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| • 1st (-) [Adopted: 2 November 1855 Convention convened, 23 October 1855. This was the so-called "Topeka Constitution" put forth by so-called "Free Staters" opposed to the actions of the pro-slavery Territorial legislature which, after expelling its anti-Slavery members on 2 July 1855, had subsequently passed a series of measures in defense of Slavery in Kansas; a Convention of such Free Staters had met at Lawrence in August 1855 and, after repudiating this pro-Slavery legislation, met again in Big Springs, 5 September 1855, to elect delegates to a convention in Topeka which was specifically authorized to draw up this 1st State Constitution, Ratified: 15 December 1855 ratified by a vote of 1,731 to 46; the "Topeka Constitution" was rejected by President Franklin Pierce when, as part of a Special Message to Congress on 24 January 1856, he referred to this document as the product of "persons confessedly not constituting the body politic"; thus, this Constitution never became effective] |
| • 2nd (-) [Adopted: 7 November 1857 Convention convened, 5 September 1857. This was the so-called "Lecompton Constitution" which was put forth by "Slave Staters". The originally planned ratification vote called for in this document's "Schedule" only provided for a choice between this Consitution with Slavery permitted or this Constitution with Slavery prohibited (that is: there was no way to vote against this Constitution per se). The Territorial legislature- now under the control of the Free Staters- passed a law on 17 December 1857 ordering the "Lecompton Constitution" to be submitted to a "full and fair vote" (that is, with a third alternative- that of rejecting the "Lecompton Constitution"- on the ballot) come the following 4 January (the date this Constitution's Schedule had set for the first election of State officers under the document), Ratified: 21 December 1857 Despite the new requirement for a third "against" option put forth by the Territorial legislature only days before, the original ratification vote of this date went ahead anyway and- with Free Staters boycotting it- this Constitution with Slavery permitted was ratified by a vote of 6,226 to 589 for this Constitution without Slavery (some sources cite the vote as 6,143 to 580). Meanwhile, the legislatively-authorized ratification vote was held only in anti-Slavery areas of the Territory on 4 January 1858 along with the "State" elections held Territory-wide: here, the "Lecompton Constitution" was overwhelmingly rejected by a vote of 10,126 against to 138 for this document with Slavery and 24 for this Constitution without Slavery (Free Staters also captured control of all the "State" offices elected at the same time in any event). The adoption of this "Lecompton Constitution" had been supported by President James Buchanan in his first Annual Message to Congress on 8 December 1857 and was reiterated by the President in the Special Message to Congress on 2 February 1858 in which he submitted a copy of this document to that body; Congress passed an Act of Admission with conditions (as noted under the "3rd Constitution", below) on 4 May 1858, but this "Lecompton Constitution" had no chance of ever becoming effective once the Free Staters had won the "State" elections held under what had been, after all, a Slave Staters' document] |
| • 3rd (-) [Adopted: 3 April 1858 Convention convened, 23 March 1858. This was the so-called "Leavenworth Constitution", the answer of Free Staters to the Slave Staters' "Lecompton Constitution" of 1857: it had been drafted as a reaction to what Free Staters felt was a rigged original ratification vote for that other Constitution on 21 December 1857; however, Congress had- in the meantime- passed an act, on 4 May 1858, admitting Kansas as a State under the "Lecompton Constitution" pending a new ratification vote up or down on that other document on 21 August 1858: the "Lecompton Consitution" was overwhelmingly rejected by a vote of only 1,788 for it as opposed to 11,300 against, Ratified: 18 May 1858 ratified by vote of 4,346 to 1,257. After the "Lecompton Constitution" was soundly defeated once and for all in August 1858, this "Leavenworth Constitution" was put forth by the Free Staters as a viable alternative to that other Constitution based on claims that it had already been ratified by the People of Kansas prior to this latest ratification vote "do-over". The Buchanan Administration, however, strenuously opposed this "Leavenworth Constitution" on the same grounds on which the previous Administration had opposed the "Topeka Constitution"- that the drafting Convention was not truly representative of all the political factions in the Territory- and, thus, it never became effective] |
| • 4th (1861-) [Adopted: 29 July 1859 Convention convened, 5 July 1859. This was the so-called "Wyandotte Consitution" which formed the basis for Kansas' being admitted to the Union as a Free State (and- as things turned out- the very last State admitted to the Union prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War). The Free Staters now being in complete control of the Territorial government, this Constitution was drafted in order to deflect any claim by pro-Slavery opponents that either of the two previous Constitutions drafted by Free-Stater Conventions (that is, those drafted at Topeka and Leavenworth) were illegal; by holding yet a third Free-Stater Constitutional Convention, this potential problem was deftly avoided, Ratified: 4 October 1859 ratified by vote of 10,421 to 5,530; effective upon Admission, 29 January 1861] |
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