In the Wyandotte Convention all the noted Free-State leaders were
conspicuously absent. Its roll-call was made up of names generally new
in Kansas affairs, and largely unknown in either the Free-State or
Pro-Slavery councils. Its President, James M. Winchell, his colleague,
Wm. McCullough, and John Ritchie, of Shawnee, had been members of the
Leavenworth Convention; Col. Caleb May, of Atchison, and William R.
Griffith, of Bourbon, had been members of both the Topeka and the
Leavenworth Conventions; and Jas. M. Arthur, of Linn, had been a member
of the Topeka Convention. But their prominence was largely local. On the
Democratic side, too, appeared men before unnoted in the annals of the
stirring and tremendous conflict that had for years made the young
Territory the cynosure of a Continent’s interest. None of the prominent
Pro-Slavery men who sat in the Lecompton Convention or the Pro-Slavery
Legislature—Calhoun, Stringfellow, Henderson, Elmore, Wilson, Carr, and
others—appeared in this body.
Perhaps the absence of these party leaders was a fortunate thing for the
Convention and the incipient State. For in discriminating intelligence,
in considerate zeal for the welfare of the people, in catholic grasp of
principles, and in capacity for defining theories clearly and compactly,
the members of this body were not wanting. On the other hand, there were
fewer jealousies and far less wrangling than would have been possible
had the envious and aspiring party leaders been present. I think it is
certain that the work was better done, done with more sobriety,
sincerity, prudence and real ability, than would have resulted had the
recognized chiefs of the rival parties been on the floor of the
Convention. The pioneers—the John Baptists—of the Free-State cause were
all at Topeka, and the Constitution they framed is disfigured by some
blotches and much useless verbiage. The leaders were all at Leavenworth,
where they schemed for precedence, and spread traps to catch one
another, and quarreled over non-essentials, and did everything but make
a popular Constitution. Lecompton was the last expression of a beaten,
desperate and wrong-headed, but intellectually vigorous faction, and was
really, barring the mean method of its submission, and its attempt to
perpetuate Slavery, an admirable organic law.
The younger men of the Territory constituted the Convention at
Wyandotte. They came upon the field fresh, enthusiastic, and with a
place in the world of thought and action to conquer. They recognized the
fact that they must do extremely well to secure popular favor, and they
set about their task with industry, intelligence and prudence. They were
not martyrs or reformers, as many of those at Topeka were; nor jealous
politicians or factionists, as most of those at Leavenworth were. They
had no old battles to fight over again, no personal feuds to distract
them, no recollection of former defeats or victories to reverse or
maintain. They were their own prophets. They had had no experience in
Constitution-making, and hence did not look backward. They were not
specialists. A few had hobbies, but the vast majority had no bees
buzzing in their bonnets. A few were dogmatic, but the many were anxious
to discuss, and willing to be convinced. A few were loquacious, but the
majority were thinkers and workers. Some were accomplished scholars, but
the majority were men of ordinary education, whose faculties had been
sharpened and trained by the hard experience of an active and earnest
life. Many were vigorous, direct, intelligent speakers; several were
really eloquent; and a few may justly be ranked with the most versatile
and brilliant men Kansas has ever numbered among her citizens.
Very few were old men. Only fifteen of the fifty-two members were over
forty. Over one-third were under thirty, and nearly two-thirds under
thirty-five. Very few, as I have said, had previously appeared as
representatives of the people in any Territorial assemblage, and this
was especially true of the men whose talents, industry and force soon
approved them leaders. Samuel A. Kingman had been in the Territory only
about eighteen months, and was unknown, outside of Brown county, until
he appeared at Wyandotte. Solon O. Thacher was a young lawyer of
Lawrence, never before prominent in public affairs. John J. Ingalls had
served, the previous winter, as Engrossing Clerk of the Territorial
Council. Samuel A. Stinson was a young attorney, recently from Maine.
William C. McDowell had never been heard of outside of Leavenworth,
Benjamin F. Simpson was a boyish-looking lawyer from Miami county, and
John T. Burris had been practicing, for a year or two, in Justices’
courts in Johnson county. John P. Slough had been a member of the Ohio
Legislature, but was a new-comer in Kansas; and Edmund G. Ross was the
publisher of a weekly newspaper at Topeka.
One-half of the members had been in the Territory less than two years.
Six came in 1854, four in 1855, and twelve in 1856, while Mr. Forman, of
Doniphan, dated his residence from 1843; Mr. Palmer, of Pottawatomie,
from 1854, and Mr. Houston, of Riley, from 1853. Forty-one were from
Northern States, seven from the South, and four were of foreign birth,
England, Scotland, Ireland, and Germany each contributing one. It
appears singular that only one of the Western States, Indiana, was
represented in the membership, that State furnishing six delegates.
Twelve hailed from New England, Ohio contributed twelve, Pennsylvania
six, and New York four. Only eighteen belonged to the legal
profession—an unusually small number of lawyers in such a body. Sixteen
were farmers, eight merchants, three physicians, three manufacturers,
one a mechanic, one a printer, one a land agent, and one a surveyor. The
oldest member was Robert Graham, of Atchison, who was 55; the youngest
Benj. F. Simpson, of Lykins county, (now Miami,) who was 23.