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of age, infirmity or other misfortune, may have claims upon sympathy and aid of society, under provision to be made by the laws of the General Assembly.
Article IX.—Militia
SECTION 1. The Governor shall be Commander in chief of the military forces of the state, excepting when these forces shall be actually in the service of the United States, and shall have power to call out any part or the whole (???) said military forces to aid in the execution of the laws to suppress insurrection, and to repel invasion.
2. All male citizens of this state, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years excepting those who are conscientiously opposed to bearing arms, and such others as mat be, by law, exempted, shall be enrolled in the militia and held to perform such military duty as by law my be required.
3. The General Assembly shall provide by law for organizing and disciplining the militia, in such manner as it shall deem expedient.
Article X.—Public Debt
Section 1. No money shall be paid out of the Treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation by law.
2. The credit of the state shall never be given or loaned in aid of any individual, association, corporation.
3. For the purpose of defraying extraordinary expenditures, the state may contract public debts, but such debt shall never in the aggregate exceed one hundred thousand dollars, unless authorized by a direct vote of the people at a general election. Every such debt shall be authorized by law, and every such law shall provide for the payment of the annual interest of such debt, and the principal within ten years from the passage of such law; and such appropriation shall not be repealed until the principal and interest shall have been wholly paid.
4. The Legislature may also borrow money to repel invasion, suppress insurrection, or defend the state in time of war; but the money thus raised shall be applied exclusively to the object for which the loan was authorized, or repayment of the debts there by created.
5. No (???), certificate, or other evidence of state debt whatever, shall be issued, except for such debts as are authorized by the third and fourth sections of this article.
Article XI.—Finance and Taxation.
SECTION 1. The levying of taxes by the poll is grievous and oppressive; therefore the General Assembly shall never levy a poll tax for county or state purposes.
2. Laws shall be passed, taxing, by a uniform rule, all real and personal property, according to its true value in money; but burying grounds, school houses, and other property used exclusively, and other property used exclusively for educational purposed, houses used exclusively for public worship, not exceeding fifty thousand dollars in value, institutions of public charity, public and municipal property, used exclusively for public and municipal purposes, and personal property to an amount not exceeding the value two hundred dollars, for each head of a family, may be general laws be exempted from taxation, but all such laws shall be subject to alteration or real, and the value of all such property, so exempted, shall from time to time be ascertained and published as may be directed by law.
3. The General Assembly shall provide for raising revenue sufficient to defray to expenses of the state for each year; and also a sufficient sum to pay the interest and such part of the principal of a state debt, if any such debt shall accrue, as may be directed by law.
4. No tax shall be levied, except in pursuance of law; and every law imposing a tax shall state, distinctly, the object of the same, to which only it shall be applied.
5. The state shall never contract any debt for purposes of Internal Improvements.
6. In the passage in either house of the General Assembly, of any law which imposes, continues, or renews a tax, or makes, continues, or renews, an appropriation of public or trust monies, or to release, discharge, or commute a claim or demand of the state, the vote shall be taken by yeas and nays, which shall be duly entered on the journal; and three-fifths of all members elected to such house, shall, in all such cases, be requisite to constitute a quorum.
Article XII.—Counties and County and Township Officers.
SECTION 1. The General Assembly shall provide by law for submitting to the people of each county, at an annual election, the question of the location of county seats; and the General Assembly may change the lines of counties, but shall by law submit such proposed alteration to the electors of the county or counties affected thereby, (???) a general election; said alterations to be made to township (???), as far as practicable.
2. The General Assembly shall provide by law, for the creation and election of county, city, town and township officers.
3. All officers whose election or appointment is not provide for by this Constitution, shall be elected by the people or appointed as the General Assembly may by law direct.
4. Provision shall be made by law for the removal, for misconduct, or m(???)versation in office, of all officers whose powers and duties are not local or legislative, and who shall be elected at general elections, and also for supplying vacancies created by such removal.
5. The Legislative may declare the cases in which any office shall be deemed vacant, where no provision is made for that purpose in this Constitution.
Article XIII.—Elections.
SECTION 1. All elections shall be free and equal.
2. Electors shall in all cases, except reason, felony, and breach of the peaces, be privileged from arrest during their attendance on elections, and in going to and returning from them.
3. All elections by the people shall be by ballot, and all elections by the General Assembly, or by either branch thereof, shall be vive vote.
4. All general elections shall be held on the Tuesday (???) proceeding the first Monday in November of each year.
5. (???) of elections for members of (???) the General Assembly, and all other offered and otherwise provided for, shall be made to the Secretary of State in such (???) be prescribed by law.
Article XIV.-Corporations.
SECTION 1. Corporations may be created under general laws, but shall not be created by special acts, except for municipal purposes. All general laws and special (???) authorizing or creating corporations may be altered form time to time, or rep(???).
2. (???) from corporations shall be secured by (???) individual ability of the stock (???) demand other means as shall be prescribed by law, and each stockholder of a corporation or joint stock association, except corporations for charitable purposes and railroad corporations, shall be individually liable over and above the stock by him or her owned and any amount unpaid thereon, to a further sum at least equal in amount to such stock.
3. The property of corporations, except for charitable and religious purposes, now existing and to be hereafter created, shall be subject to taxation the same as the property of individuals.
4. All Real Estate or other property of religious corporations shall vest in trustees whose election shall be by the members of such corporation.
5. The General Assembly shall provide for the organization of cities and villages by general laws and restrict their power of taxation, assessment, borrowing money, contracting debts and loaning their credit so as to prevent the abuse of such power.
6. The term corporations as used in this article shall be construed to include all associations and joint stock companies having any of the powers or privileges of corporations not possessed by individuals or partnerships and all corporations shall have the right to sue and shall be subject to be sued in all courts the same as natural persons.
Article XV.—Jurisprudence.
SECTION 1. The General Assembly at its first session under this Constitution shall constitute a commission to consist of three persons not members of the Senate or House of Representatives, whose duty it shall be to revise, reform, simplify, and abridge the rules of Practice, Pleasing and proceeding in the courts of record of this State, abolishing the forms of action known to the Common Law, and distinctions as to form, between proceedings at law and in equity.
2. The proceedings of the Commissioners shall be reported to, and be subject to the action of the General Assembly.
3. All the proceedings of the Courts of this state shall be instituted and conducted in the English language, avoiding, as far as practicable the use of technical terms.
Article XVI.—Miscellaneous.
SECTION 1. No person shall be taken, imprisoned or disseized of his freehold, outlawed, exiled, or in any manner deprived of his life, liberty or property but by the judgment of his peers and the law of the land.
2. The printing of the laws and journals, bills, legislative documents and papers for each branch of the General Assembly and all printing for the Executive and other departments of state, shall be let to the lowest responsible bidder by such officers and in such manner as shall be prescribed by law.
3. The General Assembly shall provide by law for the protection of the rights of women, married and single in the acquiring and possessing of property, real, personal and mixed, separate and apart from the husband, or other person and shall also provide for the equal rights of women in the protection, with the husband of their children, during their minority; also shall provide for the securing of a homestead which, without the consent of the wife, she cannot be divested of.
4. No person shall be elected or appointed to any office in this state unless he possesses the qualification of an elector at the time of his election or appointment.
5. There shall be established in the Secretary of state’s office, a Bureau of Statistics and Agriculture, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law, and provision shall be made by the General Assembly for the organization and encouragement of state and county Agricultural Associations.
6. Lotteries, Gift Enterprises, and the sale of Lottery and Gift Enterprise Tickets for any purpose whatever shall be forever prohibited in the state.
7. A homestead of one hundred and sixty acres of land, or in lien thereof, a house and lot, or other property not exceeding in value two thousand dollars, belonging to any one family shall by law be exempted from forced sale under any process of law and shall not be alienated without the joint consent of husband and wife in cases where that relation exists; but no property shall be exempt from sale for taxes or for the payment of obligations contracted for its purchase.
8. This state shall have jurisdiction concurrent with the state of Missouri, on the Missouri river, so far as the said river may be the common boundary of the two states.
9. For the purposes of preserving the public health, the General Assembly shall have power to pass general sanitary laws.
10. No lease or grant of agricultural land for a longer period than twelve years, hereafter to be made, in which shall be reserved any rent or service of any kind, shall be valid; and all fines, quarter sales, or other like restraints, upon transfer, reserved in any lease of land, hereafter to be made shall be void, provided, that this article shall in no wise interferes with the disposition of the school lands of the state.
11. In all cases where it shall be necessary to sell any of the lands granted by Congress, said sales shall not be made without one year’s notice through publication in the county or counties where the lands lie, and an advertisement in two or more central newspapers of the state, and there shall be a valuation of said lands by disinterested persons, and no lands shall be sold at a less price than the valuation.
Article XVII.—Banks and Currency.
SECTION 1. No Bank shall be established otherwise than under a general Banking Law.
2. If the General Assembly shall enact a General Banking Law, such law shall provide for the registry and countersigning by the Auditor of the state of all Bank News or paper credit designed to be circulated as money.
3. It shall be further provided that such Bank Note or paper credits, shall be amply secured by the deposit with the proper officer of state, of bonds of interest paying States or the United States.
4. All bills or notes issued as money, shall be at all times redeemable in gold or silver.
5. Holds of Bank Notes shall be entitled in case of insolvency, to preferences of (???) payment, over all other creditors.
6. The state shall not be a stockholder in any Bank or Banking institution.
7. All Banks shall be required to keep officers and proper offices for the issue and redemption of their paper, at some convenient point within the state.
8. Any general Banking Law passed by the General Assembly of this state, may at any time be altered, amended, or repealed.
9. No General Banking law shall have any force or effect until the same shall have been submitted to a vote of the electors of state, at some general election, and have been approved by a majority of all the votes given on that subject, at such election.
Article XVIII.—Amendments.
SECTION 1. Propositions for the amendment of this Constitution, may be made by either branch of the General Assembly; and if three-fifths of all the members elected to each House shall concur therein, such proposed amendments shall be entered on the journals, with the yeas and nays; and the Secretary of state shall cause the same to be published in at least one newspaper in each county of the state where a newspaper is published, for three months preceding the next election for Senators and Representatives, at which time the same shall be submitted to the electors for their approval or rejection ; and if a majority of the electors voting on said amendments, at said election, shall adopt such amendments, the same shall become a part of the Constitution. When more than one amendment shall be submitted at the same time, they shall be so submitted as to enable the electors to vote on each amendment separately.
2. Whenever three-fifths of the members elected to each branch of the General Assembly shall think it necessary to call a Convention to revise, amend or change this Constitution, they shall recommend to the electors to vote at the next election of members of the General Assembly, for or against a Convention; and if a majority of all the electors voting at said election, shall have voted for a Convention, the General Assembly shall, at its next regular session, provide by law for calling the same. The Convention shall consist of as many members as the House of Representatives; and shall be chosen in the same manner, and shall meet within three months after their election, at the Capital of the state, for the purpose aforesaid.
3. At the general election to be held in the year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixty-Three, and in each tenth year thereafter, the question, “shall there be a Convention to revise, after or amend the Constitution?” shall be submitted to the electors of the state; and in case a majority of the electors voting at such election shall decide in favor of a Convention, the General Assembly, at its next regular session, shall provide, by law, for the election of delegates, and the assembling of such Convention, as provided in the preceding section; but no amendment, or revision of this Constitution agreed upon by any Convention in pursuance of this article, shall take effect until the same shall have been submitted to the electors of the state, and adopted by a majority of those voting thereon.
SCHEDULE.
SECTION 1. In order that no inconvenience may arise from the change from a territorial to a state government, it is declared that no existing rights, suits, prosecutions, (except for political offences), claims or contracts, shall be affected by a change in the form of Government, except as otherwise declared in this Constitution. But no debt of the territory shall be assumed by the state, except by a law passed by a vote of two-thirds of each branch of the General Assembly.
2. This Constitution shall be submitted to a vote of the people for approval or rejection, on the third Tuesday of May, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight. The vote shall be by ballot, and those in favor of the Constitution, shall write or print upon their ballots the words “For the Constitution,” and those opposed to the Constitution, shall write or print upon their ballots the words “Against the Constitution.” Said election shall be conducted according to the provisions of section thirteen, of an Act of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Kanzas, passed February—one thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, entitled “An Act to provide for the election of Delegates to a Convention to frame a State Constitution.”
3. At the same time and place, and under the provisions of the section aforesaid, of the Act aforesaid, an election shall be held for members of the General Assembly, for State Officers, for Judges, and for members of Congress to represent the State of Kanzas in the thirty-fifth Congress of the United States.
4. If this Constitution, upon being submitted to the people, shall be approved by a majority of the legal votes c(???) thereon, a copy of the same, certified by the President and Secretary of the Convention, together with a memorial framed by the Convention, asking admission into the Union, and a certified statement of the vote on the ratification thereof, shall be transmitted as soon as practicable by the Governor, President of the Council and Speak of the House of Representatives of the Territory of Kanzas, or any two of them, to the President and Congress of the United States.
5. Provide this Constitution shall be ratified by the people, then upon the admission of Kanzas into the Union as State of Kanzas into the Union as a State, this Constitution shall be in full force, the state officers shall immediately enter upon the performance of their duties, and the Governor shall immediately, by proclamation, convene the General Assembly.
6. The members of the first General Assembly shall hold their officers until, and including December thirty-first, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
7. The State officers, and Supreme and District judges, first elected under the Constitution, shall hold their respective offices for the same length of time as though their term of office commenced on January first, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
8. The Governor is authorized to adopt a (???) to be the (???) of the State of Kanzas, (???), otherwise provided for by law.
9. Until otherwise provided by law, the state shall be divided into (???)terial districts and Senators appointed to them as follows: The first district shall consist of Leavenworth county, and shall be entitled to three Senators; the second district shall consist of Atchison county, and shall be entitled to one Senator; the third district shall consist of D(???) county, and shall be entitled two Senators; the fourth district shall consist of Jefferson county, and be entitled to one Senator; the fifth district shall consist of the counties of Brown and Calhoun, and shall be entitled to one Senator; the sixth district shall consist of the counties of Nemehn, Marshall and Washington, and shall be entitled to one Senator; the seventh district shall consist of the counties of Pottowattomie and Richardson, and shall be entitled to one Senator; the eighth district shall consist of the counties of Riley, Clay, Dickison, Arapahoe, and all the western part of Kanzas, not otherwise attached, shall be entitled to one Senator; the ninth district shall consist of the counties of Breckinridge, Wise and Davis, and shall be entitled to one Senator; the tenth district shall consist of the counties of Shawnee and Weller and shall be entitled to two Senators; the eleventh district shall consist of the counties of Butler, Hunter, Woodson, Greenwood, Madison, Godfrey and Wilson, and shall be entitled to one Senator; the twelfth district shall consist of the county of Coffey, and shall be entitled to one Senator; the thirteenth district shall consist of the county of Douglas, and shall be entitled to two Senators; the fourteenth district shall consist of the county of Johnson, and be entitled to one Senator; the fifteenth district shall consist of the county of Lykins, and be entitled to one Senator; the sixteenth district shall consist of the county of Franklin, and be entitled to one Senator; the seventeenth district shall consist of the county of Anderson, and be entitled to one Senator; the eighteenth district shall consist of the county of Linn, and shall be entitled to one Senator; the nineteenth district shall consist of the county of Bourbon, and shall be entitled to one Senator; the twentieth district shall consist of the counties of Allen, Dorn and McGee, and shall be entitled to one Senator.
10. The State shall be divided into Representative districts, and members apportioned thereto, as follows: First district, Leavenworth county, ten members; second, Atchison, three; third, Doniphan, five; fourth, Jefferson, three; fifth, Brown, two; sixth, Nemeha, two; seventh, Pottowattomie, two; eighth, Calhoun, one; ninth, Marshall and Washington, one; tenth, Riley, three; eleventh, Clay and Dickson, one ; twelfth, Davis, one; thirteenth, Wise, one; fourteenth, Bulter and Hunter, one; fifteenth, Richardson, one; sixteenth, Breckinridge, two; seventeenth, Madison, one; eighteenth, Greenwood, one; nineteeth, Woodson, one; twentieth, Coffey, two; twenty-first, Weller, one; twenty-second, and Shawnee, four; twenty-third, Douglas, seven; twenty-fourth, Johnson, three; twenty-fifth, Lykins, three; twenty-sixth, Linn, three; twenty-seventh, Franklin, two; twenty-eighth, Anderson, two; twenty-ninth, Allen, one; thirtieth, Bourbon, three; thirty-first, McGee, Dorn, Wilson and Golfrey, one; district number thirty-two, to consist of all the western part of Kanzas, not otherwise attached, including the county of Arapahoe, one member.
11. The General Assembly at its first session shall provide for receiving proposals for the location of the seat of Government, and shall publish such proposals and also a plan for the purchase of a site by the state, and submit them to a full and fair vote of the people at the first general election after such session and if no proposal or plan submitted shall receive a majority of all the votes cast then they shall be submitted at each subsequent and general election until such choice shall be made; and when a proposal or plan shall be adopted, the Legislature shall provide for the location at the place or in the manner designated, and for the application of the profits which may accrue to the state therefrom, to the support of the benevolent institutions of the state; and when the seat of Government shall have been thus located, it shall not be changed but by a law ratified by a direct vote of the people, and until the selection provided for in this section shall be made Topeka shall be the seat of Government.
12. The first General Assembly shall provide by law for the submission of the question of universal suffrage to a vote of the people at the first general election of the members of the General Assembly, provided that the qualifications of voters at that election shall be the same as at the vote on the submission of the Constitution.
M F CONWAY, President. F G Adams; Thos H Butler; H S Baker; A Danford; G M Fuller; Robert Ewing; Caleb May; Robt B Mitchell; Caleb A Woodworth; Charles A Foster; W F M Anry; Gustavus A Colton; William Spriggs; Alburtus Knapp; Wm L Webster; J K Goodin; Wm R Griffith; J G Rees; B B Newton; Urish Cook; Wm McCulloch; Edward Lynde; P B Plumb; James Monroe; J R Swallow; A W McCauslin; A B Anderson; Jonathan O Todd; Orville Root; R U Terry; A W Williams; James Fletcher; Samuel Stewart; Henry Harvey; Wm E Bowker; F N Blake; R A Kinzie; Isaac T Goodnow; J M Elliot; Geo W Higginbottom; James D Allen; R M Fish; Chas H Branscombe; Lucian Fish; John L Brown; W W Rose; James S Emery; John Ritchey; Charles Mayo; Alfred L Winans; Wm R Monteith; G D Humphrey; D Pickering; A H Shurtleff; F S Se(?)dder; R Austin; Amass Sonte; H J Espy; J M Shepherd; Henry J Adams; T Dwight Thacher; Wm H Coffin; Samuel N Wood; John C Douglass; William V Barr; James Davis; W D Beeler; Thos Ewing Jr; Joe F Hampson; John P Hutte(???); J H Lane; H P Johnson; Alfred La(???); W Y Roberts; Ohas S Per(???); Thomas Truwer, Hugh Robertson; James Telfer; Josiah H Pillsbury; G W K Twombly; M L Ashmore; James M Winchell; J M Walden; Sam’l P. Tappan, Sec.
I hereby certify that the above is a correct copy of the Constitution adopted by the Convention at Leavenworth, April (?), 1858, from the original draft now in my possession. M. F. Conway, President of Convention. Leavenworth, April (?)th, 1858.
Quindaro Chin-do-wan
J.M. WALDEN….EDITOR.
Saturday, April 19, 1858.
Capt. Riley Clerk of the Pacific Line streamer, White Cloud, has our thanks for the St. Louis Dailies.
D.N. Greenleaf, Esq., Clerk of Union Line steamer, Silver He(??), has kindly furnished us with late St. Louis papers.
A.C. Carter, Esq., Messenger of the U.S. Express, has placed under obligations for recent St. Louis, Cincinnati, and New York daily papers.
W.F. Block, Clerk of the Pacific Line Steamer, John H. Dickey, will please accept our thanks for late papers.
The New Constitution.
We spread before our readers the Constitution framed at Leavenworth by the recent Convention, and invite attention to it. Whilst we believe the instrument to be every way worthy to become the Fundamental Law of Kanzas, it is not now our purpose to present an elaborate communication, but to point to the high end which we think may be attained through it.
For weeks our people have been trembling daily from the apprehension that the next mail might announce the passage of the Lecompton Constitution—and that too before they could prepare themselves to meet the crisis. But the time for such apprehensions has now passed by. The partial defeat of Lecompton in the lower House is full of promise to the people of Kanzas, but is not all to which they can now hopefully look.
If we understand the matter it is yet possible that there may be a backing down which would cut off the relief that Congress now seems to be holding out to us. But even in the event—in case the House should recede from its amendments and take the Swindle in all its enormity, the people have now in their hands that with which they may defeat the final consummation of the fraud.
This is set forth in the Address published by the Convention. It is therein shown that there is no necessity for the people of Kanzas ever to recognize the Lecompton instrument, but that by a straight-forward course, a most glorious triumph over all the enemies of Freedom and freemen in Kanzas may be achieved. The whole matter is summed up in this that as soon as Kanzas becomes a state, her people are sovereign and can sanction whatever Constitution they please as their Organic law. They can forever entomb the Lecompton by a hearty ratification of the Leavenworth Constitution.
Lecompton in Congress.
The infamous Constitution has received a severe blow in the Popular branch of the American Congress, as we are informed by the latest intelligence from the States. At one o’clock on Thursday April 1, the House took up the Senate Bill for the admission of Kanzas under the Lecompton Constitution. After its first reading Mr. Giddings objected to a second reading under the rule, when the question was taken, shall the bill be rejected? The yeas and nays was demanded and stood 90 yeas, 137 nays.
Crittenden’s substitute as amended, which submits the Constitution to another vote of the people and in case it is voted down, authorizes them to frame a new Constitution, was introduced and passed by a vote of 120 to 112—8 majority.
In the Senate on Friday, the 2nd, Mr. Green moved to disagree to the House amendments. Some time was spent in discussion after which the vote was taken and the amendments were disagreed by a vote of 32 to 23. By this the two Houses are at a dead lock on the Lecompton swindle.
If the Senate should accept the amendments, Lecompton will be votes down by the people and a new Constitution will be adopted. If, on the contrary, the House should recede and take the Senate Bill as originally presented, the people of Kanzas will then only need to roll up a full vote in favor of the Leavenworth Constitution, which vote will be the knell of Lecompton and the death stroke to the Usurpation with which this territory has been harassed and oppressed for years.
Sine the above was written, we have received the St. Louis Democrat of the 6th, from which we clip this dispatch dated April 5th:
The Senate has not yet notified the House of is adverse action on Montgomery’s substitute; notice is expected tomorrow. In the event of the failure of the Kanzas bill, under present circumstances, an effort will be made from the democratic side to couple Kanzas with Minnesota, making the admission of one dependent on the other.
We came down from Leavenworth last Monday on the Union Line Steamer Silver Heels of which I. N. Nanson is Master and D. N. Greenleaf, Clerk.—This is the first opportunity we have had of examining this Packet for ourselves, and we can now say that the many flattering notices we have seen of her are well merited. With Mr. Greenleaf we have been acquainted heretofore and most cheerfully bear testimony to his courteous attention as an officer to all who travel with him.
P. B. Plumb, Esq., Editor of the Emporia N(???) visited Quindaro last Monday, on his return from the Constitutional Convention of which he was a member. Mr. P. furnished his reader with a very excellent Free state paper—one every way worthy of an ample support. The towns on the Missouri river which expect trade from the portion of Kanzas where Mr. P. resides will find it greatly to their interest to advertise in his paper.
The Capital Question.
We believe the people of Kanzas will approve of the disposition made by the Convention, of the location of the Capital. The provision that the first General Assembly shall receive and (???) proposals to a vote of the people, places the matter in the proper hands, gives time for a full canvass of the subject, and will turn the profits of the location into the treasury of the State instead of into the pockets of individuals.
We feel confident that only a very few persons will object to the seat of government being temporally located at Topeka. It was necessary for some point to be chosen until the people should decide where the public building should be erected, and no person who is at all acquainted with the history of the past will question the claims of Topeka to such a preference.
We are not inclined to be a stickler for places, but when one is identified with a heroic struggle we shall ever be glad to see some respect accorded to it. Topeka has been identified with the great struggle of right against might, of freemen against tyrants, in Kanzas, and now when the struggle is drawing to a close, and the glories of a signal triumph are about to be gathered we desire to see Topeka, the town of the “Old Banner,” come in for some share of the bays.
If the best interests of the people require another point to be chosen for the permanent capital, we shall be the last to object to the change, but until the people so decide let the Free-state capital be the capital of free Kanzas.
Last Days of the Convention.
The Constitutional Convention closed its labors at 6 o’clock P. M., Saturday April 3d. Friday and Saturday were busy days although the main part of the work has been previously preformed.—The morning session of Friday was spent in discussing the amendment to the Article of Elective Franchise, offered by Dr. Davis. The matter was disposed of by the following, introduced by Mr. Thacher, being adopted:
Whereas, the law calling this Convention prescribes the qualification of voters at the first election; Therefore be it.
Resolved, That the committee on schedule be instruct to report a clause instructing the first General Assembly to submit the question of negro suffrage to the people at the second general election for members of the General Assembly; provided, that at the said election, the qualification of voters shall be the same as upon the vote of the Constitution.
The vote on this stood yeas 60, nays 28.
Friday afternoon was spent in considering the Reports on “Education,” “Finance and Taxation,” and “Miscellaneous.”
On Friday evening the Committee on Address reported through the Chairman, Mr. Walden.
The policy recommended in the Address elicited a prolonged discussion.
The portion upon which the Convention disagreed, was as follows:
“That we will never for one moment, or for any purpose, recognize the Lecompton Constitution as the Organic Law of Kanzas.”
The speakers during the evening were Gen. Lane, Judge Conway, C. A. Foster, T. D. Thacher, Barr, Newton, and R. M. Fish, who spoke eloquently in favor of the address—while Messrs. T. Ewing, jun., J. C. Emery and S. N. Wood spoke ably on the negative of the question.
The Convention did not adjourn till two o’clock Saturday morning.
The Convention met a half-past eight Saturday morning and the debate on the address was resumed.
W. Y. Roberts, of Wyandott, took the floor against the report, as did Dr. Davis and Mr. Danford.
Messrs. Winans, Hatterscheidt, Monteith, Lazalier, Branscomb, and Arny spoke in favor of the report.
At one o’clock the report was recommitted to the Committee, and the Convention adjourned.
In the afternoon session the Committee on address reported again having for the above substitute this passage:
“That the Organic Law of the State never shall derive its origin in any way, whatever, from the Lecompton Constitution and Government.”
Upon the call of the roll, the report was unanimously adopted.
The Committee on enrollment then reported back the CONSITUTION OF THE STATE OF KANZAS, enrolled and ready for the signature of the members of the Convention.
On motion, Mr. Thacher read the constitution as a whole. The utmost silence prevailed in the hall during the reading and the members gave to it their attention.
An amendment to the Schedule providing for submitting the question of universal suffrage in November ’59, instead of ’60 was agreed to after some discussion.
The reading of the Constitution being finished—
On motion, the report was received, and the work of the Convention was declared finished.
Three long and loud cheers were then given for the CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF KANZAS.
The members of the Convention there can forward and signed the instrument.
On the motion of Gen. Lane, a vote of thanks was given to the President of the Convention, which was (???) so as to include the former President, Gen. Lane.
The proceedings were closed with an impressive prayer by the Rev. Mr. Henderson.
Judge Conway, in closing, returned thanks for the kindness which the Convention had displayed towards him in the arduous position with which he had been humored. He had endeavored to perform his duty impartially, and if any member had (???) aggrieved by the ruling of the President during say of the exciting debates which had taken place in the Convention, he trusted that they would believe in his (???) to do j(???) and pardon him for any errors committed.
On motion of Mr. Wood of Douglass, the Convention adjourned sine die.
Another Victory.
Last Monday was indeed a glorious day for Missouri. We elsewhere record the Free Labor triumph in St. Louis.—Jefferson city, the Political capital of the State, has responded to the Commercial capital, by electing Mr. Gardenshire, a free-state man, Mayor!
ADDRESS
Of the Kanzas Constitutional Convention to the American Public.
The undersigned were appointed by the Constitutional Convention, to prepare an Address to accompany the instrument which should emanate from this body. In, performing this duty, we desire briefly to direct attention to that necessity in which the present movement of the People originated and the reasons why it should still meet with the hearty approval of every American Citizen.
All the difficulties in Kanzas originated in the successful attempt to wrest the government from the People by fraud and to force a Usurpation upon them by violence. The character of this Usurpation was such, that it seemed evident to the people, that the most speedy and practical way to accomplish its overthrow, would be to change the government from a Territorial form to that of a sovereign and independent state. Believing the right to make this change to be indefeasible, and holding that it was recognized by the treaty of cession with France, sanctioned by the Organic Act of Congress, and proclaimed by the dominant Political party of the country, the people, prompted only be the hope and desire of speedily terminating their difficulties and peaceably recovering their rights, inaugurated that movement, in 1855, which resulted in the formation of a State Constitution. This instrument, upon being present to Congress, was rejected by one branch of that body, chiefly, as it was asserted, because it emanated from the people without an enabling provision from the Territorial Legislature, or from Congress.
Failing to find relief in this, the people with a hope of better success, participated in the election, last October, and secured the control of the Territorial Legislature. But, before this body could take any official action, a Convention, previously provided for by the alien Legislature and elected under a partisan and fraudulent Registration and Apportionment, had framed a Constitution for Kanzas, repugnant in many of its provisions, thus throwing another great obstacle between the people and their rights just when they were about to enter into their possession and enjoyment.
In this crisis, when a people whose patience had been exhausted by the repetition of acts of tyranny and persecution, were exasperated by a new and startling attempt to fasten another usurpation upon them and were ready to crush out their oppressors by violence, the Territorial Legislature, with a hope of averting the impending calamites, enacted the law providing for another Constitutional Convention. It was fully believed that an Enabling Act thus emanating from a legally constituted Legislative body could remove all technical objections previously urged against the Constitution which originated with the people, and this conviction gave them confidence in the measure. Animated by that spirit which has inspired them from the first, and fully determined to exhaust every peaceable means to defeat the consummation of the gigantic fraud before resorting to force, the people earnestly engaged in this new Constitutional movement, and by a very large vote, elected Delegates to frame an Organic Law for Kanzas.
The American People, we would say, that the people of Kanzas, after they had repudiated the Lecompton Constitution by an overwhelming vote, and had remonstrated against it in every possible way, beheld with dismay, that the Congress of the United States disregarded their petitions and their protests. But amid all those discouragements they engaged in this Constitutional movement believing it to be the last peaceable measure for the recovery of their rights to which they could resort. Their intention has been to make for themselves a Fundamental Law, and to organize a government under it, with the hope that is existence might deter Congress from sanctioning the constitution framed at Lecompton, and with the determination that it should be the standard around which they would rally in the event of a forcible and violent resistance to the Fraud becoming necessary. Because of this, we, in behalf of the long-oppressed people for whom we speak appeal to the citizens of every State to use all their influence to prevent the National Congress from sanctioning that Constitution and government to which the people of Kanzas cannot submit without the sacrifice of their dearest rights, and which cannot be recognized as valid without an absolute disregard of the fundamental principles of our government.
To the people of Kanzas, you, whose interests are directly involved in this Constitutional movement, we can say, that your Delegates in performing the duty entrusted to them, have endeavored to frame a Constitution adapted to the wants and calculated to conserve the highest interests of Kanzas. They now submit it to you for your approval or rejection. The limited time to which the Convention has necessarily confined its session has prevented that deliberation with which such instruments are usually formed, but scrupulous care has been taken to avoid incorporating anything believed to be repugnant to any considerable portion of the people. The impending dangers have been kept steadily in view, and because of them, the aim has been, especially, to make an instrument which every good citizen may conscientiously approve. The Delegates earnestly hope that they have been entirely successful in this, for they are conscious that your peace and prosperity for years to come may depend upon their work. They feel that if it is such as to deserve and receive your ready and hearty ratification, then, not only will they have been successful in their efforts, but you, the People of Kanzas, will have created by your sovereign will an instrumentality with which you may effectually con(???) the conspiracy against your rights.
There is an (???) necessity that they ratification of this Constitution be of a most emphatic character, whether the Pro-slavery Constitution, now before Congress is or is not receive by that body, by (???) and overwhelming vote you have declared your (???) to that instrument by a triumphant (???) of the work of your own Delegates you will (???) (???) your (???) to the admission of (???) (???) a Constitution which is the (???) of a (???), and the result may reach the (???) (???) (???).
Transcribed by Athena Morrow February 23, 2005.