South Africa and much less had made any agreement with the Dutch in other parts of the country with a view to such a result.  It was a difficult matter to find a Transvaal Boer or a Boer from the northern part of the Free State who cared whether the British or the Dutch were paramount in South Africa so long as the Republics were left unharmed, but it was less difficult to meet Cape Colonists and Boers from the southern part of the Free State who desired that Great Britain’s power in the country should be broken.  If there was any real spirit against Great Britain it was born on British soil in Cape Colony and blown northward to where courage to fight was more abundant.  Its source certainly was not in the north, and more certainly not with Paul Kruger, the man of peace.

President Steyn, of the Orange Free State, occupied even a more responsible position than his friend President Kruger, of the Transvaal.  At the beginning of hostilities, Steyn found that hundreds of the British-born citizens of his State refused to fight with his army, and consequently he was obliged to join the Transvaal with a much smaller force than he had reckoned upon.  He was handicapped by the lack of generals of any experience, and he did not have a sufficient number of burghers to guard the borders of his own State.  His Government had made but few preparations for war, and there was a lack of guns, ammunition, and equipment.  The mobilisation of his burghers was extremely difficult and required much more time than was anticipated, and everything seemed to be awry at a time when every detail should have been carefully planned and executed.  As the responsible head of the Government and the veritable head of the army Steyn passed a crisis with a remarkable display of energy, ingenuity, and ability.  After the army was in the field he gave his personal attention to the work of the departments whose heads were at the front and attended to many of the details of the commissariat work in Bloemfontein.  He frequently visited the burghers in the field and gave to them such encouragement as only the presence and praise of the leader of a nation can give to a people.  In February he went to the Republican lines at Ladysmith and made an address in which he stated that Sir Alfred Milner’s declaration that the power of Afrikanderism must be broken had caused the war.  Several days later he was with his burghers at Kimberley, praising their valour and infusing them with renewed courage.  A day or two afterward he was again in Bloemfontein, arranging for the comfort of his men and caring for the wives and children who were left behind.  His duties were increased a hundred-fold as the campaign progressed, and when the first reverses came he alone of the Free Staters was able to imbue the men with new zeal.  After Bloemfontein was captured by the British he transferred the capital to Kroonstad, and there, with the assistance of President Kruger, re-established the fighting spirit of the burgher army.  He induced the skulking burghers to return to their compatriots at the front, and formed the plans for future resistance against the invading army.  When Lord Roberts’s hosts advanced from Bloemfontein, President Steyn again moved the capital and established it at Heilbron.  Thereafter the capital was constantly transferred from one place to another, but through all those vicissitudes the President clung nobly to his people and country.