Worksheet

Kansas on Trial: A Mock Debate over the Lecompton Constitution

Grade 8 causes of the Civil War: Bleeding Kansas, Kansas votes on the Lecompton Constitution and a mock 1858 debate show how popular sovereignty failed.

Grade 8Social StudiesInteractive · Printable

Aligned toHIS.8.5

Play online Play as a game

PrintLetter-size worksheet Answer keyPrintable answers

Assign to classAssign to your classes, or get a join code

What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 C3 Framework standard
Printable answer key
12 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 8
Subject: Social Studies
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students explain how the Kansas-Nebraska Act and Bleeding Kansas deepened sectional conflict over slavery.
Students use vote data to judge whether the Lecompton Constitution reflected the will of Kansas voters.
Students compare arguments on both sides of a debate and connect it to the 1860 split.

How to use

Read the background and the table first; then let four students read the speeches aloud before the class sorts the arguments.

Curriculum

C3 Framework standard covered

HIS.8.5

Explain the causes of the Civil War, including sectional differences over slavery, failed compromises and the election of 1860.

Preview

OwlSheets.com

Name Date

Kansas on Trial: A Mock Debate over the Lecompton Constitution

Weigh both sides of the 1858 fight over Kansas and trace how it split the nation.

Background: Bleeding Kansas

Your class is at Constitution Hall in Lecompton, Kansas, the building where a convention wrote a state constitution in 1857. Read the background. Then answer the questions.

Kansas Territory, 1854–1861

1In 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska Act opened Kansas Territory to American settlers and let them vote on whether to allow slavery, an idea called popular sovereignty. The act ended the Missouri Compromise rule that had banned slavery in that region since 1820. The land was not empty. The Kaw (Kansa) people had long lived there, and in the 1830s the U.S. government had moved the Shawnee, the Lenape (Delaware) and other nations from the East onto lands in Kansas. Treaties in the 1850s took much of this land for settlers. The Kaw Nation and many of these other nations govern themselves today, most of them in Oklahoma, and some still hold reservations in Kansas.

2Both sides rushed in. In the territory's 1855 election, thousands of proslavery men from neighboring Missouri crossed the border to vote, and the legislature that won passed harsh laws protecting slavery. Free-state settlers, many of them from the North, refused to accept that legislature and formed their own government at Topeka. Violence followed. In May 1856 a proslavery force attacked the free-state town of Lawrence, and days later the abolitionist John Brown and his followers killed five proslavery settlers near Pottawatomie Creek. Newspapers called the territory "Bleeding Kansas."

3In 1857 a proslavery convention met in Lecompton and wrote a state constitution. Voters were not allowed to reject the whole document. They could only choose the constitution "with slavery" or "without slavery," and even the "without" choice protected enslavers' ownership of people already held in Kansas. Most free-state voters refused to take part in the December vote. In January 1858 a newly elected free-state legislature held its own vote on the whole document.

4President James Buchanan, a Democrat, asked Congress to admit Kansas as a slave state under the Lecompton Constitution. Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois, also a Democrat and the author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, broke with him. The Senate voted to admit Kansas, but the House did not. Congress then offered a deal that sent the constitution back to Kansas voters. Kansas finally entered the Union as a free state in January 1861, after six Southern states had already voted to leave. The quarrel between Buchanan's and Douglas's supporters weakened the Democratic Party, the last major party with strong support in both the North and the South, just before the election of 1860.

Use paragraph 1. How did the Kansas-Nebraska Act undo part of an earlier compromise?

A. It moved the Missouri Compromise line north to Nebraska.
B. It let settlers vote on slavery where the 1820 rule had banned it.
C. It made Kansas Territory part of the state of Missouri.
D. It admitted Kansas to the Union as a slave state at once.

Use paragraph 2. Why did free-state settlers refuse to accept the territorial legislature?

A. It was appointed by the President instead of elected.
B. It had passed a law banning slavery in the territory.
C. It met in Missouri rather than in Kansas Territory.
D. Many votes that chose it came from men living in Missouri.

Which statement about Kansas Territory does paragraph 1 support?

A. Native nations lost land through treaties as settlers arrived.
B. Native nations voted in the 1855 territorial election.
C. The land had been empty until settlers came in 1854.
D. The Kaw people moved east to make room for new settlers.

What did Kansas voters want?

Use the table and the background.

Kansas Votes, 1855–1858 (rounded)
Date	Question for voters	Result
March 1855	Elect a territorial legislature	Proslavery win; many Missouri voters
Dec. 21, 1857	Lecompton: with or without slavery?	With: about 6,200; without: about 600
Jan. 4, 1858	Accept or reject all of Lecompton?	No: about 10,200; yes: under 200
Aug. 2, 1858	Accept Congress's Lecompton offer?	No: about 11,300; yes: about 1,800

Use the table and paragraph 3. Why does the December 1857 result not show what most Kansas voters wanted?

A. Only free-state voters were allowed to cast ballots that day.
B. The vote was held in Missouri, so Kansans could not take part.
C. Free-state voters stayed away, and none could reject the whole plan.
D. Congress counted the ballots again and reversed the result.

Use the table. Subtract.

In August 1858, about more voters rejected Congress's offer than accepted it.

Which conclusion do the last two rows of the table support?

A. Large majorities rejected the plan whenever it was put to a full vote.
B. Fewer people voted in August than in January 1858.
C. Most voters in 1858 chose the plan "with slavery."
D. Support for the Lecompton Constitution grew during 1858.

The mock debate

In the class's mock debate, set in February 1858, four students played roles based on views people held at the time. The speakers are roles, not real people. The question: Should Congress admit Kansas as a state under the Lecompton Constitution? Read the speeches. Then answer the questions.

The Mock Debate, February 1858

1Speaker 1, a senator from Georgia (YES): The Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott case that Congress cannot keep slavery out of a territory. A lawful convention wrote this constitution, and in December the voters chose it with slavery. If the North shuts Kansas out now, the South will know it can never win a fair share of the West.

2Speaker 2, a free-state settler from Lawrence (NO): That convention was called by the legislature that men from Missouri elected in 1855 by crossing the border to vote. This January, more than ten thousand of us voted against the whole document. Admitting Kansas under it would force slavery on people who have rejected it.

3Speaker 3, an Illinois Democrat who follows Senator Douglas (NO): I do not care whether Kansas votes slavery up or down, but the people must truly decide. In the December vote, voters were not given the choice to reject this constitution. That is not popular sovereignty.

4Speaker 4, a Pennsylvania supporter of President Buchanan (YES): Kansas has torn the country apart for nearly four years. Admit it now, and the fighting will end. Once Kansas is a state, its people can change their constitution if they wish.

Sort each argument by the side that used it in the debate.

The Dred Scott decision protects slavery in the territories.Missouri men crossed the border to vote in 1855.Admitting Kansas will end the fighting.Voters had no chance to reject the whole document.Kansans can change their constitution later.More than 10,000 voters rejected the document in January.

YES: admit Kansas under Lecompton	NO: do not admit it

Speakers 2 and 3 both say no. How do their main reasons differ?

A. Speaker 2 wants Kansas admitted later; Speaker 3 wants it admitted now.
B. Speaker 2 objects to forcing slavery on Kansas; Speaker 3 objects to how the vote was run.
C. Speaker 2 backs the Dred Scott ruling; Speaker 3 rejects popular sovereignty.
D. Speaker 2 trusts the December vote; Speaker 3 trusts the 1855 election.

Circle the sentence in Speaker 3's speech that states a fact about the vote rather than an opinion.

I do not care whether Kansas votes slavery up or down, but the people must truly decide.In the December vote, voters were not given the choice to reject this constitution.That is not popular sovereignty.

10.

Speaker 4 says that admitting Kansas will end the fighting. Which detail from the page gives the best reason to doubt this?

A. Buchanan and Douglas both belonged to the Democratic Party.
B. The Kaw people had lived in Kansas long before 1854.
C. The Senate voted to admit Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution.
D. Most Kansas voters had rejected the whole constitution.

11.

Use paragraph 4. How did the fight over the Lecompton Constitution help set the stage for the election of 1860?

A. It united Northern and Southern Democrats.
B. It gave Kansas's new electoral votes to Buchanan.
C. It widened a split inside the Democratic Party.
D. It made Douglas the Republican Party's candidate.

12.

Popular sovereignty was supposed to settle the question of slavery in the territories peacefully. Did it fail in Kansas? Make a claim, use at least two pieces of evidence from the background, the table or the debate, and explain your reasoning.