A large majority of the convention were in favor of establishing slavery in Kansas.  They accordingly inserted an article in the constitution for this purpose similar in form to those which had been adopted by other Territorial conventions.  In the schedule, however, providing for the transition from a Territorial to a State government the question has been fairly and explicitly referred to the people whether they will have a constitution “with or without slavery.”  It declares that before the constitution adopted by the convention “shall be sent to Congress for admission into the Union as a State” an election shall be held to decide this question, at which all the white male inhabitants of the Territory above the age of 21 are entitled to vote.  They are to vote by ballot, and “the ballots cast at said election shall be indorsed ’constitution with slavery’ and ‘constitution with no slavery.’” If there be a majority in favor of the “constitution with slavery,” then it is to be transmitted to Congress by the president of the convention in its original form; if, on the contrary, there shall be a majority in favor of the “constitution with no slavery,” “then the article providing for slavery shall be stricken from the constitution by the president of this convention;” and it is expressly declared that “no slavery shall exist in the State of Kansas, except that the right of property in slaves now in the Territory shall in no manner be interfered with;” and in that event it is made his duty to have the constitution thus ratified transmitted to the Congress of the United States for the admission of the State into the Union.

At this election every citizen will have an opportunity of expressing his opinion by his vote “whether Kansas shall be received into the Union with or without slavery,” and thus this exciting question may be peacefully settled in the very mode required by the organic law.  The election will be held under legitimate authority, and if any portion of the inhabitants shall refuse to vote, a fair opportunity to do so having been presented, this will be their own voluntary act and they alone will be responsible for the consequences.

Whether Kansas shall be a free or a slave State must eventually, under some authority, be decided by an election; and the question can never be more clearly or distinctly presented to the people than it is at the present moment.  Should this opportunity be rejected she may be involved for years in domestic discord, and possibly in civil war, before she can again make up the issue now so fortunately tendered and again reach the point she has already attained.