A convention assembles in Wyandotte, Kansas to create a Kansas State Constitution

As the territorial legislature had ordered in February, and a March referendum had confirmed, a convention with fifty-two elected delegates from all over the territory, thirty-five Republicans and seventeen Democrats, met at Wyandotte, Kansas to produce a State Constitution. New York native James M. Winchell of Osage County was elected to sit as President and John A. Martin, a twenty-one year old Pennsylvania born newspaper editor from Atchison, Kansas, was named secretary. Three and a half weeks later, on July 29, 1859, the new document had been worked out and was signed. (By John Osborne)