KANSAS. 



419 



betake himself to Zacatecas. Tims driven from 

 place to place, lie still continued to hold out 

 against the enemies of his country, having 

 confidence that the cause of which he was 

 the representative would ultimately triumph. 

 After years of disaster and severe trial, his 

 noble courage and indomitable perseverance 

 at length met their reward. With the down- 

 fall of the empire he returned in triumph to 

 the city of Mexico, where he was received 

 with the greatest enthusiasm, and in his re- 

 election, in October, 1867, the Mexican people 

 gave the most convincing proof of the esteem 

 in which they held him as the saviour of the 

 liberties of their country. 



In the winter of 1867 he had captured 

 Maximilian, and on the 16th of June ordered 

 his execution. He was severely blamed for 

 this act, especially by European writers, but 

 his friends contended that he was unable to 



Srevent it, though he used his utmost en- 

 eavors to do so. That Senor Juarez was a 

 man of kind and gentle disposition is the te's- 

 timony of all who knew him ; and though 

 Maximilian's own character was excellent, and 

 great sympathy was felt for his unhappy 

 young empress, yet there seems to have been 

 no precedent among European governments 

 which would have justified Juarez in sparing 

 the life of a foreign usurper of the Govern- 

 ment of Mexico, who had repeatedly declared 

 that the Mexican President should be put to 

 death instantly if he were captured. 



His foreign enemies driven out of Mexico, 

 and the permanency of his administration in 

 some sense guaranteed by the moral sympathy 



and support of the United States, the internal 

 and external commerce of the country rapidly 

 revived, and under the wise administration of 

 President Juarez it attained a fair degree of 

 prosperity. This prosperity, however, has con- 

 tinually been interrupted by revolutions and 

 pronunciamientos of more or less importance. 

 The strongest combination formed against 

 Juarez was in- May, 1868, when Rivera pro- 

 nounced in favor of deposing Juarez. The 

 revolutionists, however, frittered away their 

 strength, and under the discreet management 

 of Juarez the Government became solidified, 

 and Lerdo de Tejada was made Chief- Justice 

 of the Supreme Court, in place of Ortega. In 

 1871 Senor Juarez was again elected to the 

 presidency, but the trying scenes of the pre- 

 vious thirteen years, and the loss, early in 

 1872, of his wife, to whom he was tenderly 

 attached, had made serious inroads even upon 

 his vigorous constitution, and he died of apo- 

 plexy. In person Juarez was thick-set and 

 rather inelegant, having a heavy, slouching 

 gait and coarse frame. His face bespoke his 

 Indian origin was dark, but with a kindly ex- 

 pression. His mouth was large and somewhat 

 coarse, but when he spoke animatedly his ex- 

 pression was noble and commanding. His 

 oratorical powers were considerable, but his 

 chief strength was in his power of skilful 

 organization, his tenacity and firmness of 

 purpose. In all her history since her inde- 

 pendence, Mexico has sustained the loss of 

 no statesman of so much integrity and abil- 

 ity, or one she could so ill spare, as Benito 

 Juarez. 



K 



KANSAS. The growth of this State, in al- 

 most all the elements of material prosperity, 

 since 1861, when she was admitted into the 

 Union, has been remarkable. The following 

 statistics exhibit her condition as it is at 

 present, and as it was in 1862, when the first 

 full reports were made by the several State 

 officers on the affairs of their respective de- 

 partments: The total value of all taxable 

 property in the State, in 1862, was $19,285,749. 

 In 1872 it was $127,690,937.13. In 1862 there 

 were 534 organized school districts ; in 1872 

 there were 3,418. In 1862 the number of 

 children of school age was 13,976 ; in 1872 

 the number was 165,982. The number of 

 teachers in the former year was 319; in the 

 latter 3,795. The amount paid to teachers, in 

 1862 was $14,009 ; in 1872 it was $596,611. 

 The amount raised by district tax, in 1862, 

 was $10,381 ; in 1872 it was $822,644. The 

 total value of school-houses, in 1862, was $10,- 

 432 ; in 1872 it was $2,845,262. The whole 

 number of votes cast, in 1862, was 15,418 ; in 

 1872 the number was 101,488. In 1862 there 

 were no asylums for the deaf and dumb, none 



for the blind, and none for the insane ; no 

 State university, no agricultural college, no 

 normal schools, no penitentiary, and no 

 State capitol. In 1862 not a mile of railroad 

 was in operation in the State. Now there are 

 2,039 miles in actual operation, while several 

 new roads are in process of construction. 

 Kansas has more miles of railroad than either 

 of the twenty-six States named below : Maine, 

 New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, 

 Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Dela- 

 ware, Maryland, West Virginia, Wisconsin, 

 Minnesota, Virginia, North Carolina, South 

 Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Loui- 

 siana, Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, 

 California, Oregon, and Nevada. 



The vote of 1870, and the census of that 

 year, taken several months prior to the elec- 

 tion, establish that the population averages at 

 least six persons to each voter. The last vote 

 was 101,488, which makes the present popu- 

 lation 608,928 ; an increase since 1862 of half 

 a million people. 



While every county in the State is rapidly 

 growing, the largest increase in the number 



