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A great crowd came to hear, and he
swayed them to his will, as only such men as Henry Ward Beecher and
Patrick Henry have been able to do. But this gospel was the gospel of
hate. Implacable, unforgiving hate was his only gospel.
At last this man, at once both great and wicked, having attained the
highest honors the people had to bestow, died by his own hand. The
people believed that he had gone wrong and betrayed them, and they
withdrew from him their favor. Mr. Lane loved popularity more than he
loved heaven, and he shot himself through the brain.
The writer, unwilling alone to take the responsibility of expressing
such a judgment as the above, appealed to a gentlemen whose high
position in public life and kindly and conservative temper eminently
qualify him to speak, and this is what he says:
No one can question the fact that Mr. Lane's career in Kansas exerted a
great influence in shaping the affairs and controlling the destiny of
the young State. During his life I was alternately swayed by feelings of
admiration and distrust.


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