1861 – Kansas Statehood

1861
Kansas Statehood
The political turmoil that emerged from the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill in 1854 caused serious conflict in Kansas. At the national level, the perception about what was going on in the territory was more important than the reality. Eastern newspapers gave sensational attention to “Bleeding Kansas.” In fact, Kansas was not nearly so bloody as the appellation implies, notwithstanding the violent exploits of abolitionist John Brown, proslavery sheriff Sam Jones and others. The print media did, however, fan the flames. The Kansas imbroglio changed the complexion of national politics. The Republican Party emerged in 1854 to oppose the expansion of slavery in the territories, and soon replaced the Whig Party as the main opposition to the Democratic Party.

During the course of the Kansas struggles, two events of special significance involving the western territories occurred in 1857. Both had a profound impact on the country’s apparent inevitable journey toward civil war. The first was the Dred Scott decision, handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court on March 6. This ignoble ruling held that slaves were not citizens of the United States, residency in a “free” state did not alter their status and that Congress had no authority to ban slavery in the territories. The Missouri Compromise was therefore unconstitutional.

The second 1857 event of note was the controversy surrounding the Lecompton Constitution and Kansas’ second constitutional convention. This convention was authorized by the proslavery territorial legislature. It met at Lecompton in the fall of that year. In December, the convention submitted a document to the voters. The vote of the people was to be on a special slavery article only: a choice between “the constitution with slavery” or “the constitution without slavery.” Because a vote for the “constitution without slavery” meant Kansans could keep the slaves they already owned, free-staters refused to participate, and the “constitution with slavery” won 6,266 to 559. Months of controversy followed, featuring a bitter national debate that split the Democratic Party.

In the meantime, however, Kansans elected a new free-state legislature on Oct. 5, 1857, ultimately defeated the Lecompton Constitution at the polls and wrote and ratified the free-state Wyandotte Constitution in the summer and fall of 1859. As a matter of law, because of the Dred Scott decision, slavery remained legal in Kansas Territory until admission to the Union in 1861. By the time delegates assembled in Wyandotte, however, the central issue was all but decided, so the decision to make Kansas “free” was no surprise. To their credit, the delegates did not adopt a clause excluding any racial groups from participation, but they failed to remove “white” from several significant parts of the document. Thus, the new constitution reflected the common prejudices of 19th century America in a racially “conservative” document.

The joy over the adoption of the Wyandotte Constitution and the imminent prospects for statehood were tempered somewhat in late 1859 and 1860 by a severe drought and famine. The big day of admission to the Union, Jan. 29, 1861, was clouded by the prospects of war on the national horizon. The battle for Kansas was finally over, but the conflict, which for the past six years had caused bleeding in Kansas, now engulfed an entire nation.

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