Horace Greeley, The American Conflict: A History of the Great Rebellion in the United States of America, 1860-65: its Causes, Incidents, and Results: Intended to exhibit especially its moral and political phases with the drift and progress of American opinion respecting human slavery from 1776 to the close of the War for the Union. Volume I.

giving a majority of over 10,000 against the said Constitution in any shape.

The XXXVth Congress organized at Washington, December 7, 1857. There being a large Democratic majority, Linn Boyd, of Kentucky, was elected Speaker. Mr. Buchanan, in his Annual, as also in a Special Message,¹ urged Congress to accept and ratify the Lecompton Constitution. Senator Douglas took strong ground against it. The Senate² passed — Yeas 32, Nays 25--a bill accepting this Constitution. But the House³ adopted a substitute, prepared by Senator Crittenden, of Kentucky, and proposed in the House by Mr. Montgomery, a Douglas Democrat from Pennsylvania. This substitute required a re-submission of that Constitution to the people of Kansas, under such provisions and precautions as should insure a fair vote thereon. It was adopted by the House as a substitute for the Senate bill — Yeas, 92 Republicans, 22 Douglas Democrats, 6 Americans — total 120; Nays, 104 Democrats, 8 Americans — total 112. This amendment was rejected by the Senate, who asked a Committee of Conference; which, on motion of Mr. English, of Indiana, who had thus far acted with the Douglas men, was granted by 109 Yeas to 108 Nays. The bill reported from the Conference Committee proposed a submission to the people of Kansas of a proposition on the part of Congress to limit and curtail the grants of public lands and other advantages stipulated in behalf of said State in the Lecompton Constitution; and, in case of their voting to reject said proposition, then a new Convention was to be held and a new Constitution framed. This bill passed both Houses;⁴ and under it the people of Kansas, on the 3d of August, voted, by an overwhelming majority, to reject the proposition: which was, in effect, to reject the Lecompton Constitution.

The Territorial Legislature had now passed completely into the hands of the Free-State party, and, under its guidance, a new Constitutional Convention assembled at Wyandot on the first Tuesday in March, 1859; the people having voted, by a majority of 3,881, to hold such Convention. The attempt to make Kansas a Slave State was now formally abandoned in favor of an effort to organize it as a Democratic Free State. This, however, failed — the Convention consisting of thirty-five Republicans to seventeen Democrats. A Free-State Constitution was duly framed, whereby the western boundary of the State was fixed at the twenty-third parallel of longitude west from Washington. This Constitution was adopted at an election held on the first Tuesday in October, whereat the majority for ratification was about 4,000. The first undisputed State election was held under it on the 6th of December following, when Republican officers and member of Congress were elected on a light vote, by majorities ranging from 2,000 to 2,500.

The Constitution framed by the