Kansas Constitution

"Kansas Constitution," popularly referred to as "The Wyandotte Constitution". This constitution was approved in a referendum on October 4, 1859. It settled the terms of Kansas' admission to the United States, particularly establishing that it would be a free state rather than a slave state. The constitution represented a pragmatic compromise over hotly contested issues: it rejected slavery and affirmed separate property rights for married women and their right to participate in school elections, but also denied universal suffrage for women, blacks, and Indians.