For most of July, fifty-two delegates from all over the territory had been meeting at Wyandotte, Kansas to frame a new constitution in preparation for statehood. In October, the Constitution was put to a referendum in October, 1859 and approved by popular vote of 10,421 in favor and 5,530 against. After the struggles and bloodshed that had surrounded the earlier abortive Topeka and Lecompton Constitutions, Kansas now had a fully legal free state constitution and seemed ready for statehood. Despite some remaining resistance in the U.S. Senate, Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state in January, 1861 and the Wyandotte Constitution has been in force since. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
State of Kansas, 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, KS: Kansas State Printing Plant, 1920), 573.
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