SURVIVING MEMBERS.
Of the surviving members, many have attained the highest distinction of the State, and all, I believe, are useful and honored citizens. At the first election under the Constitution, Samuel A. Kingman was chosen as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court; in 1866 he was elected Chief Justice, and reëlected in 1872. Benj. F. Simpson was elected the first Attorney-General of the State, but resigned the position to enter the army, in which he served throughout the war. He has since been Speaker of the House of Representatives, several times a State Senator, and is now serving his second term as U. S. Marshal. Solon O. Thacher was chosen District Judge at the first election under the Constitution, has since occupied many positions of honor and responsibility, and is a member of the present State Senate. J. C. Burnett, S. D. Houston and Sam’l E. Hoffman were members of the first State Senate, and Geo. H. Lillie was a member of the first House of Representatives. E. G. Ross was appointed United States Senator in 1866, and elected in 1867, serving until 1871. John J. Ingalls was chosen a State Senator in 1861; was elected United States Senator in 1873, and reëlected in 1879, and is still occupying that distinguished place. John T. Burris was Lieutenant-Colonel of the Tenth Kansas, and subsequently District Judge. Wm. P. Dutton, James Blood, L. R. Palmer, John P. Greer and John Ritchie have filled many positions of local trust and prominence, with credit and usefulness. R. C. Foster and John W. Forman are residing in Texas; William Hutchinson lives in Washington; Ed. Stokes in Arkansas, and C. B. McClellan, E. Moore and E. M. Hubbard are still prominent and honored citizens of the counties they represented. My old friend, Col. Caleb May, sole surviving member of the three Free-State Constitutional Conventions, lives in Montgomery county. If Dean Swift was right in saying that “whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow on a spot of ground where one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians,” what honor is due this sturdy Kansas farmer, who, during a residence of twenty-eight years in the State, has never—not even in the disastrous seasons of 1860 and 1874—failed to raise a good crop. Even the heroic service he rendered the cause of Freedom during the darkest days of the struggle in Kansas, was less valuable to the State than this practical and triumphant vindication of its soil and climate.