USA > Kansas > Kansas; a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence, Voilume I > Part 50
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Ist (Leavenworth county)-Frederic Brown, Robert C. Foster,
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Samuel Hipple, W. C. McDowell, Adam D. McCune, Pascal C. Parks, William Perry, John P. Slough, Samuel A. Stinson, John Wright.
2nd (Atchison county)-Robert Graham, John J. Ingalls, Caleb May. 3d (Doniphan county)-John W. Forman, E. M. Hubbard, Robert J. Porter, John Stiarwalt, Benjamin Wrigley.
4th (Brown county)-Samuel A. Kingman.
5th (Nemaha county)-Thomas S. Wright.
6th (Marshall and Washington counties)-J. A. Middleton.
7th (Jefferson county)-C. B. McClelland.
8th (Jackson county)-Ephraim Moore.
9th (Riley county)-S. D. Houston.
Ioth (Pottawatomie county)-Luther R. Palmer.
IIth (Johnson county)-J. T. Barton, John T. Burris.
12th (Douglas county)-James Blood, N. C. Blood, William Hutchin- son, Edwin Stokes, Solon O. Thacher, P. H. Townsend, L. R. Williams. 13th (Shawnee county)-J. P. Greer, H. D. Preston, John Ritchie.
14th (Wabaunsee, Davis, Dickinson and Clay counties)-Edmund G. Ross.
15th (Lykins county)-W. P. Dutton, Benjamin F. Simpson.
16th (Franklin county) -- James Hanway.
17th (Osage, Breckenridge, Morris and Chase counties)-William Mccullough, James M. Winchell.
18th (Linn county)-James M. Arthur, Josiah Lamb.
19th (Anderson county)-James G. Blunt.
20th (Coffey and Woodson counties)-Allen Crocker, Samuel E. Hoffman.
2Ist (Madison, Hunter, Butler, Greenwood, Godfrey and Wilson counties)-George H. Lillie.
22nd (Bourbon, McGee and Dorn counties)-J. C. Burnett, William R. Griffith.
23d (Allen county)-James A. Signor.
A glance at the above list will show that the leaders of both the free- state and pro-slavery parties of former days were absent. Lane, Robin- son, Wood, Speer, Branscomb, and others who gave such loyal support to the Topeka constitution, were missing; and on the other hand not a single prominent pro-slavery man was among the 17 Democratic dele- gates. Of the 52 delegates composing the convention, three-fourths of them were under the age of 40 years. It was a young men's conven- tion. Practically all occupations were represented. There were 18 lawyers, 16 farmers, 8 merchants, 3 manufacturers, 3 physicians, I sur- veyor, I printer, I mechanic, and I land agent.
Pursuant to the legislative enactment, the convention assembled at Wyandotte on July 5, and effected a temporary organization by the election of Samuel A. Kingman as president and John A. Martin as secretary. In the permanent organization James M. Winchell was chosen president and Mr. Martin was continued in the office of sec-
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retary. On the 29th the constitution was finished and signed by all the Republican members except Thomas S. Wright of Nemaha county. None of the Democrats attached their names to the document. On Oct. 4 the constitution was ratified by the people by a vote of 10,42I to 5,530, and a full quota of state officers was elected on Dec. 6, pre- paratory to admission into the Union, though more than a year elapsed before these officers were called upon to assume the duties of the posi- tions to which they were elected. (See Robinson's Administration.)
Constitution Hall .- The building known as Constitution Hall, stood on the west side of Kansas avenue in the city of Topeka, almost opposite the present postoffice building. The site is marked by an iron tablet in the sidewalk, placed there by the Daughters of the American Revolu- tion. (See Capitol.)
Constitutions .- The Topeka constitution, adopted in the fall of 1855, and ratified by the people the following December, was the first attempt to frame an organic law for the state. The preamble declared the right of admission into the Union "consistent with the Federal con- stitution, and by virtue of the treaty of cession by France to the United States of the Province of Louisiana," and defined the boundaries of the state as "Beginning at a point on the western boundary of the State of Missouri where the 37th parallel of north latitude crosses the same; thence west on the said parallel to the eastern boundary of New Mexico; thence north on said boundary to latitude 38; thence following said boundary westward to the eastern boundary of the Territory of Utah, on the summit of the Rocky mountains; thence northward on said summit to the 40th parallel of said latitude; thence east on said parallel to the western boundary of the State of Missouri ; thence south with the western boundary of said state to the place of beginning."
Article 1-the "Bill of Rights"-contained 22 sections. The prin- cipal declarations of this article were that all men are by nature free and independent; that they have the right to enjoy and defend life, acquire and possess property, and seek happiness and safety ; that all political power is inherent in the people; that the people should have the right to assemble together to consult for their common good, and to bear arms for their defense and security; that the right of trial by jury should be inviolate; that there should be no slavery in the state, nor involuntary servitude, except for the punishment of crime; that all men have the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience; that every citizen might freely speak, write and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of the right; that there should be no imprisonment for debt, unless in case of fraud, and the last section set forth that "This enumeration of rights shall not be construed to impair or deny others retained by the people ; and all powers not herein delegated shall remain with the people."
Article 2 related to the elective franchise, and defined as legal voters
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every white male person and every Indian who had adopted the habits of the white man, over the age of 21 years, with certain restrictions as to residence, etc. The legislature was authorized to provide, at its first session, for the registration of voters, and was given power to exclude from every office of trust, honor or profit, and from the right of suffrage all persons convicted of heinous crime.
Article 3 divided the powers of government into three departments -the legislative, the executive and the judicial-and the three succeed- ing articles defined the powers of each of these departments.
Articles 7 to 14, inclusive, treated of education, public institutions, public debt and public works, militia, finance and taxation, county and township officers, corporations, and jurisprudence.
Article 15 contained several miscellaneous provisions, one of which was that no lottery should ever be established in the state, and the sale of lottery tickets within the state was prohibited. Section 4 of this article provided that "There may be established in the secretary of state's office a bureau of statistics and agriculture, under such regu- lations as may be prescribed by law, and provision shall be made by the general assembly for the organization and encouragement of state and county agricultural associations."
Article 16 specified the method by which the constitution might be amended, and article 17 related to banks and currency, providing that no banks should be established except under a general banking law. It was also provided that, when the constitution was submitted to the people for their approval or disapproval, the electors of the state should vote on the question of a general banking law separate and apart from the constitution proper. If a majority voted in the affirmative then the provisions of article 17 should become a part of the organic law, otherwise they should be void. At the election on Dec. 15, 1855, the constitution was ratified by a vote of 1,731 to 46, and the banking law was indorsed by a vote of 1,120 to 564. Another question submitted to a separate vote was whether negroes and mulat- toes should be excluded from the state. ,At the election, 1,287 voted to exclude them, and 453 voted in favor of their admission. Holloway says: "Copies of the constitution had been freely circulated, and notices of the election posted up, but in a few places this was not done. The election in the border towns was not allowed to be held. These facts were supposed to account for the vote being no larger. At Atchison no election was attempted."
The long schedule accompanying the constitution provided for the election of state officers and members of the legislature, in case the constitution was ratified by the people; divided the state into 18 legis- lative districts and stipulated the number of senators and representa- tives in each, so as to constitute a general assembly composed of 20 senators and 60 representatives. (See Woodson's Administration.)
T. D. Thacher, upon retiring from the presidency of the Kansas State Historical Society on Jan. 16, 1883, delivered an address, in the
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course of which he said: "The Topeka constitutional movement was the instinctive effort of the free-state people for unity about some recognized center. A recent precedent had been afforded by California for the spontaneous action of the people in the organization of a state government, without an enabling act from Congress. Some of the most conspicuous leaders of the Topeka constitutional movement had participated in the California movement, and were enthusiastic in the conviction that a similar success would attend the effort here."
And the Topeka movement did come very near being successful. On July 3, 1856, the national house of representatives passed a bill to admit Kansas under that constitution, but it failed to run the gantlet of the senate. The Topeka constitution, however, served to hold the free-state people together until the tide of immigration turned in their favor in 1857, and insured the admission of Kansas into the Union under a free-state constitution authorized by Congress.
The preamble to the Lecompton constitution, in addition to assert- ing the right of admission, consistent with the Federal constitution and the French treaty of cession of the province of Louisiana to the United States, also claimed that right "by virtue of, and in accord- ance with, the act of Congress passed May 30, 1854, entitled 'An act to organize the territories of Nebraska and Kansas.'"
Article I defined the boundaries, which were identical with the boundaries proposed by the Topeka constitution; article 2 related to county boundaries ; and the articles from 3 to 6, inclusive, related to the distribution of the powers of government into the executive, legisla- tive and judicial departments. The provisions of these articles were of the character usually to be found in state constitutions. The legislature was to consist of a senate and a house of representatives, the number of senators not to be less than 13 nor more than 35, and the number of representatives not to be less than 39 nor more than 100. Senators were to be elected for four years and representatives for two years. Section 6, article 5, provided that, "At the first session of the legislature, the senators shall, by lot, divide their senators into two classes; and the seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year, and of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, so that one-half, as near as may be, may be chosen thereafter every two years for the term of four years."
Article 6, relating to the judiciary, provided for a supreme court, to consist of a chief justice and two associate justices; circuit courts, which were to have "original jurisdiction of all matters, civil and criminal, within this state, not otherwise excepted in this constitu- tion :" a court of probate in each county, and a competent number of justices of the peace in and for each county. It was further stipulated that a circuit court should be held in each county twice in every year, and the legislature was given power to "establish a court or courts of chancery, with original and appellate equity jurisdiction."
(1-27)
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Article 7, which dealt with the slavery question, and which caused most of the opposition to the Lecompton constitution, was as follows:
"Section I-The right of property is before and higher than any constitutional sanction, and the right of the owner of a slave to such slave and its increase is the same and as inviolable as the right of the owner of any property whatever.
"Section 2-The legislature shall have no power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves without the consent of the owners, or without paying the owners previous to their emancipation a full equiv- alent in money for the slaves so emancipated. They shall have no power to prevent immigrants to the state from bringing with them such persons as are deemed slaves by the laws of any one of the United States or territories, so long as any person of the same age or descrip- tion shall be continued in slavery by the laws of this state: Provided, That such person or slave be the bona fide property of such immigrants ; And provided, also, That laws may be passed to prohibit the intro- duction into this state of slaves who have committed high crimes in other state or territories. They shall have power to pass laws to per- mit the owners of slaves to emancipate them, saving the rights of creditors, and preventing them from becoming a public charge. They shall have power to oblige the owners of slaves to treat them with humanity, to provide them necessary food and clothing, to abstain from all injuries to them extending to life or limb, and, in case of their neglect or refusal to comply with the direction of such laws, to have such slave or slaves sold for the benefit of the owner or owners.
"Section 3-In the prosecution of slaves for crimes of higher grade than petit larceny, the legislature shall have no power to deprive them of an impartial trial by a petit jury.
"Section 4-Any person who shall maliciously dismember, or deprive a slave of life, shall suffer such punishment as would be inflicted in case the like offense had been committed on a free white person, and on like proof, except in case of insurrection of such slave."
Article 8, which related to elections and the right of suffrage, pro- vided that "Every male citizen of the United States, above the age of 21 years, having resided in this state one year, and in the county, city or town in which he may offer to vote, three months next pre- ceding any election, shall have the qualifications of an elector, and be entitled to vote at all elections."
Of the remaining articles, the 9th related to finance, the chief fea- ture of which was the restriction of the state debt to $500,000; the roth prescribed the methods of raising revenue by taxation, and pro- hibited lotteries; the IIth provided for the preservation of the public domain and "a liberal system of internal improvements;" the 12th set forth the manner in which corporations might be formed, and defined their duties and powers within certain limits; the 13th specified that the militia of the state should consist of all able-bodied male citi- zens between the ages of 18 and 45, except such as might be exempted
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by law; the 14th related to education and the preservation of the school lands; the 15th included several miscellaneous provisions, relating to oaths of office, public records, county seat removals, property of mar- ried women, treason against the state, etc .; and the "Bill of Rights" followed article 15, instead of being placed at the beginning of the document, as is customary in such cases. (See also Constitutional Conventions.)
Holloway's History of Kansas (p. 466) says: "It was generally believed at the time, as the Covode investigation clearly shows, that the 'Lecompton constitution was transmitted entire from Washington, or at least those parts affecting admission and slavery, to the conven- tion for its formal endorsement. Though it is evident that as late as the 12th of July, Mr. Buchanan must have known nothing of this movement, and probably did not until after the action of the conven- tion. The whole design originated where all the other abominable measures of the administration towards Kansas had their origin, in the treasonable brain of Jefferson Davis. It was a movement of the rabid pro-slavery men either to fasten slavery on Kansas, or to inang- urate a war that would eventuate in a disruption of the Union."
Whether President Buchanan was cognizant of the scheme or not, on Feb. 2, 1858, he transmitted a copy of the constitution to Congress, accompanied by a special message, in which he urged the speedy admis- sion of Kansas under the constitution. A bill to that effect passed the senate on March 23, by a vote of 33 to 25. On April I the house, by a vote of 120 to 112, adopted the Crittenden substitute for the senate bill. The Crittenden bill provided that the constitution should be "resubmitted to the people of Kansas and accepted only after it should be ratified by a full and fair election." When the substitute measure came before the senate, that body asked for a conference committee, and Senators Green of Missouri, Hunter of Virginia, and Seward of New York, were appointed members of such a committee. The house acquiesced and appointed English of Indiana, Stephens of Georgia, and Howard of Michigan. Several propositions on the part of the senate conferees were rejected, and on April 23 the committee reported a compromise known as the "English Bill" (q. v.), which was accepted by the senate by a vote of 31 to 22, and by the house by a vote of 112 to 103. Under the provisions of this bill the Lecompton constitution was resubmitted to the people on Aug. 2, 1858, when it was over- whelmingly defeated. (See Walker's, Stanton's and Denver's Admin- istrations.)
In the meantime, as stated in the article on "Constitutional Con- ventions," the Leavenworth constitution had been framed by a con- vention authorized by an act of the territorial legislature, although the legality of the act had been called into question by the territorial gov- ernor. In the preamble of the Leavenworth constitution the same boundaries were specified as in the Topeka and Lecompton constitu- tions. The "Bill of Rights" did not differ materially from that set
.
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forth in the Topeka constitution, section 6 providing that "There shall be no slavery in this state, and no involuntary servitude, unless for the punishment of crime, whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted."
Article 2, regarding the elective franchise, provided that "In all elec- tions not otherwise provided for by this constitution, every male citi- zen of the United States, of the age of 21 years or upwards, who shall have resided in the state six months next preceding such election, and ten days in the precinct in which he may offer to vote, and every male person of foreign birth, of the age of 21 years or upward, who shall have resided in the United States one year, in this state six months, and in the precinct in which he may offer to vote, ten days next pre- ceding such election, and who shall have declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States, conformably to the laws of the United States, ten days preceding such election, shall be deemed a qualified elector."
It is worthy of note that neither the Lecompton nor Leavenworth constitutions contained the word "white" in connection with the elective franchise, while the Topeka constitution confined the right of suffrage to "white" male citizens and Indians who had adopted the customs of civilized society. Had Kansas been admitted under either the Lecomp- ton or Leavenworth constitutions, no action of the legislature would have been necessary in ratifying the 14th and 15th amendments to the Federal constitution at the close of the Civil war.
Following the article in the Leavenworth constitution relating to the elective franchise were four articles concerning the legislative, executive and judicial departments of government. The first legisla- ture chosen under the constitution was to consist of 25 senators and 75 representatives, the number afterward to be regulated by law. The judicial department was to consist of a supreme court of three judges, circuit and county courts, and a "sufficient number of justices of the peace."
Article 7 treated of the subject of education. It provided, among other things, that the school lands should never be sold until author- ized by a vote of the people, and that no religious sect or sects should ever have any right to, or control of, any part of the school funds of this state. It also provided that "as the means of the state will admit, educational institutions of a higher grade shall be established by law so as to form a complete system 'of public instruction," etc.
The succeeding articles of the constitution related to public institu- tions, militia, public debt (which was limited to $100,000 unless author- ized by a direct vote of the people), finance and taxation, counties and townships, elections, corporations, jurisprudence, miscellaneous, banks and currency, and amendments.
The constitution was accompanied by an ordinance which stipulated that the State of Kansas would never interfere with the title of the United States to the public domain or unsold lands within the state,
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or the right of the United States to dispose of the same, provided: I- That sections 16 and 36 in each township, or their equivalent, should be granted to the state for school purposes. 2-That 72 sections of land should be granted the state for a state university. 3-That 36 sections of land be donated by Congress for the erection of public buildings. 4-That the salt springs, gold, silver, copper, lead or other valuable mines, not exceeding twelve in number, should become the property of the state. 5-That five per cent. of the net proceeds of the sales of public lands within the state, sold by Congress after the admission of the state, should be granted to the state for a school fund. 6-That each alternate section of land, within certain limits, should be granted the state to aid in the construction of railroads.
Pursuant to the schedule adopted by the convention, the Leaven- worth constitution was submitted to the people on May 18, 1858, when it was ratified by about 3,000 votes out of some 4,000 cast, the light vote no doubt being due to the attitude of Gov. Denver with regard to the act authorizing the convention which framed the constitution. By the provisions of the constitution, the following state officers were elected at the same time: Governor, Henry J. Adams; lieutenant- governor, Cyrus K. Holliday ; secretary of state, E. P. Bancroft ; auditor, George S. Hillyer; treasurer, J. B. Wheeler ; attorney-general, Charles A. Foster; superintendent of public instruction, J. M. Walden; com- missioner of school lands, J. W. Robinson; supreme judges, William A. Phillips, Lorenzo Dow and William McKay ; reporter of the supreme court, A. D. Richardson; clerk of the supreme court, W. F. M. Arny; representative in Congress, Martin F. Conway. Members of a legisla- ture were also elected. On Jan. 6, 1859, the Leavenworth constitution was presented to the United States senate, with a petition praying for admission under it, but it was referred to the committee on territories and never reported back for action. Concerning the manner of its ratification and its treatment by Congress, Cutler says: "The indif- ferent vote showed plainly that it was viewed with no great favor at home, and consequently it did not meet a cordial reception by even the Republican members of Congress when presented."
Nevertheless, there were some who were stanch supporters of the constitution. The platforni upon which the state officers were nomi- nated contained the declaration "That should Congress accept the appli- cation accompanying the Lecompton constitution, and admit Kansas as a sovereign state in the Union without the condition precedent that said constitution, at a fair election, shall receive the ratification of the people of Kansas, then we will put the Leavenworth constitution, rati- fied by the people, and the government under it, into immediate and active operation as the organic law and living government of Kansas, and that we will support and defend the same against any opposition, come from whatever quarter it may."
Holloway says: "There was a deeply laid plot, should the state be admitted under the Lecompton constitution, and the election declared
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in. favor of the pro-slavery men, to assassinate the territorial and state officers, and thus leave the whole machinery of government power- less."
Well authenticated evidence of "a deeply laid plot to assassinate" is lacking, but there is no gainsaying the fact that the feeling at that time was bitter enough to have resulted in assassination, had Con- gress passed an act for the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton constitution. Martin F. Conway, in a public address, took the posi- tion that Congress could make a state, but not the constitution of that state. That power. was vested solely in the people. T. D. Thacher, William A. Phillips, J. M. Walden and Charles A. Foster expressed themselves in a similar vein. Gen. James H. Lane went farther and solemnly declared that no government should ever be organ- ized, or even an attempt to organize under the Lecompton constitu- tion. Thomas Ewing, Jr., a conservative free-state man, afterward the first chief justice of the state supreme court, wrote to his father in Ohio, under date of Jan. 18, 1858, that there were not over 1,000 of the 16,000 voters then in the territory interested in the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton constitution, and that this 1,000 consisted of "the ruffians who figured conspicuously in the arsons and murders of the first two years and who have not yet died of delirium tremens." He also said: "I belive that the ringleaders of this faction will be put to death the moment that Calhoun decides the election against us, and it is more than probable that they (the people) will seize the state government by killing enough of the pro-slavery men to give them a majority."
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