Lecompton Constitution

a Constitution adopted by the proslavery party of Kansas in a convention held at Lecompton, September 5, 1857. The Constitution sanctioned slavery, and prohibited the pa age of emancipation laws by the Legislature. It was provided that the Constitution should not, as a whole, be submitted to the people of the territory; they were only to vote for ‘‘the Constitution with slavery ’’ or ‘‘ the Constitution without slavery.’” Free-State settlers abstaining, the former alternative prevailed by a large majority. Later, without authorization from the convention, the Territorial Legislature ordered a vote on the Constitution as a whole. It was voted down by a large majority, slave-State settlers now abstaining.