This is a great State. It is the heart of the American Continent. Its history is a romance of the most thrilling interest; its development has been without parallel in the record of American Commonwealths. It has absorbed, in its population, the best blood and brain of all the civilized nations of the earth. During a campaign of thirty years, waged by the peaceful forces of civilization on the prairies of Kansas, seventy-nine thousand square miles of territory have been planted in crops. Six hundred cities and towns dot the map of the State; nearly six thousand miles of rail are kept bright by the constant friction of a mighty commerce; property worth fully six hundred million dollars has been accumulated; seven thousand school houses welcome throngs of eager children; crops valued at over one hundred million dollars are annually harvested; and fully a million and a half of intelligent, enterprising and prosperous people have homes within the borders of this State. The black banners of industry float from thousands of mills and factories. Fields and meadows are rich with herds and flocks. The face of the land has been transformed with forests, orchards and hedge-rows. Everywhere is growth, improvement, increase; everywhere are the evidences of culture, thrift, and enterprise; everywhere the promise of a larger, broader life, and a firmer, deeper faith in the greatness and glory of Kansas. Here is the Central State, the Sunflower State, the Soldier State, and within its borders prosperity and order, intelligence and sobriety, industry and enterprise, go hand in hand. And we are yet at the threshold and in the morning of it all. Kansas is still in the bloom of her youth; she has only fairly commenced her great career. Loving Freedom and loyal to the core; believing in education and respecting law; striving to keep her young manhood sober, clean and healthy; never a feeble imitator, yet always willing to learn; not afraid to experiment, and always ready to lead; full of energy, courage and enthusiasm—this is the Kansas of our love and our faith, this the fair mistress of our hearts, to whom, adopting the language of Ruth to Naomi, we say: “Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee, for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried.” ADDRESS. Delivered at the opening of the Floral Festival, Library Hall, Topeka, November 9th, 1886.