On the seventh day the Legislative and Judicial Committees reported. The
Legislative article was considered next day. The Committee proposed that
bills might originate in either House, but Mr. Winchell submitted a
novel amendment, which required all laws to originate in the House of
Representatives. This was adopted, notwithstanding the vigorous
opposition of Mr. Thacher, the Chairman of the Committee, by a vote of
37 to 13. It survived the admission of the State only three years, being
amended in 1864.
On the eighth day the Militia article was adopted; on the ninth day the
Judicial article was perfected, and the article on Education and Public
Institutions reported and discussed; and on the tenth day the Committees
on County and Township Organizations, and Schedule, reported. The
deathless pertinacity of a “claim” is illustrated by a petition
presented that day, from one Samuel A. Lowe, a clerk of the so-called
“Bogus Legislature,” who wanted pay for certain work he alleged he had
performed. Only a year ago Mr. Lowe presented the same claim to
Congress, and it was, I believe, allowed by the House. But the Kansas
Senators made such determined war on it that Mr. Lowe can still sing, “A
claim to keep I have.”
I have mentioned the fact that Mr. Winchell was the author of the
section providing that all bills should originate in the House. It
should be stated that Mr. Ingalls was the author of the provision that
“in actions for libel, the truth may be given in evidence to the jury,
and if it shall appear that the alleged libelous matter was published
for justifiable ends, the accused shall be acquitted.” Another original
provision of the Constitution is the Homestead section. This was first
proposed by Mr. Foster, of Leavenworth county, on the sixth day of the
session, and reported by the Committee on Miscellaneous and Amendments,
on the thirteenth day. No other feature of the Constitution, perhaps,
elicited more animated and earnest debate. It was discussed for several
days; amended, referred, and again submitted. As originally reported, it
provided for the exemption of “a homestead of 160 acres of land, or a
house and lot not exceeding $2,000 in value, or real, personal and mixed
property not exceeding $2,000, to any family.” This was adopted by a
vote of 28 ayes to 16 nays. Two days later the vote was reconsidered,
and President Winchell proposed the wording finally adopted: “A
homestead of 160 acres of farming land, or of one acre within the limits
of an incorporated town or city, occupied as a residence by the family
of the owner, together with all the improvements on the same, shall be
exempted from forced sale under any process of law, and shall not be
alienated without the joint consent of husband and wife, where the
relation exists.” Thus perfected, it was adopted by a vote of 33 to 7.
I thought at the time, however, and a review of the proceedings and
debates has confirmed my impression, that favorable action on this
provision was due to the earnest and eloquent advocacy of Judge Kingman,
who was its most zealous, logical and courageous supporter. The
homestead clause of the Kansas Constitution has been severely
criticised, but I believe the people of the State generally regard it as
a most beneficent provision of their organic law. For nearly a quarter
of a century it has been maintained, and it still stands, as Judge
Kingman said it would, guarding “the home, the hearthstone, the fireside
around which a man may gather his family with the certainty of assurance
that neither the hand of the law, nor any nor all of the uncertainties
of life, can eject them from the possession of it.”
The Finance and Taxation and the Executive articles were adopted on the
fourteenth day, and the Miscellaneous article considered. This
originally provided for the election of a Public Printer, but that
section was stricken out, after a vigorous protest by Messrs. Ross and
Ingalls. Nine years later their idea was indorsed by the adoption of an
amendment creating the office of State Printer.
On the seventeenth day the temporary Capital was located at Topeka, the
second ballot resulting: For Topeka, 29; for Lawrence, 14; for Atchison,
6.