Kansas becomes a state

This Day in Kansas History

The road to statehood for Kansas was a long and bloody one that would eventually spill over into the entire nation. After the failure of the Topeka Constitution in 1857 two more constitutions were submitted. The Lecompton and the Leavenworth constitutions both failed to become bills and secure statehood for the territory. By 1859 the territorial legislature was controlled by free staters, and they approved a fourth and final constitutional convention and in early June delegates were elected to gather at Wyandotte, Kansas. Beginning in the heat of Summer on July 5, 1859, the delegates met for three weeks and compared to the drama of the previous conventions the meetings in Wyandotte were tedious. Out of the 52 delegates in attendance thirty-five were Republican and the rest were Democrats. The majority were young men under the age of thirty from Northern states. The delegates chose to abandon the old Topeka Constitution and instead chose to use the Ohio Constitution as the model for Kansas. The Wyandotte constitutional convention differed from previous conventions mainly because by the time it was happening most proslavery settlers had been driven out of the territory or they had been outnumbered by free staters. This meant that the prohibition of slavery was a forgone conclusion. Also leading to this conclusion was the absence of radicals and extremists on both sides of the equation. Free state party rivals Charles L. Robinson and James H. Lane were both occupied by their own tribulations. While on the proslavery side Benjamin Stringfellow seemed to have resigned to defeat and stayed away from the convention and most telling of all was that not a single Missourian was present at the meetings. 

One of the most debated issues wasn’t over slavery but rather over the state boundaries which at the time were extended west to the continental divide in what is today west central Colorado. The boundary extended north to the Platte River covering the southern third of modern Nebraska. The delegates decided to move the east boundary to the 25th meridian where it still currently resides. The northern boundary was moved south to its current location at the 40th parallel after delegates from Topeka and Lawrence who both wanted to be the location of the state capital feared that the inclusion of the Platte territory would not only hurt their chances but also include to many Democrats. The convention also wrangled over issues of exempting homesteads from foreclosure, temperance, and universal suffrage. In the end, the Wyandotte Constitution expressed progressive ideas of liberty by explicitly prohibiting slavery, granting a homestead exemption from bankruptcy, and offering limited suffrage to women. The Wyandotte constitution expressed the ideas of women’s rights activist, reformer, and journalist Clarina Nichols by granting women property rights, equal custody of their children, and the right to vote in school board elections. It also granted suffrage to only White men over the age of 21 and though the Democrats tried, they could not muster enough votes to include a provision to prevent free Blacks from migrating to the new state.

Written in long hand and 21 feet in length, the new document was checked line-by-line by a committee before it was submitted for a vote. When it was moved by the convention for adoption the Democrats refused to sign it and raised issue mainly with the states reduced borders. A contentious campaign began to adopt the constitution and it would end with an election on October 4, 1859. The votes approved the Wyandotte Constitution by a better than two-to-one margin. It was then sent to Washington D.C. for approval by Congress and the president. On December 6, 1859, an election for state offices were held and Dr. Charles Robinson of Lawrence defeated incumbent territorial Governor Samuel Medary. Republicans also won 86 of 100 seats in the legislature. Congress proposed the Wyandotte Constitution and statehood for Kansas in a bill in the Spring of 1860 and it passed back and forth between the houses for nearly a year. This was due to strong resistance from Southern Congressmen that lasted until the election of Abraham Lincoln and the secession of several southern states from the union. This thinned the ranks of the opposing senators and on January 21, 1861, the last six left their seats and in turn the bill finally passed both houses of Congress. It was signed eight days later on January 29, 1861, by President James Buchanan who had been an avid opponent of the Free staters in Kansas. By this time however the Free State Party had been dissolved as its members joined the national Republicans.

News of the signing of the bill was transmitted from Washington to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas via the new telegraph line and then carried on horse back to the Eldridge Hotel in Lawrence. Once the news arrived, the town celebrated with great joy at becoming a part of the Union. However, this joy was short lived. Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4 and Southern States continued to secede. On March 26, the first Kansas state legislature convened and just over two weeks later South Carolina troops fired on Fort Sumter on April 12. The battle for Kansas was now over but the conflict that has spilled so much Kansas blood over the last six years had now engulfed the entire nation. The Wyandotte Constitution, which made statehood possible, has been amended many times over the years, but it remains the constitution of the state of Kansas to this day.