, and with Thomas at Mission Ridge, and with Sherman on the march to Atlanta and the sea, and with Meade at Gettysburg. Some of these “rascals” had grown old and gray; some limped out painfully, because of old wounds; some wore a vacant sleeve; some had voted against that great Democratic patriot, Vallandigham; and some had, years before, been guilty of singing a song about hanging a great Democratic statesman on a sour-apple tree. Men guilty of such “rascalities” as these of course deserved to be “turned out,” and they were promptly bounced.
In their stead, a long line of Democratic martyrs and patriots marched in—men who had “fought four years for their Democracy” under Lee, or Bragg, or Joe Johnston; men who had expatriated themselves to the wilds of Canada to avoid Lincoln’s “bastiles;” men who had wandered through the timbers of the Wabash or the Miami bottoms hunting their lodge of “Knights of the Golden Circle” or “Sons of Liberty;” men who had rejoiced over every disaster to the Union arms, and mourned over every Union victory; men who had denounced that gentle and loving Greatheart, Abraham Lincoln, as a “tyrant,” a “baboon,” and an “ape;” men who had assailed our great commander, Ulysses S. Grant, as a “bloody butcher” and a “drunken tanner”—these, in large measure, were the “honest patriots” who marched in, while the drums beat and the fifes whistled the old familiar tune, “Turn the rascals out;” and the Democratic party of Kansas, assembled in State convention, formally indorsed and approved this programme by adopting a resolution that “the soldiers and sailors of the late war”—not Union soldiers, not loyal soldiers, mind you, but “soldiers of the late war,” Confederate as well as Union—“are entitled to the first consideration in appointments.”
My fellow-citizens, the issues of this campaign are of vital importance to the prosperity and happiness of this State and this Nation. Republicans of Kansas, remember that in less than two years from this time we will be in the midst of a Presidential campaign. Do your duty now, and the result then will be assured. Support with voice and pen and vote, the candidates of your party—the men who represent convictions, principles, and policies approved by your judgment, and dear to your hearts. There has never been a time, from 1860 down to the present moment, when the Republican party more fully deserved the support of all loyal and just-minded men than it does now. Rally around the old banner of Republicanism—the flag of Lincoln, and Grant, and Garfield, and Logan, and Blaine. Vote with and for the party that gave liberty to the slave, and restored the Union and brought back peace and prosperity to bless a distracted and impoverished land. Vote with the party that has made Kansas famous throughout the civilized world as a State where unexampled material growth has gone hand in hand with unexampled social and intellectual progress. Vote with the party that is striving to make every home in Kansas a prosperous and happy home. Vote for the party that is always and everywhere the party of good government, of social order, of liberty and law. Do this, do it earnestly and faithfully, and the benediction of an approving conscience will fall upon and abide with you forever.