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Lecompton Constitution Hall, also known as Constitution Hall, is a building in
Lecompton, Kansas Lecompton (pronounced ) is a city in Douglas County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 588. Lecompton was the ''de jure'' territorial capital of Kansas from 1855 to 1861, and the Douglas County seat f ...
, that played an important role in the long-running
Bleeding Kansas Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War was a series of violent civil confrontations in Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859. It emerged from a political and ideological debate over the ...
crisis over slavery in Kansas. It is operated by the
Kansas Historical Society The Kansas Historical Society is the official state historical society of Kansas. Headquartered in Topeka, it operates as "the trustee of the state" for the purpose of maintaining the state's history and operates the Kansas Museum of History, Kan ...
as Constitution Hall State Historic Site.


History

Constitution Hall was constructed by Samuel J. Jones, the pro-slavery sheriff tasked with keeping the peace in Douglas County in the 1850s. He rented the structure out to the territorial government based out of Lecompton. During 1857 this building was one of the busiest and most important in Kansas Territory. Thousands of settlers and speculators filed claims in the United States land office on the first floor. They sometimes fought hand-to-hand for their share of the rich lands that were opening for settlement. The government was removing the Native Americans from Kansas to make their lands available to whites. Upstairs the district court periodically met to try to enforce the territorial laws. Most free-state people refused to obey these laws because they had been passed by the proslavery territorial legislature, which they called "bogus". This resistance made law enforcement nearly impossible for territorial officials. Time after time the territorial governors called out federal troops from Fort Leavenworth or Fort Riley to maintain order. In January 1857 the second territorial legislative assembly met on the upper floor. Although still firmly proslavery, this group removed some of the earlier laws that their antislavery neighbors opposed. The Lecompton Constitutional Convention met that fall in this same second-floor assembly room. The purpose of the convention was to draft a constitution to gain statehood for Kansas. Newspaper correspondents from across the country gathered to report on the meetings. Pro-slavery men dominated the convention, and created a document that protected slavery no matter how the people of the Kansas Territory voted. This was intolerable for their antislavery opponents, who refused to participate in what they considered to be an illegal government. Congress, after investigation, found the election of the pro-slavery legislature extensively corrupted by fraud, specifically by Missouri "border ruffians" who came into Kansas only to vote, not to live there. Congress therefore refused to admit Kansas as a
slave state In the United States before 1865, a slave state was a state in which slavery and the internal or domestic slave trade were legal, while a free state was one in which they were not. Between 1812 and 1850, it was considered by the slave states ...
under the Lecompton Constitution, so it never went into effect. Instead, free-state forces rallied their supporters. They gained control of the territorial legislature in the October 1857 election. Two months later this new legislature was called into special session to deal with critical territorial problems. They met in the same Lecompton assembly hall that their political enemies had controlled only a few weeks before. Here they began to reform the laws of Kansas Territory according to their own beliefs. That work continued during later legislative sessions. In 1858 the assembly was moved from the proslavery capital of Lecompton to the free-state town of Lawrence; the capitol building under construction in Lecompton was abandoned, and the only completed part, the foundation, was used later by
Lane University Lane University was a college located in Lecompton, Kansas, United States.Constitution Hall State Historic Site
was listed in the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 1971. It was declared a
National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 1974. and   According to a marker of the Kansas Historical Commission:


See also

* Constitution Hall (Topeka, Kansas)


References


External links


Constitution Hall
-
Kansas Historical Society The Kansas Historical Society is the official state historical society of Kansas. Headquartered in Topeka, it operates as "the trustee of the state" for the purpose of maintaining the state's history and operates the Kansas Museum of History, Kan ...

Constitution Hall
- Lecompton, Kansas

- Kansas Travel, photos * {{Registered Historic Places Government buildings completed in 1857 Museums in Douglas County, Kansas National Historic Landmarks in Kansas Kansas state historic sites History museums in Kansas Historic American Buildings Survey in Kansas Lecompton, Kansas National Register of Historic Places in Douglas County, Kansas 1857 establishments in Kansas Territory Capitols of Kansas