The Kansas constitution

The Kansas Constitution preserves a speech by Cydnor Bailey Tompkins (1810-1862), the Ohio Republican who sat in Congress from 1857 to 1861, delivered during the national fight over the Lecompton constitution and slavery in Kansas. The question of whether Kansas would enter the Union slave or free had broken the Democratic party and filled the territory with rifles, and congressional speeches like this carried the argument to constituents in printed form. The pamphlet is a primary document of the political crisis that led to the Civil War. Free PDF download available on BDeBooks.