The Lecompton Constitution (1858) was the second of four proposed state

constitutions of Kansas Under U.S. law, a state requires a constitution. A main order of business for Kansas Territory, Territorial Kansas was the creation of a constitution, under which Kansas would become a state. Whether it would be a slave states and free states, slav ...

. Named for the city of

Lecompton, Kansas Lecompton (pronounced ) is a city in Douglas County, Kansas, Douglas County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 588. Lecompton, located on the Kansas River, was the ''de jur ...

where it was drafted, it was strongly pro-

slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

. It never went into effect.

History

Purpose

The Lecompton Constitution was drafted by

pro-slavery Proslavery is support for slavery. It is sometimes found in the thought of ancient philosophers, religious texts, and in American and British writings especially before the American Civil War but also later through the 20th century. Arguments in ...

advocates and included provisions to protect slavery in the state and to exclude free people of color from its

bill of rights A bill of rights, sometimes called a declaration of rights or a charter of rights, is a list of the most important rights to the citizens of a country. The purpose is to protect those rights against infringement from public officials and pri ...

. Slavery was the subject of Article 7, which protected the right to enslaved "property". It prevented the legislature from emancipating enslaved people without their enslavers' consent and full compensation. A

rigged election Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud, or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share o ...

approved it in December 1857 but overwhelmingly defeated in a second vote in January 1858 by a majority of voters in the Kansas Territory. The rejection of the Lecompton Constitution, and the subsequent admittance of Kansas to the Union as a free state, highlighted the irregular and fraudulent voting practices that had marked earlier efforts by

bushwhacker Bushwhacking was a form of guerrilla warfare common during the American Revolutionary War, War of 1812, American Civil War and other conflicts in which there were large areas of contested land and few governmental resources to control these tra ...

s and

border ruffian Border ruffians were Proslavery thought, proslavery raiders who crossed into the Kansas Territory from Missouri during the mid-19th century to help ensure the territory entered the United States as a Slave states and free states, slave state. ...

s to create a state constitution in Kansas that allowed slavery.

Predecessors

The Lecompton Constitution was preceded by the

Topeka Constitution The Topeka Constitutional Convention met from October 23 to November 11, 1855, in Topeka, Kansas, Topeka, Kansas Territory, in a building afterwards called Constitution Hall (Topeka, Kansas), Constitution Hall. It drafted the Topeka Constitution, ...

and was followed by the Leavenworth and Wyandotte Constitutions, with the Wyandotte becoming the Kansas state constitution.Heller, Francis Howard, ''The Kansas State Constitution: A Reference Guide'', Greenwood Press, 1992, pp. 1–4. . The document was written in response to the

anti-slavery Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was France in 1315, but it was later used in its colonies. T ...

position of the 1855 Topeka Constitution of James H. Lane and other free-state advocates. The territorial legislature—which, because of widespread electoral fraud, mainly consisted of enslavers—met at the designated capital of

Lecompton Lecompton (pronounced ) is a city in Douglas County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 588. Lecompton, located on the Kansas River, was the ''de jure'' territorial capital of Kansas from 1855 to 18 ...

in September 1857 to produce a rival document. Free-state supporters, who comprised most actual settlers, boycotted the vote. President James Buchanan's appointee as territorial governor of Kansas,

Robert J. Walker Robert James Walker (July 19, 1801November 11, 1869) was an American lawyer, economist and politician. An active member of the Democratic Party, he served as a member of the U.S. Senate from Mississippi from 1835 until 1845, as Secretary of t ...

, although a strong defender of slavery, opposed the blatant injustice of the constitution and resigned rather than implement it.Stampp, Kenneth M., ''America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink'', Oxford University Press, 1992, pp. 167-80. This new constitution enshrined slavery in the proposed state and protected the rights of enslavers. In addition, the constitution provided for a referendum on whether to allow more enslaved people to enter the territory. The Topeka and Lecompton constitutions were placed before the people of the

Kansas Territory The Territory of Kansas was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the United States, Union as the Slave and ...

for a vote, and supporters of the opposing faction boycotted both votes. In the case of Lecompton, however, the vote was boiled down to a single issue, expressed on the ballot as "Constitution with Slavery" v. "Constitution with no Slavery". But the "Constitution with no Slavery" clause would not have made Kansas a free state; it merely would have banned the future importation of enslaved people into Kansas (something deemed by many as unenforceable). Boycotted by free-soilers, the referendum suffered serious voting irregularities, with over half the 6,000 votes deemed fraudulent.Flanagan, Mike, ''The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Old West'', Alpha Books, 1999, p. 180. Nevertheless, both it and the Topeka Constitution were sent to Washington for approval by Congress.

Rejection

A vocal supporter of enslaver rights, which he believed necessary to prevent Southern secession and preserve the Union, President

James Buchanan James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. He also served as the United States Secretary of State, secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvan ...

endorsed the Lecompton Constitution before Congress. While the president received the support of Southern Democrats, many Northern Democrats, led by

Stephen A. Douglas Stephen Arnold Douglas (né Douglass; April 23, 1813 – June 3, 1861) was an American politician and lawyer from Illinois. As a United States Senate, U.S. senator, he was one of two nominees of the badly split Democratic Party (United States) ...

, sided with the Republicans in opposition to the constitution. Despite Douglas's objections, the Kansas statehood bill passed the Senate on March 23, 1858, by a vote of 33 to 25. Douglas was helped considerably by the work of

Thomas Ewing Jr. Thomas Ewing Jr. (August 7, 1829 – January 21, 1896) was an attorney, the first chief justice of Kansas and leading free state advocate, Union Army general during the American Civil War, and two-term United States Congressman from Ohio, 1 ...

, a noted Kansas Free State politician and lawyer, who led a legislative investigation in Kansas to uncover the fraudulent voting ballots. A new referendum over the fate of the Lecompton Constitution was proposed, even though this would delay Kansas's admission to the Union. Furthermore, a new constitution—the anti-slavery Leavenworth Constitution—was already being drafted. On January 4, 1858, Kansas voters, having the opportunity to reject the constitution altogether in a referendum, overwhelmingly rejected the Lecompton Constitution by a vote of 10,226 to 138. In Washington, the admission of the state of Kansas with the Lecompton Constitution was rejected by the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

in 1858. Though soundly defeated, the debate over the proposed constitution had ripped apart the Democratic Party.

Anson Burlingame Anson Burlingame (November 14, 1820 – February 23, 1870) was an American lawyer, Republican/American Party legislator, diplomat, and abolitionist. As diplomat, he served as the U.S. minister to China (1862–1867) and then as China's envoy to ...

delivered a fiery speech in the House of Representatives on March 31, 1858, condemning those in favor of the Lecompton Constitution as "An Appeal to Patriots Against Fraud and Disunion". Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state in 1861, just as soon as the pro-slavery senators who had blocked it withdrew from the Senate because their states had seceded.

References

* Smith, Ronald D., ''Thomas Ewing Jr., Frontier Lawyer and Civil War General''. Columbia:University of Missouri Press, 2008, .

External links