John James Ingalls

A Kansas Portrait

Kansans, like so many others, take for granted many of those things which are of the most importance to them. Take for instance, the state motto, Ad Astra Per Aspera, "To the stars through difficulty." It was suggested in 1861 by the young secretary to the first Kansas State Senate who later achieved international fame as a writer, wit and consummate politician.

His name was John James Ingalls, and he came to Kansas in 1858, lured by a colorful lithograph of a town which was more promise than actuality.

Ingalls was a member of the 1859 Wyandotte Constitutional Convention, the one which devised the constitution under which our state now functions, held other political offices, and for 18 years (1873 - 1891), represented Kansas in the United States Senate.

Probably no other individual had a more eminent knowledge and greater understanding of the ins and outs of Kansas politics during the first 50 years of statehood, and any words of his on the subject are well worth noting.

"Kansas," he once wrote, "has been the testing ground for every experiment in morals, politics, and social life...every political fallacy nurtured by misfortune, poverty, and failure... has here found tolerance and advocacy...something startling has always happened, or has been constantly anticipated."

On another occasion he wrote that "the purification of politics an iridescent dream."

Ingalls dabbled in and often succeeded in many things besides politics. These included the military, law, literature, banking, real estate, the newspaper business, prospecting, public speaking, speculating and town booming. He gained national renown for his essays on "Blue Grass" and the "Cat Fish Aristocracy."

Unfortunately, in spite of his many abilities the public and much of the press viewed him as an insensitive, vindictive and partisan politician.

His public career was ended in 1891 when he was replaced in the Senate by W. A. Peffer, a Populist. Farmer discontent had unseated him, and it was suggested that a political epitaph should read "Up was he stuck, and in the very upness of his stuckitude he fell."