Beaten in its attempt to enslave Kansas, the Democratic party plunged the whole country into civil war, and for four long and bloody years the Nation struggled on to universal freedom and national unity; and this young State, that had been fighting for five years to get into the Union, now had to fight for four years more to preserve the Union. Republicanism and Kansas were wedded together in this long and terrible struggle. When Jefferson Davis marched out of the Senate, William H. Seward moved to take up the Kansas bill, and as the coat-tails of the Rebel chief disappeared through one door, young Kansas, smiling and triumphant, marched in at the other. REPUBLICAN CONTROL IN KANSAS. 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.