Lecompton

Conditions in Kansas Territory grew still worse. Meeting at the town of Lecompton, the proslavery convention in Kansas had drawn up a proposed state constitution authorizing slavery. The delegates represented only a minority of the people of the territory. But since they were Democrats, President Buchanan supported them. He urged Congress to accept this Lecompton Constitution and admit Kansas as a state. Of course, antislavery forces in Kansas and throughout the nation objected strongly...When a vote was finally taken on the Lecompton Constitution, the people of Kansas rejected it by a huge majority, 11,300 to 1,788. Southern Democrats and President Buchanan were furious. They blamed Douglas for this defeat.

Buchanan was by this time fully committed to the extreme southern position and had cast aside every vestige of the impartiality he had avowed in the preceding year.  February 2, 1858, he sent the Lecompton constitution to Congress and recommended the admission of Kansas under it as a slave state.  He stigmatized the refusal of the Free State party to vote on December 21 as part of their "treasonable system," especially unpardonable, since at this time, "the all-important question" was submitted.  If they really wished to make Kansas a free state, he concluded, the only way they could do so was by submitting to the Lecompton constitution.  "It has been solemnly adjudged," he urged, "by the highest judicial tribunal...that slavery exists in Kansas by virtue of the Constitution of the United States.  Kansas is therefore at this moment as much a slave state as George or South Caroline."  By this action the irretrievable step was taken and the fate of the administration and the Democratic party was staked on the effort to force Kansas in as a slave state.  From the point of view of political expediency and of party management, no president ever made a worse mistake.

Kansas soon provided a test for northern suspicions. Initially Buchanan handled the problem of Kansas well by appointing Robert J. Walker as governor. Although he was from Mississippi. Walker has no desire to foist slavery on the territory against the will of its inhabitants. He was a small man, but a courageous one, patriotic, vigorous, tough-minded, much like Douglas in temper and belief. A former senator and Cabinet member, he had more political stature by far than any previous governor of the territory. The proslavery leaders in Kansas had managed to convene a constitutional convention at Lecompton, but the Free Soil forces had refused to participate in the election of the delegates. When this rump body drafted a proslavery constitution and then refused to submit it to a fair vote of all the settlers, Walker denounced its work and hurried back to Washington to explain the situation to Buchanan. The president refused to face reality. His pro-southern advisers were clamoring for him to "save" Kansas. Instead of rejecting the Lecompton constitution, he asked Congress to Admit Kansas to the Union with this document as its frame of government.

Then, making matters even worse, was the fraud attempted by the proslavery legislature.  The legislature drew up the Lecompton Constitution.  The document was worded that whether it was voted up or down, slavery in some form was protected.  The Free-Soilers saw through the trick.  They rushed to vote.  As a result, the Lecompton Constitution, with is provisions for slavery, was adopted.  But this let loose a new wave of terror in Kansas and provoked new and violent debate in Congress.

To the lasting credit of Stephen Douglas, he refused to support the Lecompton fraud.  Douglas insisted on ""fair play"" for Kansas.  His opposition cost him the support of the South.  Perhaps it cost him the presidency.  The debate over the Lecompton Constitution destroyed the Democratic Party, as well.  Later, in 1858, the Lecompton Constitution was submitted to a popular vote.  The votes of Free-Soilers killed it decisively.  Kansas, however, was denied statehood until after 1861, when southern Senators and Representatives left Congress.

Instead of settling the slavery controversy, the Dred Scott decision intensified it. Meanwhile, the proslavery forces, having won legalization of slavery in the territories, moved to ensure that it would remain legal when Kansas became a state. The required deft maneuvering, because legitimate antislavery settlers outnumbered proslavery settlers by more than two to one. In 1857 the proslavery legislature (elected by the fraudulent votes of border ruffians two years earlier) called for a constitutional convention at Lecompton to prepare Kansas for statehood. But because the election for delegates was rigged, Free Soil voters refused to participate in it. One-fifth of the registered voters thereupon elected convention delegates, who met a Lecompton and wrote a state constitution that made slavery legal.

The slavery issue in Kansas surfaced again in 1857. This issue which had already split the North and the South, now split the Democratic Party. President Buchanan asked Congress to accept a state constitution from Kansas Territory that allowed slavery. But antislavery settlers had boycotted the convention that had formed the document. Senator Douglas - Buchanan's major rival in the Democratic party - was against the Kansas constitution. Douglas said that it did not stand for the views of all of Kansas. The Democrats spilt into two groups on the question - one backing Buchanan, the other, Douglas. The Kansas constitution was voted down in Congress. Only in 1861, after fighting had broken out between the North and Sought, did Kansas become a state - a free state.

Yet by 1857 Kansas had enough people, chiefly free-soilers, to apply for statehood on a popular sovereignty basis. The proslavery forces, then in the saddle, devised a tricky document known at the Lecompton Constitution. The people were not allowed to vote for or against the constitution as a whole, but for the constitution either "with slavery" or "with no slavery." If they voted against slavery, one of the remaining provisions of the constitution would protect the owners of slaves already in Kansas. So whatever the outcome, there would still be black bondage in Kansas. Many free-soilers, infuriated by this trick, boycotted the polls. Left to themselves, the slaveryites approved the constitution with slavery late in 1857.

The scene next shifted to Washington. President Pierce had been succeeded by the no-less-pliable James Buchanan, who was also strongly under southern influence. Blind to sharp divisions within his own Democratic Party, Buchanan threw the weight of his administration behind the notorious Lecompton Constitution. But Senator Douglas, who had championed true popular sovereignty, would have none of this semipopular fraudulency. Deliberately tossing away his strong support in the south for the presidency, he fought courageously for fair play and democratic principles. The outcome was a compromise that, in effect, submitted the entire Lecompton Constitution to a popular vote. The free-soil voters thereupon thronged to the polls and snowed it under. Kansas remained a territory until 1861, when the southern secessionists left Congress.

Late in 1857, President Buchanan faced a major test of his ability to suppress the slavery controversy.  In September, proslavery forces in Kansas met in Lecompton, the territorial capital, to draft a constitution that would bring Kansas into the Union as a slave state.  Recognizing that a proslavery constitution would be defeated in a free and fair election, proslavery delegates withheld the new state charter from the territory's voters.  Instead, they offered voters a referendum on whether they preferred "the constitution with slavery" or "the constitution without slavery."  In either case, however, the new constitution guaranteed slave ownership as a sacred right.  A Free Soiler described the proslavery proposal this way.  "Vote to take this arsenic with bread and butter, or without bread and butter."  Free Soilers boycotted the election and, as a result, "the constitution with slavery" was approved by a 6000-vote margin.

The Lecompton constitution became the central issue of an acrimonious congressional session in 1857-1858. Douglas declared political war on the administration over the issue, and led the fight in the Senate against admitting Kansas to statehood under the Lecompton constitution. At one point in February 1858, a wild sectional fistfight broke out among thirty congressman during an all-night debate on Lecompton. Northern state legislatures denounced the constitution, but several Southern legislatures threatened secession unless Congress admitted Kansas under this "duly ratified" document: "Rather than having Kansas refused admission under the Lecompton constitution," said a South Carolinian, "let [the Union] perish in blood and fire." Frightened by these threats and browbeaten by his Southern advisers, Buchanan reneged on his commitment to a referendum on the whole constitution. He now declared that the December 21 election was a legitimate referendum while the January 4 election - which was in fact more representative of Kansas opinion - was not. In his message transmitting the Lecompton constitution to Congress, the President declared that Kansas "is at this moment as much a slave state as Georgia or South Carolina.

The Dred Scott decision and Buchanan's endorsement fed northern suspicions of a slave power conspiracy to impose slavery everywhere. Events in Kansas, which still had two governments, heightened these fears. In the summer of 1857, Kansas had still another election, with so many irregularities that only 2,000 out of a possible 24,000 voters participated. They elected a proslavery slate of delegates to a constitutional convention meeting a Lecompton as a preparation for statehood. The convention decided to exclude free blacks from the state, to guarantee the property rights of the few slaveholders in Kansas, and to ask voters to decide in a referendum whether to permit more slaves. The proslavery Lecompton constitution clearly unrepresentative of the wishes of the majority of the people of Kansas, was sent to Congress for approval. Eager to retain the support of southern Democrats, Buchanan endorsed it. Stephen Douglas challenged the president's power and jeopardized his own standing with southern Democrats by opposing it. Facing the reelection to the Senate from Illinois in 1858, he needed to hold the support of the northern wing of his party. Congress sent the Lecompton constitution back to the people of Kansas for another referendum. This time they defeated it, which meant that Kansas remained a territory rather than becoming a slave state. While Kansas was left in an uncertain status, the larger political effect of the struggle was to split the Democratic party almost beyond repair.

Douglas's response to another crisis in 1857, however, helped shore up his standing with his constituents.  During the previous winter, proslavery forces in Kansas met in the town of Lecompton, drafted a proslavery constitution, and applied for statehood.  Everyone knew that free-soilers outnumbered proslavery settlers by at least two to one but President Buchanan blessed the Lecompton constitution and instructed Congress to admit Kansas at the sixteenth slave state.  Republicans denounced the "Lecompton swindle" Douglas broke with the Democratic administration and came out against the proslavery constitution, not because it accepted slavery but because it violated the democratic requirement of popular sovereignty.  In March 1858, despite Douglas's vigorous opposition, the Senate passed the Kansas statehood bill, but the northern majority in the House killed it. (When Kansans reconsidered the Lecompton constitution in an honest reelection, they rejected it six to one; coming out against the constitution, Douglas declared his independence from the South, and he hoped, made himself acceptable at home.

The time soon came for the settlers in Kansas to draw up a constitution and organize a territorial government. This brought them face to face with the crucial question: Was slavery to be allowed in Kansas or not? The proslavery forces rushed voters into the territory and elected a proslavery legislature, which promptly passed laws favoring slaveowners. The antislavery forces then drafted a constitution forbidding slavery and elected an antislavery legislature. By the end of 1855, the territory of Kansas had two different constitutions and two different governments - one proslavery, one antislavery. Back in Washington, members of Congress watched the struggle with dismay - and no one with greater dismay than the author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Stephen A. Douglas. When Douglas had argued for popular sovereignty, he had hoped to remove the bitter issue of slavery from the heated politics of Congress and to allow the settlers in the territories themselves to decide the issue. Obviously, Douglas's intentions had backfired. Congress was now forced to take sides and, hopelessly divided, it was not at all able to reach a decision.

Meanwhile, events in Kansas continued to boil.  Early in 1857, elections were held to choose delegates for the upcoming constitutional convention.  Suspecting that proslavery forces would rig the elections, the antislavery forces boycotted them.  The constitutional convention, made up of exclusively proslavery delegates, met at Lecompton and drafted a constitution that protected the rights of slaveholders already living in Kansas.  The Lecompton Constitution gave the voters of Kansas the right to decide only whether more slaves would enter the territory. 

Senator Stephen Douglas attacked the Lecompton Constitution, arguing that the voters of Kansas should have the right to decide whether any slaves could enter their territory.  This stand cost Douglas much support among southerners.  Many thought that Douglas was siding with the Republicans in preventing another slave state from entering the Union.  Despite the admission of Kansas as a free state in 1861, Douglas's principle of popular sovereignty had been severely discredited.

In December 1857, the referendum called earlier by the constitution convention was held. Boycotted by free-staters, the constitution with slavery passed overwhelmingly. Two weeks later, in the election called by the territorial legislature, the proslavery side abstained and the constitution went down to crushing defeat. Buchanan tried to ignore this second election, but when he attempted to bring Kansas into the Union under the Lecompton constitution, Congress blocked him and forced yet another referendum. This time, Kansans were given the choice between accepted or rejected the entire constitution, with the proviso that rejection would delay statehood. Despite the proviso, Kansans overwhelmingly voted down the constitution.

While the Dred Scott case was being decided, leaders of the proslavery faction in Kansas concluded that the time was ripe to draft a constitution and seek admission to the Union as a slave state.  Since settlers with free-state views were now an overwhelming majority in the territory, the success of the plan required a rigged, gerrymandered election for convention delegates.  When it became clear the election was fixed, the free-staters boycotted it.  The resulting constitution, drawn up at Lecompton, was certain to be voted down if submitted to the voters in a fair election and sure to be rejected by Congress if no referendum of any kind was held.  To resolve this dilemma, supports of the constitution decided to permit a vote on the slavery proposition alone, giving the electorate the narrow choice of allowing or forbidding the future importation of slaves.  Since there was no way to vote for total abolition, the free-state majority again boycotted, thus allowing ratification of a constitution that protected existing slave property and placed no restriction on importations.  Meanwhile, the free-staters, who had finally gained control of the territorial legislature, authorized a second referendum on the constitution as a whole.  This time, the proslavery party boycotted the election, and the Lecompton constitution was overwhelmingly rejected.