Visiting historic Lecompton, “where slavery began to die”

By Diane Euston

  Summer is a time when busy families often prioritize exploring other places on vacation, oftentimes choosing a plane ride to distant beaches and tranquility. Often, we overlook the offerings of short day trips to interesting landmarks and locations. 

  As we gear up to celebrate another Independence Day, we should be taking the time to remember the struggles for freedom and the birth of an independent nation back in 1776. And these struggles didn’t end with the signing of a document- the struggle for independence is forever linked in the DNA of our country. 

  Just a short hour drive from Kansas City is a place that hails itself as a reminder of a time where a Constitutional crisis thwarted the nation as people fractured over the issue of slavery. Lecompton, Kan., 12 miles northwest of Lawrence, is a place everyone should stop and explore due to its deep connection to our nation’s darkest time.

Early Settlement in Kansas

  The history of all of the earliest settlements in Kansas, then a territory, started in 1854 after the Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise and opened up the issue of slavery to voters via-popular sovereignty. 

  People passionate on both sides of the slavery issue rushed to Kansas Territory to ensure that they would “win” the issue- free or slave. Towns such as Lawrence and Topeka were founded as anti-slavery settlements in 1854 by Emigrant Aid Societies who helped fund people in the east to move to Kansas. 

  At the time just to the east, Missourians – predominately pro-slavery settlers from Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee – balked at the idea that their new neighbor, Kansas Territory, would be a free state. This threatened the core of their livelihood and endangered their chattel property that tilled the land, washed their clothes, cooked their meals, raised their children and performed various trades. Even those who didn’t own slaves were hellbent on maintaining this structure of Southern society.

  Thus, Missourians made sure they also formed towns in Kansas Territory in order to control what they could. Towns such as Leavenworth and Atchison were founded on the principle of enticing pro-slavery people to settle in the area and ensure that first vote for representatives to Congress were on their side of the slavery issue.

  The plan worked; the first election in November 1854 appointed a pro-slavery man as their first delegate to Congress. 

  In March 1855, Kansas Territory was set to host its first election to appoint men to the Kansas Territorial Legislature. Thousands of pro-slavery men left the Missouri border counties of Jackson, Cass, Lafayette, Platte and Clay to vote illegally for the day. 

  The fraud was blatant. The town of Leavenworth reported five times their recorded population voted. Leading citizens along the state line organized mass meetings to plan their course of action. Near Martin City in the town of New Santa Fe, most of the pro-slavery residents headed to the Bull Creek precinct near Osawatomie to cast their votes. 

  Samuel B. Wade owned land hugging the state line north of Martin City.  He and his son, Jim, no more than 11 years old, went into Kansas to Bull Creek to ensure slavery continued. A witness testimony stated, “Samuel Wade, of Jackson, voted once for himself and once for ‘Jim Wade.’ Jim is a boy. . . I asked him why he had voted for a child? He said he had laid out a claim for him close to his own claim, and he expected he would be a legal voter sometime!”

  This fraudulent election raised eyebrows in Washington, and the delegates “elected” were pro-slavery men. The men elected became known as the “Bogus Legislature” and were set to establish the laws – including the Constitution- of Kansas Territory.

The Founding of Lecompton

  Pro-slavery men worked throughout 1854 and 1855 to establish towns to counter the “free state” settlements founded by the Emigrant Aid Society. Dr. Artistides Roderique, Col. Albert Gallatin Boone, Samuel J. Jones and Maj. Lyman Evans formed a town company to establish a place where the Territorial Government could meet in 1854.

  Ely Moore, Jr., and acquaintance of Dr. Roderique, recalled what was told of their first visit to the town site in July 1854 as Roderique recalled it:

  “To the right of us the Grasshopper Creek and the Delaware and Kaw lands studded with mighty timber, to the north of us the blue bluffs on the Delaware reservation, to the east and west the Kansas River in its hurried race to join its sister, the Missouri, and almost at our feet nature had molded with both art and skill a natural habitation for a multitude of God’s children. Here where we stand will be our courthouse, and here and on yon western hill the resident portion; there, on that elevated plateau, the capitol of our state, and in the center for miles south will be our business mart. . . Here we will rest, our mission ended. May God bless our endeavors.”

  Located on the south bank of the Kansas River in the center of the most densely populated portion of Kansas Territory, the new town- then called Bald Eagle- was 12 miles northwest of free-state stronghold Lawrence. It sat on a 640-acre Wyandotte Indian land claim, and early planning for the town occurred in pro-slavery Westport, Mo. just over the state line.

  The town site was renamed before incorporation in 1855 to “Lecompton” after pro-slavery Judge Samuel D. Lecompte, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of newly organized Kansas Territory. 

  One of the town’s founders was Albert Gallatin Boone, grandson of famous frontiersman Daniel Boone. He established a trading business in Westport in 1848 and was once the owner of Kansas City’s oldest building, now Kelly’s Westport Inn.

Dr. Roderique was the first physician located in the town. Samuel J. Jones, an early postmaster in Westport, was named sheriff of Douglas County in 1855 and speculated heavily in Lecompton in its earliest days.

  The Kansas Weekly Herald out of Leavenworth reported in June 1855 about the new town site, writing, “It is beautifully situated and is surrounded by undoubtedly the best and heaviest timbered country in Kansas. From the centrality of Lecompton, we think, it must eventually become the Territorial Seat of Government.”

  It was to be so, as the newly-formed town of Lecompton was named the Territorial capital of Kansas on August 8, 1855. The president appointed territorial governor Andrew Reeder and officials to establish a government in Lecompton.  

  Free-staters didn’t stand by the wayside; they drafted the Topeka Constitution that abolished slavery and called for citizens to stand up against the pro-slavery forces. According to historian Tony O’Bryan, this constitution was sent to Washington for approval but was quickly squashed by President Pierce who “condemned the actions of the free-state Kansans.”   

The Lecompton Constitution

  The town of Lecompton donated 13 acres of land for use as the capital grounds, and Congress allocated $50,000 to construct a capital building. Work began on what was set to be a $500,000 project. However, the building was never completed.

  In the meantime, a building constructed by Sheriff Samuel J. Jones in 1856 was used as headquarters of the territory. Constructed as a commercial building designed to house different government entities, the building- now known as Constitution Hall at 319 Elmore Street- was used as a federal land office on the ground floor. The upstairs meeting room was used for various events.

  In the fall of 1857, the “Bogus Legislature” of 45 delegates met in this upstairs room to draft the infamous Lecompton Constitution. According to historian Tim Rues, “Northerners saw [the Lecompton Constitution] as a swindle, unrepresentative of the majority free state sentiment in Kansas. Southerners thought it was an affair document approved by a majority of Kansas voters.”

  If the Lecompton Constitution was adopted, Kansas would have been admitted as a slave state and national events engrained in our history may have turned out quite differently. The document allowed for slavery in Kansas and prohibited free Blacks.

  The Lecompton Constitution was approved by voters in December 1857, “but only because Free-Staters boycotted the referendum.” 

  The issues surrounding the Lecompton Constitution became a national one. The famous Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858 between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas during their Senate campaign centered around the issue of slavery. The Lecompton Constitution and the Lincoln-Douglas debates were intertwined events that significantly impacted the political landscape at the time as the constitution became a key point of contention between the men. 

  The Southern controlled Senate debated for a month over the Lecompton Constitution, and in March 1858, they approved the document 33-25. However, the constitution failed in the House 120-112.

  A joint conference to compromise on the Lecompton Constitution began, and the “English Compromise” proposed by Congressman William Hayden English was introduced to resolve the contentious issue of Kansas statehood and slavery. The bill, drafted by pro-slavery advocates, offered an exchange of four million acres of land in order to ensure Kansas was a slave state and would exclude Black residents.

  The bill passed, and in August 1858, Kansans went to the polls to vote for a third time on the Lecompton Constitution. It overwhelmingly lost 11,300 to 1,788.

  This debate over the document crafted in the upstairs of Constitution Hall in Lecompton, Kan. led to the split of the National Democratic Party into four factions: Stephen Douglas, a Northern Democrat, John Breckinridge as a Southern Democrat, John Bell as a moderate and President James Buchanan. 

  The splintering of the Democratic Party led to the fracture of pro-slavery votes in the 1860 presidential election and allowed Republican Abraham Lincoln being able to win with only 39% of the vote. 

  Today, Lecompton embraces this constitutional crisis and its role in the beginning of Bleeding Kansas and the Border Wars. The once pro-slavery settlement uses the motto, “Birthplace of the Civil War, Where Slavery Began to Die.”

Visiting Lecompton’s Landmarks

  Lecompton remained the Territorial Capital of Kansas until 1861 when the capital moved to Topeka. At one time, the population of the bustling town grew to 4,000 and was called the “Wall Street of the West” by area residents and politicians. In the late 1850s, the town had regular stops by steamboats, five hotels, two newspapers, shops, agents and business houses.

  Today, only a fragment of what once was the heart of politics in Kansas remain; however, these important landmarks are worth visiting to immerse yourself in the early fight over slavery. During the territorial period (1854-1861), it is estimated that there were about 400 enslaved people living in Kansas, and the decision of whether or not Kansas would be free or slave introduced Americans to the end of peace after the Declaration of Independence.

  Events right here in this small town of just under 600 people propelled our country into Civil War and ended the admittance of another slave state.

  A day trip to Lecompton allows the visitor to see some of the remaining landmarks that once were the center of this territorial fight for freedom. If you arrive hungry for breakfast or lunch, a trip to Aunt Netters Café at 340 Elmore Street is a must. Order a classic hamburger for just $4.99 that resembles the old Winstead’s steak burger of decades ago, or go for the classic biscuits and gravy for only $3.99.

  Nearby Aunt Netters Café is a collection of antique stores and specialty shops (including a winery) that allow for casual shopping before or after you take in the museums of the area. A walking tour with a new, widened sidewalk allows visitors to park their car and casually stroll throughout the little town. 

  There are three landmarks every visitor to Lecompton should visit.

Territorial Capital Museum (Lane University)

640 E. Woodson Ave.

Open Wednesday-Saturday 10-4pm; Sundays 1-5pm

  As mentioned prior, when Lecompton was named Territorial capital, 13 acres of land was set aside to build government buildings. The first to be built was the capital building but the project was never completed. 

  Standing today on the foundation of what was to become the capital is a structure built in 1882 as Lane University, named after infamous antislavery Brigadier General Jim Lane (1814-1866). He served in the United States Senate and formed a brigade of Jayhawkers during the Civil War.

  When the capital moved to Topeka in 1861, Lecompton struggled to keep any relevance as a bustling small city. In 1865, Lane University was established inside a vacant hotel by the United Brethren and was given the old territorial grounds.

  It was at Lane University while attending college that David J. Eisenhower met and married his bride, Ida Stover. They were later the parents to president Dwight D. Eisenhower. The university moved to Holton, Kan. in 1902 and merged with Campbell College.

  The building was in major disrepair in the 1970s when the Lecompton Historical Society was formed. They worked diligently to repair the building with the Kansas Historical Society, and in 1982, the Territorial Capital Museum was opened. 

  Here, various artifacts from early statehood and Lecompton’s colorful history can be viewed.

Constitution Hall

319 Elmore St.

Open Wednesday-Saturday 10-4pm; Sundays 1-5pm

Adults- $6; Children – $3

  Constitution Hall, constructed in 1856 and one of the oldest frame structures left in the state, was constructed as a commercial building that could be used for various purposes. Built by pro-slavery Douglas County Sheriff Samuel J. Jones (1827-1883), the main floor was used as a federal land office, thus meaning most of the first white settlers in Kansas would have stopped to do business inside.

  On the second floor, the meeting room was used to host both Lecompton Constitutional Conventions, court proceedings and the first session of the Territorial Assembly. They continued to meet at this location for government functions until 1858 when they moved to the free-state town of Lawrence. 

  After 1894, the building was used as an Odd Fellows lodge, a post for the Grand Army of the Republic, the Masons, the Modern Woodman of America and the Rebekah Lodge. In 1986, it became a state historic site. 

  Today, the building tells the tumultuous story of Kansas from Territory to statehood, expertly outlining the complicated events of the area and the nation. Various historic items including old land surveying equipment, a box used to hold fraudulent votes and a desk from 1857 used to register land office claims are included in the space.

Democratic Headquarters

226 E 2nd St.

Doors closed to the public; can walk freely around the structure

  Built in the 1850s by Italian stonemason Mark Migliaro, this small stone structure in Lecompton is full of history. The formation of the Democratic Party in Kansas Territory was paramount to the success of ensuring Kansas would be admitted as a slave state. In this building, “ambition and influential men gathered to discuss issues, plot strategies, and make decisions that helped to shape the destiny of Kansas politics and government.” 

  The building was used as Democratic Headquarters from 1854 until 1861, and it originally had a log cabin attached to it that has been lost to time. Later, the building was used by the railroad to be used as a pay station.

  The building was saved by local residents who then turned it over to the Lecompton Historical Society in 1998.

  The interior is set up to resemble what it would have looked like as the home of the Democratic Party and can be viewed by looking through the windows. 

Absorbing the Past Around Us

  It’s easy to forget that the place we call home – and those just a short day trip away- hold important historic sites that had a lasting impact on our nation’s history. Taking the time to explore these places opens us up to the true struggles of those who came before us.

  Lecompton, just a short drive away, is one of these important sites that everyone should take time to visit. It reminds us of the core issues that, for a period of time, tore our country apart.   

As we reflect on the significance of the Declaration of Independence where 56 men professed the freedom of a nation, a trip to Lecompton seems even more applicable. 

  Had the Lecompton Constitution succeeded as planned, it would have altered the entire landscape of our country. This charming town embraces its controversial past as a pro-slavery settlement, determined to show how vital its role was in political events that turned a nation toward war in order to unite yet again with freedom for all.

 For more information about visiting, please go to https://lecomptonkansas.com.