| In 1855, the new town of Lecompton was named the capital of Kansas
Territory. President James Buchanan appointed a governor and officials to
establish government offices in Lecompton, and construction began on an
elegant capitol building. In the fall of 1857 a convention met in
Constitution Hall and drafted the famous Lecompton Constitution, which
would have admitted Kansas as a slave state. The constitution was rejected
after intense national debate and was one of the prime topics of the
Lincoln-Douglas debates. The controversy contributed to the growing
dispute soon to erupt in civil war. The Lecompton Constitution failed, in
part, because the antislavery party won control of the territorial legislature
in the election of 1857. The new legislature met in Constitution Hall,
now a National Historic Landmark, and immediately began to abolish the
proslavery laws. The victorious free-state leaders chose Topeka as capital
when Kansas became a state in 1861.
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