294 Quotations For An Active Life

QUOTATIONS FOR AN ACTIVE LIFE An Examination of Some Sources that Inspired John Alexander Martin, Pioneer Editor, Soldier and Early Governor of Kansas Ernst F. Tonsing Thousand Oaks, California

I. INTRODUCTION The path that leads into a person's heart is obscure, and to follow it one must look for signs that mark the way, especially in unusual places. In the case of John Alexander Martin, pioneer editor, soldier and early governor of Kansas, we have an especially complex personality. His career was a busy one: born in 1839 at Brownville, Pennsylvania, learning the printer's trade when fifteen, moving to Atchison, Kansas, to the heart of the Pro-Slavery Territory when eighteen, purchasing and transforming a Slave-State newspaper into the Freedom's Champion when nineteen, elected Secretary of the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention and State Senator before he was twenty-one, organizing the Eighth Kansas Infantry and appointed Lieutenant-Colonel when he was twenty-two, and, after heroic service in the Civil War, elected Postmaster, then Mayor of Atchison, and, finally, elected Governor of the state in 1884 and again in 1886, but dying just a few months after completing his second term. One has to wonder what drove such a person as this, what in his personality and private thoughts inspired him. We are fortunate to have Martin's words in his Civil War letters1 that show us his military formation. His political speeches, collected into the book, Addresses,2 contribute to the understanding of his official thought toward the end of his life. His many editorials for the Champion, the newspaper he continued to edit throughout his life, take up the various issues of his day. But, the private thought of Martin is the most elusive. By chance, I ran across some markings in two of some six thousand books once owned by Martin that revealed another side to this intriguing person. The first is a collection of Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson, by S. Austin Allibone.3 The rich, blue cover with black, architectural designs, the words of the title and author highlighted with gold, shows that it had been consulted many times by the wear on the lower edges. Inside the cover is an engraved bookplate showing the cover of an elaborately decorated volume upon which is the following inscription. The number appears to identify the volume in a catalogue. 1

"Fearful Work": Civil War Letters and Recollections of Col. John Alexander Martin, Eighth Kansas Voluntary Infantry, transcribed and edited by Ernst F. Tonsing (Privately distributed, 1998). " John A. Martin, Addresses: By John A. Martin. Delivered in Kansas (Topeka, Kansas: Kansas Publishing House: Clifford C. Baker, 1888). 3 S. Austin Allibone, Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson. With Copious Indexes (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1879), 788 pp.

No 46. John A. Martin, Atchison, Kansas. Don't forget to return this book to its owner. The book is arranged alphabetically by subject, extending from "Absence" and "Adversity," to "Youth" and "Zeal." Most quotations are usually three or four lines in length, and reflect the romantic age in which they were assembled. The authors were those most favored by readers in the nineteenth century: Alexander Pope, John Milton, Thomas Moore, John Dryden, William Shakespeare, etc.4 The second volume by the same editor is Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulcty,5 which has a similar cover, except that it is green. The bookplate is the same as well, but with the number 45. The arrangement is again alphabetical, from "Abridgments" and "Absence," to "Zeal." The selections were marked in pencil, sometimes with curved brackets, sometimes with a diagonal dash to the side of the lines, and one being an "X." Many may have appeared in the first column of Martin's newspaper, the Atchison, Kansas, Champion, which featured poems, proverbs and various quotations. What follows is a list of the ones that were singled out by Martin.6 Since there is no indication of chronological sequence in either book, they are rendered below in the order in which they appear in Allibone's book. Upon discovering these marks, I was curious about the reasons for their selection. When taken as a group, what might they reveal? Do the ideas form clusters of themes upon which Martin thought? How do they relate to the career of this statesman?

4

The names of the twenty-two authors cited here in alphabetical order are: Robert Bums, Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Congreve, Barry Cornwell, John Dryden, Frances Anne Kemble, Phillip Massinger, Thomas Middleton, John Milton, James Montgomery, Thomas Moore, the Earl of Orrey, Alexander Pope, Matthew Prior, Francis Quarles, Nicholas Rowe, William Shakespeare, Robert Southey, James Thomson, Sir Samuel Tuke, and Edward Young. 5 S. Austin Allilbone, Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1876), 764 pp. 6 It is possible that some of the marks might have been made by Martin's wife, Ida Challiss Martin, however, it is impossible to distinguish different hands. Most of the marks are boldly drawn, from 5/8 to V« of an inch in length, tapering up either direction at 45 degrees.

O.

MARTIN'S POETICAL SELECTIONS

The first lines that are marked in the book is a quotation under the title of "Fame": Their temples wreathed with leaves that still renew; For deathless laurel is the victor's due. Dryden.7 Under the same title are the following: For well you know, and can record alone, What fame to future times conveys but darkly down. Dryden.8 The fame that a man wins himself is best; That he may call his own: honours put on him Make him no more a man than his clothes do, Which are as soon ta'en off. Middleton.9 But sure the eye of time beholds no name So blest as thine in all the rolls of fame. Pope. Under "Feasts," comes a quotation marked by an "X." Cheerful looks make every dish a feast, And 'tis that crowns a welcome. Massinger." "Friendship" receives attention in the following: Friendship above all ties does bind the heart; And faith in fellowship is the noblest part. Lord Orrey: Henry V.12 Who alone suffers, suffers most i' th' mind; But then the mind much suff ranee does o'erskip When grief hath mates and bearing fellowship. Shakespeare.13 7

Ibid., p. 171. Ibid, p. 172. 9 Ibid. 10 Ibid., p. 173. " Ibid., p. 184. 12 Ibid., p. 210. 13 Ibid., p. 211. 8

There are friends, however, who are not steadfast: Is there, kind heaven! no constancy in man? No steadfast truth, no gen'rous fix'd affection, That can bear up against a selfish world? No, there is none. Thomson: Tancred and Sigismunda. Friendship's an empty name, made to deceive Those whose good nature tempts them to believe: There's no such thing on earth; the best that we Can hope for here is faint neutrality. Sir Samuel Tuke: Adventures.

h

Friends must be well chosen, but, once identified, loyally cherished: First on thy friend deliberate with thyself; Pause, ponder, sift; not eager in the choice, Nor jealous of the chosen; fixing, fix;— Judge before friendship, then confide till death. Young: Night Thoughts.16 A faint pencil mark runs over the following concerning "Good Humour." While it is not clear whether Martin was deliberately checking this item, it is obvious that he at least glanced at it and dragged the point of his pencil across part of it. He keeps his temper'd mind, serene and pure, And ev'ry passion aptly harmonized, Amid a jarring world. Thompson.17 The following were marked by underlining the names of their authors. The subject is "Life": Henceforth I fly not death, nor would prolong Life much! Bent, rather, how I may be quit, Fairest and easiest, of this cumbrous charge. Milton.18

14

Ibid., p. 213. Ibid. 16 Ibid. 17 Ibid., p. 226. 18 Ibid., p. 302. 15

0 pity and shame, that they who to live well Enter'd so fair, should turn aside to treat Paths indirect, or in the midway faith. Milton.19 Who that hath ever been Could bear to be no more? Yet who would tread again the scene He trod through life before? 20

James Montgomery. They may rail at this life—from the hour I began it, I've found it a life full of kindness and bliss; And until they can show me some happier planet, More social and bright, I'll content me with this. Moore.21 Life is not always agreeable or uplifting: The world had just begun to steal Each hope that led me lightly on; I felt not as I used to feel, And life grew dark, and love was gone! Moore.22 Life is a waste of wearisome hours, Which seldom the rose of enjoyment adorns; And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers Is always the first to be touch'd by the thorns. Moore.23 In the end, life is a mixed bag of goods: Love, hope, and joy, fair pleasure's smiling train; Hate, fear, and grief, the family of pain; These, mix'd with art, and to due bounds confined, Make and maintain the balance of the mind; The lights and shades whose well-accorded strife Gives all the strength and colour of our life. Pope.24 19

Ibid. Ibid. 21 Ibid. 22 Ibid. 23 Ibid. 24 Ibid. 20

Fragile and brief is life: Like following life through creatures you dissect, You lose it in the moment you detect. Pope.25 Be the fair level of thy actions laid As temp'rance wills, and prudence may persuade, And try if life be worth the liver's care. Prior.26 Several pessimistic stanzas are marked in the first volume: So vanishes our state, so pass our days; So life but opens now, and now decays; The cradle and the tomb, alas! so nigh, To live is scarce distinguish'd from to die. Prior.27 Our life is nothing but a winter's day: Some only break their fast, and so away; Others stay dinner, and depart full-fed; The deepest age but sups and goes to bed: He's most in debt that lingers out the day; Who dies betimes has less and less to pay. Quarles.28 All was jollity, Feasting and mirth, light wantonness and laughter, Piping and playing, minstrelsy and masking, Till life fled from us like an idle dream, A show of mommery without a meaning. Rowe.29 This and the following selections concern "Love": All thoughts, all passions, all delights, Whatever stirs this mortal frame, All are but ministers of Love, And feed his sacred flame. Coleridge: Genevieve.30 25

Ibid. Ibid., p. 303. 27 Ibid. 28 Ibid. 29 Ibid. 26

Life without love's a load, and time stands still; What we refuse to him, to death we give; And then, then only, when we love, we live. Congreve.31 Poems and quotations with the theme of love were marked far more frequently in the book than any other idea: Oh! There's nothing half so sweet in life As love's young dream. Moore.32 Thinkest thou That I could live, and let thee go Who art my life itself? No—no! Moore.33 No, the heart that has truly loved never forgets, But as truly loves on to the close; As the sunflower turns on her god, when he sets, The same look which she turn'd when he rose. Moore.34 And when once the young heart of a maiden is stolen, The maiden herself will steal after it soon. Moore.35 Love is, or ought to be, our greatest bliss; Since every other joy, how dear soever, Gives way to that, and we leave all for love. Rowe: Lady Jane Grey36 0 love! How are thy precious sweetest moments Thus ever cross'd, thus vex'd with disappointments! Now pride, now fickleness, fantastic quarrels, And sullen coldness, give us pain by turns! Rowe: Ulysses37

30

Ibid., p. 308. Ibid. 32 Ibid., p. 316. 33 Ibid., p. 317. 34 Ibid. 35 Ibid. 36 Ibid., p. 320. 37 Ibid.

31

He wooes both high and low, both rich and poor. Shakespeare. These are selected by penciled brackets: Love is indestructible: Its holy flame forever burneth; From heaven it came, to heaven returneth. Southey: Curse ofKehama3 Why should we kill the best of passions, love? It aids the hero, bids ambition rise To nobler heights, inspires immortal deeds, Ev'n softens brutes, and adds a grace to virtue. Thomson: Sophonisba.40 Particularly heavy, double-brackets, twice retraced, surround the following two poems concerning "Memory": Still o'er these scenes my memory wakes, And fondly broods with miser care; Time but the impression deeper makes, As streams their channels deeper wear. Burns.41 Oh! Friends regretted, scenes forever dear, Remembrance hails you with her warmest tear! Drooping she bends o'er pensive Fancy's urn, To trace the hours which never can return. Byron.42 It is curious that Martin, in land-locked Kansas, marked two selections with the theme of "Ocean": Oh, who can tell, save he whose heart hath tried, And danced in triumph o'er the waters wide, The exulting sense, the pulse's madd'ning play, That thrills the wanderer of that trackless way? Byron: Corsair43

38

Ibid. Ibid., p. 326. 40 Ibid., p. 329. 41 Ibid., p. 346. 42 Ibid. 43 Ibid., p. 382. 39

The sea! The sea! The open sea! The blue, the fresh, the ever free! Without a mark, without a bound, It runneth the earth's wide regions round; It plays with the clouds, it mocks the skies, Or like a cradled creature lies. Barry Cornwall (B. W. Procter.)44 A slant mark appears both before and after the following poem on "Parting": When thou art gone, there creeps into my heart A cold and bitter consciousness of pain; The light, the warmth of life with thee depart, And I sit dreaming o'er and o'er again Thy greeting clasp, thy parting look and tone; And suddenly I wake—and am alone. Frances Anne Kemble.45 "Politics" gets attention as well in these words about statesmanship: Statesman, yet friend to truth! Of soul sincere, In action faithful, and in honour clear! Who broke no promise, served no private end, Who gain'd no title, and who lost no friend: Ennobled by himself, by all approved, Praised, wept, and honour'd by the muse he loved. Pope.46 The following could have been selected upon recollecting the death of Martin's beloved younger brother, James, during the Civil War. Under the heading, "Absence," were two selections following: 'oOh! Couldst thou but know With what a deep devotedness of woe I wept thy absence, o'er and o'er again Thinking of thee, still thee, till thought grew pain, And memory, like a drop that night and day Falls cold and ceaseless, wore my heart away! Moore: LallaRookh47

44

Ibid. Ibid., p. 390. 46 Ibid., p. 419. 47 Ibid., p. 2. 45

Ye flowers that droop, forsaken by the spring; Ye birds that, left by summer, cease to sing, Ye trees that fade, when autumn heats remove, Say, is not absence death to those who love? Pope.48

m.

MARTIN'S PROSE SELECTIONS

The quotations that Martin selected from the collection of prose works show themes mostly drawn from the political world. In contrast with the marks alongside the individual quotations in the first volume, these were indicated in the indices of the volume by slant marks by the various topics. As in the poetical selections, they are listed in the order in which they appear in the "Index of Authors" and "Index of Subjects" of the book.49 The first choices are from George Washington. This is the only author identified in the author's index by Martin, and the quotations appear on a number of pages throughout the book. As no one item is selected by Martin, all are listed here. "The pure and benign light of revelation has had a meliorating influence on mankind."50 "Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness."51 "I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations..." [the three paragraphs from Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the United States continue this theme, but are too lengthy to be quoted in full here.] 2 "There is an indissoluble union between a magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity. ,53 "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribune of Patriotism who should labour to

Allibone, Prose Quotations, op. cit. The sixteen authors included in this section of Martin's selections are George Washington, Joseph Addison, Dom. F. Arago, John Arbuthnot, Aristotle, Lord Bacon, Edmund Burke, Cervantes, Cicero, Samuel T. Coleridge, Caleb C. Colton, Roger L'Estrange, Hanna More, Jean J. Rousseau, Adam Smith, Tacitus. 50 Ibid., p. 112. 51 Ibid., p. 170. 52 Ibid., p. 513. 53 Ibid., p. 567.

subvert those pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle." Farewell Address to the People of the United States. 4 "Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and Morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great Nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its Virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which enobles human nature. Alas! Is it rendered impossible by its vices?" Farewell Address to the People of the United States.55 In the following, Martin does not identify any one selection as of particular importance. Therefore, several items are quoted rather arbitrarily to present the general idea of the topic. Many of the quotations are lengthy paragraphs. Here, I have preferred to quote the brief and representative ones. Under the title, "Genius," appear these: "The productions of a great genius, with many lapses and inadvertencies, are infinitely preferable to the works of an inferior kind of author which are scrupulously exact, and comfortable to all the rules of correct writing." Addison.56 "Genius of the highest kind implies an unusual intensity of the modifying power." Coleridge.57 54 55 56

Ibid., p. 621. Ibid., p. 673. ftid., p. 258.

"Genius without religion is only a lamp on the outer gate of a palace. It may serve to cast a gleam of light on those that are without, while the inhabitant sits in darkness." 58

Hanna More. "Glory" is identified by Martin. For example: "Obloquy is a necessary ingredient in the composition of all true glory."

Burke.59

"True glory takes root, and even spreads: all false pretences, like flowers, fall to the ground; nor can any counterfeit last long." Cicero.60 "There are two things which ought to teach us to think but meanly of human glory: the very best have had their calumniators, the very worst their panegyrists." Colton: Lacon61 The subject of "Greatness" is similar. "Others proclaim the infirmities of a great man with satisfaction and complacency, if they discover none of the like in themselves." Addison: Spectator62 "A solid and substantial greatness of soul looks down with neglect on the censures and applauses of the multitude." Addison.63 "Times of general calamity and confusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storm." Colton: Lacon64

57

Ibid. Ibid., p. 259. 59 Ibid., p. 260. 60 Ibid., p. 261. 61 Ibid. 62 Ibid., p. 290. 63 Ibid. 64 Ibid., p. 291. 58

"Knowledge," Labour," Languages" and "Laughter" is passed over by Martin to select "Law": ""Law is a bottomless pit; John Bull was flattered by the lawyers that his suit would not last above a year; yet ten long years did Hocus steer his cause through all the meanders of the law, and all the courts." Arbuthnot.65 "Decent executions keep the world in awe: for that reason the majority of mankind ought to be hanged every year." Arbuthnot.66 The page is turned down on page 395 concerning "Law." Again, it is not obvious which selection is favored by Martin. Perhaps this one was considered important: "And first of all, the science of jurisprudence, the pride of the human intellect, which, with all its defects, redundancies, and errors, is the collected reason of ages, combining the principles of original justice with the infinite variety of human concerns, as a heap of old exploded errors, would be no longer studies. Personal self-sufficiency and arrogance (the certain attendants upon all those who have never experienced a wisdom greater than their own) would usurp the tribunal. Of course no certain laws, establishing invariable grounds of hope and fear, would keep the actions of men in a certain course, or direct them to a certain end." Burke: Reflections on the Revolution in France, 179 O67 "Liberty" is another issue that attracted Martin's attention. "Liberty, such as deserves the name, is an honest, equitable, diffusive, and impartial principle. It is a great and enlarged virtue, and not a sordid, selfish, and illiberal vice. It is the portion of the mass of the citizens, and not the haughty license of some potent individual or some predominant faction." Burke: Letter to Richard Burke on Prot. Ascend. In Ireland, 1793,68 "Grand, swelling sentiments of liberty I am sure I do not despise. They warm the heart, they enlarge and liberalize our minds; they animate our courage in a time of conflict." Burke.69

65 66 67 68 69

Ibid., p. 391. Ibid. Ibid., p. 395. Ibid., p. 422. Ibid.

"Our country cannot well subsist without liberty, nor liberty without virtue." Rousseau.70 "The word liberty has been falsely used by persons who, being degenerately profligate in private life and mischievous in public, had no hope left but in fomenting discord." Tacitus.71 "Peace" has a few items. Given the tragedies of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries, the wonderful optimism expressed seems ironic now. "Let us reckon upon the future. A time will come when the science of destruction shall bend before the arts of peace; when the genius which multiplies our powers—which creates new products—which diffuses comfort and happiness among the great mass of the people—shall occupy in the general estimation of mankind that rank which reason and common sense now assign to it." Arago: Eloge on James Watt12

Martin's political career seems to have been guided by a number of ideas, such as the following under the title of "Political Economy": "The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it." Adam Smith.73 "Every tax must finally be paid from some one or other of those three different sorts of revenue (rent, profit, or wages), or from all of them indifferently." Adam Smith.74 "Politics" is another related topic. However, the quotations extend from pages 555 to 568, one of the lengthiest parts of the book. Several typical ones are these: "No authors draw upon themselves more displeasure than those who deal in political matters, which is justly incurred, considering that spirit of rancour and virulence with which works of this nature abound." Addison.75 70

Ibid., p. 423. Ibid. 2 72 Ibid., p. 518. 73 Ibid., p. 554. 74 Ibid. 75 Ibid., p. 555. 71

"Men who possess a state of neutrality in times of public danger desert the interests of their fellow-subjects." Addison.76 "It is a misfortune that in no part of the globe natural liberty and natural religion are to be found pure, and free from the mixture of political adulteration. Yet we have implanted in us by Providence, ideas, axioms, rules, of what is pious, just, fair, honest, which no political craft nor learned sophistry can entirely expel from our breasts. By these we judge, and we cannot otherwise judge, of the several artificial modes of religion and society, and determine of them as they approach to or recede from this standard." Burke: Vindic. Of Nat. Society11 "In our politics, as in our common conduct, we shall be worse than infants, if we do not put our senses under the tuition of our judgment, and effectually cure ourselves of that optical illusion which makes a brier at our nose of greater magnitude than an oak at five hundred yards' distance." Burke: Speech on the Nabot of Arcot'sDebts, Feb. 28, 1785.78 The one topic marked in the index by Martin that does not relate to his political life is the one on "Sleep": "When we are asleep, joy and sorrow give us more vigorous sensations of pain or pleasure than at any other time." Addison.79 "A merchant died that was very far in debt; his goods and household stuff were set forth to sale; a stranger would needs buy a pillow there, saying, This pillow sure is good to sleep on, since he could sleep on it that owed so many debts." Lord Bacon. "Now blessings light on him.that first invented sleep! It covers a man all over, thoughts and all, like a cloak; it is meat for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, heat for the cold, and cold for the hot." Cervantes: Don Quixote, Part I., ch. lxvii.81

76

Ibid. Ibid., p. 556. 78 Ibid., p. 558. 79 Ibid., p. 659. 80 Ibid. 81 Ibid., p. 660. 77

"Sleep, the type of death, is also, like that which it typifies, restricted to the earth. It flies from hell,and is excluded from heaven." Colton: Laconn The only selections specifically marked by Martin in the second volume come in the ideas about "States." He has placed brackets around these quotations: "The stock of materials by which any nation is rendered flourishing and prosperous are its industry, its knowledge or skill, its morals, its execution of justice, its courage, and the national union in directing these powers to one point and making them all centre in the public benefit. Other than these, I do not know and scarcely can conceive any means by which a community may flourish." on

Burke: Tract on the Popery Laws. Martin drew double brackets on the right side of this item, perhaps to indicate the importance with which he held the ideas contained in it. "A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman." Burke.84 Again, political motives draws the attention of Martin under the title of "Tyranny": "A king ruleth as he ought, a tyrant as he lists; a king to the profit of all, a tyrant only to please a few." Aristotle.85 "The most insupportable of tyrants, exclaim against the exercise of arbitrary power." L'Estrange.86 "It is the nature of tyranny and rapacity never to learn moderation from the ill-success of first oppressions; on the contrary, all oppressors, all men thinking highly of the methods dictated by their nature, attribute the frustration of their desires to the want of sufficient rigour. Then they redouble the efforts of their impotent cruelty, which producing, as they must ever produce, new disappointments, they grow irritated against the objects of their rapacity; and then rage, fury, and malice, implacable because unprovoked, recruiting and reinforcing their avarice, their vices are no longer human. From cruel men they are transformed into savage 82

Ibid. Ibid., p. 671. 84 Ibid., p. 672. 85 Ibid., p. 711. 86 Ibid., p. 712. 83

beasts, with no other vestiges of reason left but what serves to furnish the inventions and refinements of ferocious subtlety, for purposes of which beasts are incapable and at which fiends would blush." Burke: Impeachment of Warren Hastings.

rv. CONCLUSIONS As far as can be determined, Martin did not create poetry himself, but many who wrote about him commented on his love of verse. His speeches are laced with the words no

of poets, and one printed in his Addresses contains a poem that runs to sixteen stanzas. Every newspaper from his office begins with the left column filled top to bottom with poems selected from a variety of authors.89 It cannot be argued that there is congruence between the private or public individual, John A. Martin, and the ideas expressed in the poems and sayings found in these two books. The examination of a person's deepest convictions is especially difficult after more than a century after that person's life. Yet, Martin somehow related to these particular verses or phrases, and took the effort to place a mark beside these words, perhaps for later reference or for private reflection. It can be argued that these marks trace, however faintly, the record of the thoughts and of the moral development of this remarkable person. In the poetical quotations we see Martin thinking about the brief span of life, that fame, though eagerly sought, is fleeting, that strong friendship and equally steadfast love infuses life with meaning and overcomes the pain of separation. In the prose selections Martin surveys the meaning of genius and greatness, the objects of law and politics, and what makes for the wellbeing of states. It seems likely that they played some part in his vocation as newspaper editor, mayor, and his tenure during two terms as Governor of Kansas. These conclusions are meager and general, it is true. Yet, they reveal a dimension behind the extraordinarily busy, public life of Martin, that he was perpetual machine, but a person that thought deeply about those aspects of confront all human beings and their governance. Indeed, these quotations unworthy of our contemplation as well.

personal hardly a life that are not

Ernst F. Tonsing Thousand Oaks, California November 25, 2001

Martin, Addresses, op. cit., p. 165. *9 No effort has been made here to search the editions of the Champion to see if any of these quotations appear in this column. The emphasis here is merely those found in AJlibone's two volumes.