CONSTITUTION HALL STATE HISTORIC SITE
Where embers of Bleeding Kansas ignited the Civil War
HOURS
9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Wednesday - Saturday
1 - 5 p.m. Sunday
Closed state holidays
EVENTS CALENDAR
LOCATION
Exit 197 on I-70
Driving Directions
Address
319 Elmore
Lecompton KS 66050
ADMISSION
Members Free
Adults $3
Students $1
Portions ADA accessible
Group Tours
School Tours
Feel the energy of the past at Constitution Hall in Lecompton, the busiest place in Kansas Territory in 1857. Walk where legislators waged fiery debates over the question of slavery and glimpse into Bleeding Kansas. Stand where speculators and settlers came to buy land in the territory.
Tour Constitution Hall
Take a look inside this historic hall built in 1856 to see the exhibits awaiting your visit.
History of the site
When the Kansas-Nebraska Act created this territory, it set a course for voters to decide if Kansas would be a free or slave state. That process invited those with passion on both sides of the question to come to the territory to influence the decision.
Those who wanted to control the outcome intimidated voters, influenced the census, and voted illegally. When chaos and mistrust led to violence, the territory gained the nickname Bleeding Kansas.
Territorial legislators passed a bill to write the constitution that would make the territory a state. It included a date for election of delegates and one for the constitutional convention. The territorial governor feared the process was flawed, but his veto was quickly overturned. The delegates would meet in this hall, which had been built in Lecompton in 1856, a proslavery community. Before they could even assemble, angry freestaters formed their own government and wrote their own constitution. Congress rejected that first document.
The delegates who arrived in September 1857 were all proslavery men. The 55 of 60 chosen for the task came to elect officers and committees. They adjourned to await election of the territory’s congressional representative in hope that their party would succeed. When they returned the following month, after a free-state victory, they knew they faced a growing opposition. This would be their last chance to create the proslavery state they wanted. If voters approved and Congress accepted the document, Kansas would keep the balance, an equal number of Northern and Southern states.
When they returned here to second floor to complete their work, the nation’s reporters followed. The small community quickly overflowed with bystanders. While these delegates conducted their work inside, protest ensued beyond. Finally, the document was complete and 45 members aded their signature.
With this constitution, voters were given little choice. Either allow the current slavery to continue, or permit an increase. Freestaters refused to support such a choice and stayed away from the polls allowing the proslavery vote to succeed.
President James Buchanan, sympathetic to the South, was willing to accept Kansas as a slave state and urged Congress to support it. This constitution was indeed the monster many had feared; it moved the bitter debate from the territory to the floor of Congress. The battle raged on for months, igniting passions across the nation. Finally, Congress reached a compromise, sending Kansans back to the polls where the growing free-state majority soundly defeated it. There would be two more before constitutions Kansas achieved statehood.
