Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
Those most familiar with the Governor’s office duringrecent years know what a busy place it is. Duringthe session of the Legislature it is not often that theGovernor has a rest of ten minutes, by day, and at nighthe is followed to his hotel and the solicitations often continueuntil midnight. Governor Martin usually reachesthe office at eight in the morning and remains until fiveor six, never going out for a lunch. During these hourshe sits and listens to the crowds of callers, dictates letters,and, rarely, reads or writes. With all of these personaldemands, entreaties, and importunities, the Governor notonly never neglects any caller, never loses his placid self-control,but even finds time to attend to many outsideaffairs in his own busy life and in the ceaseless activityof the restless Kansas life that surrounds us all. Thebusy man is the one who finds the most time; he losesnone.
Before coming to Topeka our Governor had passed allof his active life in a printing office or in the editorialroom. He began at the case, setting type, and has remainedin the same office, the Atchison Champion,—soonbuying the paper, and changing its form from a weekly toa daily when the growth of town and State demanded it.During the war he was the Colonel of the Eighth Kansas,4one of the youngest in the service, and one of the mostsuccessful. That is the only “rest” he has had since boyhood.But change is rest, and his election to the office ofChief Magistrate he appears to have enjoyed as a vacation;no cessation of labor, but great intellectual activityand real enjoyment.
The speeches and addresses in this volume are not theefforts of a man of leisure who is trying to see what hecan say and how handsomely he will say it. They areall 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 lifeand thought is wrapped up in Kansas. They are chaptersof Kansas history, and worthy of preservation. For thisreason they have been cut out of the newspapers in whichthey originally appeared and are now presented in permanentform. That they will be highly prized by our peoplethere is no doubt. Kansans are a reading and writingpeople; they are proud of their history, and they preserveall the records of the past. Governor Martin was oneof the founders of the State Historical Society, has beenits President, and if he did not have this spirit he wouldnot be a Kansan. The historical facts in this book willbe eagerly prized and gladly treasured. Governor Martinwas one of the Secretaries of the convention thatorganized the Republican party of Kansas, at Osawatomie;he was the Secretary of the convention that framed ourState Constitution; he was a member of the first StateSenate; he has been President of the Kansas and Missouri