The political winds in Kansas Territory in 1859 were finally turning in favor of potential statehood. An effective constitution was critical for acceptance of statehood by the United States Congress. The fourth attempt to draft that critical document was chronicled by Col. John A. Martin in an address to a 23-year reunion of convention participants at Wyandotte, Kan., July 29, 1882. Martin’s address was published in the July 30, 1882, edition of the Atchison Champion.

Martin was well-qualified to speak on the subject, having been elected secretary of the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention which convened July 5, 1859. Martin noted that as secretary, he was “more of an observer of its proceedings than a participant in them.” He recorded what was done, but played no part in actions taken. Martin spoke of the three previous constitutional conventions held at Topeka, Lecompton and Leavenworth, and the failure of each in the tumultuous “bleeding Kansas” era.

The fourth attempt began in early February 1859, when the Kansas Territorial Legislature called for a vote to organize a fourth Constitutional Convention. The vote, passed on March 28, led to the demise of the Free State Party which had essentially been a singleissue party for the abolition of slavery. The party’s long association with the national Republican Party prompted the organization of the Kansas Republican Party May 10. For the most part, members of the Free State Party became Republicans.

The June 7, 1859, election of county delegates to the Wyandotte Convention witnessed the first confrontation between the Republican and Democratic parties on Kansas soil. Fourteen thousand territorial residents elected 35 Republican delegates and 17 Democratic delegates to attend the July 5 convention.

John Martin recalled that the composition of the assemblage was not only unusual, but remarkable. In both the Topeka and Leavenworth conventions, nearly every prominent Free State leader was seated. The same was evident among the Democratic delegates who had limited or no participation in previous clashes over the slave issue. None of Lecompton’s pro-slavery men were present at the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention.

Matin noted, “Apparently the chiefs of the contending parties had grown weary of Constitution-making...” wholly expecting the fourth endeavor to be “a predestined failure.”

The absence of former sparring leaders was fortunate. The previous constitutional submissions had been extremely partisan productions. Lecompton was utterly pro-slavery. As George W. Brown wrote in the June 4, 1859, Herald of Freedom, the question of slavery “swallowed up all other issues,” and the Free State conventions had gone, “just as far the other way.”

But, as John Martin explained, the Wyandotte Convention was different. “The younger men of the Territory ... came upon the field fresh, enthusiastic and with a place in the world of thought and action to conquer.”

Half of the delegates had been in the Territory less than two years, and nearly twothirds of them were under 35 years of age.

chants, physicians and others from everyday walks of life. Only 18 of the 52 members were from the legal profession, “an unusually small number of lawyers in such a body.”

The delegates immediately went to work with energy and industry. Their skilled organization resulted in the adoption of the Ohio Constitution as a model for Kansas on the third day of the convention. However, for all the promise the framers of the Wyandotte Constitution offered, the designation of state borders provoked the most significant division.

Kansas Territory borders reached all the way to the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains. The far western border promised great mineral wealth from the ongoing gold rush, but the extreme distance seemed unmanageable. Therefore, the 23rd degree west from the Washington Meridian in the middle of the plains was proposed for the western border of the state. The northern border for the territory had previously been established at the 40th parallel north latitude when the base line survey was done dividing Kansas Territory from Nebraska Territory in 1854.

However, in 1858, a movement began to push the northern boundary north to the Platte River. Delegates from that part of Nebraska Territory were seated as “honorary members” to the Wyandotte Convention, with the privilege of speaking on the subject without voting. The Platte River debate lasted for days, but in the end the original 40th parallel boundary was preserved.

The day before adjournment on the afternoon of July 28, 1859, the completed Kansas Constitution was read for correction prior to official enrollment.

In the closing hours of the convention, Col. Caleb May of Atchison secured a reconsideration on the western border with a motion to move it from the 23rd degree to the 25th degree west from the Washington Meridian. The motion was accepted.

“The reading was concluded at about half past 6 o’clock, and the instrument was ordered to be enrolled,” on the next day, July 29, 1859.

Today, a traveler on Interstate 70 might be surprised to realize that had the border been placed as originally intended, the Colorado border would have been near mile marker 119 between WaKeeney and Collyer. If not for Col. Caleb May’s eleventh hour motion to extend the Kansas border, Dodge City would have been on the western border and Garden City, Oakley, Colby and Goodland would have been in Colorado, on The Way West.

“The Cowboy” Jim Gray can be reached at 220 21st Rd., Geneseo, KS 67444, (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans.com.