Wichita Christian News and Information

During a trip to Kansas, just prior to the Civil War, President Lincoln described the territory as being in a state of "almost continual struggles, fire, and bloodshed."1 Indeed, the era would come to be known as “Bleeding Kansas” due to the skirmishes between John Brown’s abolitionists and the pro-slavery “Border Ruffians.”

The unrest resulted in a political struggle for the state as well. On three separate occasions, the divided factions attempted to ratify state constitutions--two of which were eventually overruled by the citizens of Kansas and the third rejected by the federal government.2

In 1859, a fourth and final constitutional convention was called--this time the delegates gathered in Wyandotte. They began work on a Bill of Rights, and the first order of business was Section 1 which in its original form read, “All men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inalienable rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and of seeking and obtaining happiness and safety, and the right of all men to the control of their persons, exists prior to law and is inalienable.”3

By this time, the abolitionists were firmly in control, and it was all but decided that Kansas would become a free state. But this certainty did not deter a vigorous and often bitter debate. The slavery proponents were shrewd. They resisted attempts to put them on record supporting amendments to the section such as “except negroes and mulattoes” and “except persons of color.”4 Instead of insisting that Kansas adopt the pro-slavery position, they appealed to the idea of adhering to federal supremacy—in this case the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.5 They declared the new constitution destined for

1 Rufus Rockwell Wilson, Intimate Memories of Lincoln, (Elmira: Primavera Press, 1945), 199.

2 The “Topeka Constitution” of 1855 prohibited slavery and was rejected by Congress; the “Lecompton Constitution” of 1857 was ratified at a convention called by the illegitimate, pro-slavery legislature and was defeated at the polls; the “Leavenworth Constitution” of 1858 also prohibited slavery but was defeated at the polls (Virgil W. Dean, Kansas Historical Society, Topics in Kansas History: Wyandotte Constitutional Convention, http://www.kshs.org/research/topics/politics/wyandotte_constitutional_essay.htm).

3 Kansas Constitutional Convention: A Reprint of the Proceedings and Debates of the Convention Which Framed the Constitution of Kansas at Wyandotte in July, 1859 (Topeka: Kansas State Printing Plant, 1920), 271.

4 Democrat Benjamin Wrigley moved to strike out all phrasing after the word “safety.” In response, Abolitionist Solon Otis Thatcher moved to insert “except negroes and mulattoes,” and shortly after the motion’s defeat, he moved to insert “except persons of color” because “several of those gentlemen have thrust it into our faces how they were determined to put us upon the record, and now I am determined to bring them upon the record. My point is the inhumanity of the proposition. I wish to bring it before the body in all its naked deformity.” Kansas Constitutional Convention, 271-272.

5 For example, Mr. Wrigley stated, “I have great respect for the Constitution of the United States; and however much I might dissent from a principle embraced in any particular law enacted under that Constitution, and however much I might desire its amendment or repeal—still, while it is a law, I believe it is the duty of every citizen