In view of the presidential election of 1856 Northern Democrats
entertained no doubts that Kansas, now occupied by a majority of
free-state men, would be received as a free State without further ado.
The case was different with the Democrats of western Missouri, already
for ten years in close touch with those Southern leaders who were
determined either to secure new safeguards for slavery or to form an
independent confederacy. Their program was to continue their efforts to
make Kansas a slave State or at least to maintain the disturbance there
until the conditions appeared favorable for secession.
In February, 1857, the pro-slavery territorial Legislature provided for
the election of delegates to a constitutional convention, but Governor
Geary vetoed the act because no provision was made for submitting the
proposed constitution to the vote of the people. The bill was passed
over his veto, and arrangements were made for registration which
free-state men regarded as imperfect, inadequate, or fraudulent.
President Buchanan undoubtedly intended to do full justice to the
people of Kansas. To this end he chose Robert J. Walker, a Mississippi
Democrat, as Governor of Kansas. Walker was a statesman of high rank,
who had been associated with Buchanan in the Cabinet of James K. Polk.
Three times he refused to accept the office and finally undertook the
mission only from a sense of duty. Being aware of the fate of Governor
Geary, Walker insisted on an explicit understanding with Buchanan that
his policies should not be repudiated by the federal Administration.
Late in May he went to Kansas with high hopes and expectations. But the
free-state party had persisted in the repudiation of a Government which
had been first set up by an invading army and, as they alleged, had
since then been perpetuated by fraud. They had absolutely refused to
take part in any election called by that Government and had continued to
keep alive their own legislative assembly. Despite Walker's efforts
to persuade them to take part in the election of delegates to the
constitutional convention, they resolutely held aloof. Yet, as they
became convinced that he was acting in good faith, they did participate
in the October elections to the territorial Legislature, electing nine
out of the thirteen councilors and twenty-four out of the thirty-nine
representatives. Gross frauds had been perpetrated in two districts, and
the Governor made good his promise by rejecting the fraudulent votes.
In one case a poll list had been made up by copying an old Cincinnati
register.
In the meantime, thanks to the abstention of the free-state people, the
pro-slavery party had secured absolute control of the constitutional
convention. Yet there was the most absolute assurance by the Governor
in the name of the President of the United States that no constitution
would be sent to Congress for approval which had not received the
sanction of a majority of the voters of the Territory. This was Walker's
reiterated promise, and President Buchanan had on this point been
equally explicit.
When, therefore, the pro-slavery constitutional convention met at
Lecompton in October, Kansas had a free-state Legislature duly elected.
To make Kansas still a slave State it was necessary to get rid of that
Legislature and of the Governor through whose agency it had been chosen,
and at the same time to frame a constitution which would secure the
approval of the Buchanan Administration. Incredible as it may seem, all
this was actually accomplished.
John Calhoun, who had been chosen president of the Lecompton convention,
spent some time in Washington before the adjourned meeting of the
convention. He secured the aid of master-hands at manipulation. Walker
had already been discredited at the White House on account of his
rejection of fraudulent returns at the October election of members to
the Legislature. The convention was unwilling to take further chances
on a matter of that sort, and it consequently made it a part of the
constitution that the president of the convention should have entire
charge of the election to be held for its approval. The free-state
legislature was disposed of by placing in the constitution a provision
that all existing laws should remain in force until the election of a
Legislature provided for under the constitution.
The master-stroke of the convention, however, was the provision for
submitting the constitution to the vote of the people. Voters were not
permitted to accept or reject the instrument; all votes were to be for
the constitution either "with slavery" or "with no slavery." But the
document itself recognized slavery as already existing and declared the
right of slave property like other property "before and higher than any
constitutional sanction." Other provisions made emancipation difficult
by providing in any case for complete monetary remuneration and for the
consent of the owners. There were numerous other provisions offensive
to free-state men. It had been rightly surmised that they would take no
part in such an election and that "the constitution with slavery"
would be approved. The vote on the constitution was set for the 21st of
December. For the constitution with slavery 6226 votes were recorded and
569 for the constitution without slavery.
While these events were taking place, Walker went to Washington to enter
his protest but resigned after finding only a hostile reception by
the President and his Cabinet. Stanton, who was acting Governor in the
absence of Walker, then called together the free-state Legislature,
which set January 4, 1858, as the date for approving or rejecting the
Lecompton Constitution. At this election the votes cast were 138 for the
constitution with slavery, 24 for the constitution without slavery,
and 10,226 against the constitution. But President Buchanan had become
thoroughly committed to the support of the Lecompton Constitution.
Disregarding the advice of the new Governor, he sent the Lecompton
Constitution to Congress with the recommendation that Kansas be admitted
to the Union as a slave State.
Here was a crisis big with the fate of the Democratic party, if not of
the Union. Stephen A. Douglas had already given notice that he would
oppose the Lecompton Constitution. In favor of its rejection he made a
notable speech which called forth the bitterest enmity from the South
and arrayed all the forces of the Administration against him. Supporters
of Douglas were removed from office, and anti-Douglas men were put in
their places. In his fight against the fraudulent constitution Douglas
himself, however, still had the support of a majority of Northern
Democrats, especially in the Western States, and that of all the
Republicans in Congress. A bill to admit Kansas passed the Senate, but
in the House a proviso was attached requiring that the constitution
should first be submitted to the people of Kansas for acceptance or
rejection. This amendment was finally accepted by the Senate with the
modification that, if the people voted for the constitution, the State
should have a large donation of public land, but that if they rejected
it, they should not be admitted as a State until they had a population
large enough to entitle them to a representative in the lower House. The
vote of the people was cast on August 2, 1858, and the constitution was
finally rejected by a majority of nearly twelve thousand. Thus resulted
the last effort to impose slavery on the people of Kansas.
Although the war between slavery and freedom was fought out in miniature
in Kansas, the immediate issue was the preservation of slavery in
Missouri. This, however, involved directly the prospect of emancipation
in other border States and ultimate complete emancipation in all the
States. The issue is well stated in a Fourth of July address which
Charles Robinson delivered at Lawrence, Kansas, in 1855, after the
invasion of Missourians to influence the March election of that year,
but before the beginning of bloody conflict:
"What reason is given for the cowardly invasion of our rights by our
neighbors? They say that if Kansas is allowed to be free the institution
of slavery in their own State will be in danger.... If the people
of Missouri make it necessary, by their unlawful course, for us to
establish freedom in that State in order to enjoy the liberty of
governing ourselves in Kansas, then let that be the issue. If Kansas and
the whole North must be enslaved, or Missouri become free, then let
her be made free. Aye! and if to be free ourselves, slavery must be
abolished in the whole country, then let us accept that due. If black
slavery in a part of the States is incompatible with white freedom
in any State, then let black slavery be abolished from all. As men
espousing the principles of the Declaration of the Fathers, we can do
nothing else than accept these issues."
The men who saved Kansas to freedom were not abolitionists in the
restricted sense. Governor Walker found in 1857 that a considerable
majority of the free-state men were Democrats and that some were from
the South. Nearly all actual settlers, from whatever source they came,
were free-state men who felt that a slave was a burden in such a country
as Kansas. For example, during the first winter of the occupation of
Kansas, an owner of nineteen slaves was himself forced to work like a
trooper to keep them from freezing; and, indeed, one of them did freeze
to death and another was seriously injured.
In spite of all the advertising of opportunity and all the pressure
brought to bear upon Southerners to settle in Kansas, at no time did the
number of slaves in the Territory reach three hundred. The climate and
the soil made for freedom, and the Governors were not the only persons
who were converted to free-state principles by residence in the
Territory.