Four Conventions framed Constitutions for this State. The first
assembled at Topeka, on the 23d of October, 1855, and adjourned on the
11th of November, after a session of twenty days. It was composed of
forty-seven members, of whom thirty-one signed the Constitution. On the
15th of December this instrument was submitted to the people for
ratification or rejection. Only 1,777 ballots were cast, all but 46
being favorable. One of its sections, a provision excluding negroes and
mulattoes from the State, was submitted as an independent proposition,
and adopted by an affirmative vote of 1,287, to 453 against it.
The second convention was that held at Lecompton, which met on the 7th
of June, 1857, and after a session of four days, adjourned until the
19th of October, a final adjournment being reached on the 3d of
November. It was composed of sixty-four members, forty-five of whom
signed the organic law it framed, and its session continued twenty days.
No direct vote on this Constitution was provided for. The Schedule
ordered two forms of ballots, one, the “Constitution with Slavery,” the
other, “Constitution with no Slavery.” It was the old turkey-and-buzzard
choice. The Free-State men refused to vote at the election, held on the
21st of December, and only 6,712 ballots were cast, 6,147 being for
Slavery and 569 against Slavery. The Free-State men had, however,
elected a majority of the Territorial Legislature in October, and at a
special session of that body, held in December, a law was passed
providing for a direct vote on the Constitution. This election was held
on the 4th of January, 1858, resulting: Against the Constitution,
10,266; for, 164—the Pro-Slavery men not voting. A third vote on the
Lecompton instrument was taken August 2d, 1858, Congress having ordered
its re-submission under the terms of the English bill. Again it was
rejected, the ballots in its favor being only 1,788, and those against
it, 11,300.
The Leavenworth Convention met at Minneola, March 23d, 1858, and at once
adjourned to Leavenworth, where it reassembled March 25th. It was
composed of ninety-five members, was in session only eleven days, and
the Constitution it framed was signed by eighty-three persons. This
instrument was adopted at an election held May 11th, by a very small
vote, the Pro-Slavery men taking no part in the contest. It was never a
popular organic law, and many Free-State men who supported it did so
under protest. An earnest effort was made, by the Republicans, to secure
the admission of Kansas under the Topeka Constitution, and by the
Democrats, with a few exceptions, to bring the Territory in under the
Lecompton Constitution. But no serious or determined contest was waged,
in Congress, for admission under the Leavenworth Constitution, and in
less than eight months the movement in its behalf was formally
abandoned.