International Sale, Part XIX

Francis Spinner, 1858 Holographic Autographed Historic Letter Discussing the 1858 Lecompton Constitution. Mohawk, NY, October 9th 1858, 2 page letter in Spinners hand, discusses the Lecompton Constitution, (1857), the document was framed in Lecompton, Kansas by Southern pro-slavery advocates of Kansas statehood. It contained clauses which protected slaveholding and a bill of rights excluding free blacks. This added to the frictions between the free and slave states leading up to the U.S. Civil War. Though it was rejected in a territorial election (January 1858), Pres. James Buchanan subsequently recommended statehood for Kansas under its provisions. Congress balked, and a compromise was offered calling for resubmission of the constitution to the territory’s voters. Kansas again rejected it the following August and was admitted to the Union as a free state on Jan. 29, 1861. The letter mentions: “… the people of the (territory) are authorized and empowered to form for themselves a constitution and state government by the name of the State of Kansas according to the Federal Constitution, and may elect delegates…for a member of the House of representatives of the Congress of the United States". XF condition with very minor foxing, Historic letter written by Spinner.