The decisive free-State victory, the Oxford and McGee frauds,[8] and the Governor’s fearless action in exposing and rejecting them, called forth universal comment; and under the new political conditions which they revealed, created intense interest in the further proceedings of the Lecompton Constitutional Convention.  That body reassembled according to adjournment on the 19th of October.  Elected in the preceding June without any participation by free-State voters, the members were all of the pro-slavery party, and were presided over by John Calhoun, the same man who, as county surveyor of Sangamon County, Illinois, employed Abraham Lincoln as his deputy in 1832.

At the June election, while he and his seven colleagues from Douglas County were yet candidates for the convention, they had circulated a written pledge that they would submit the constitution to the people for ratification.  This attitude was generally maintained by them till the October election.  But when by that vote they saw their faction overwhelmed with defeat, they and others undertook to maintain themselves in power by an unprecedented piece of political jugglery.  Calhoun, who was surveyor-general of the Territory, employed a large number of subordinates, and was one of the most able and unscrupulous leaders in the pro-slavery cabal.  A large majority of the convention favored the establishment of slavery; only the question of a popular vote on ratification or rejection excited controversy.

An analysis shows that the principle of delegated authority had become attenuated to a remarkable degree.  The defective registration excluded a considerable number (estimated at about one-sixth) of the legal voters.  Of the 9250 registered, only about 2200 voted, all told.  Of these 2200, only about 1800 votes were given for the successful candidates for delegate.  Of the whole sixty delegates alleged to have been chosen, “but forty-three,” says a Committee Report, “participated in the work of the convention.  Sessions were held without a quorum, and the yeas and nays often show that but few above thirty were present.  It is understood, and not denied, that but twenty-eight of these—­less than half of a full house of sixty—­decided the pro-slavery or free-State question; and upon the question of submission of their work to the will of the people, the pro-slavery party carried the point by a majority of two votes only.  It is quite in keeping with the character of this body and its officers to find the journal of its proceedings for the last days missing."[9]

Their allotted task was completed in a short session of about three weeks; the convention adjourned November 7, forty-three of the fifty delegates present having been induced to sign the constitution.  When the document was published the whole country was amazed to see what perversity and ingenuity had been employed to thwart the unmistakable popular will.  Essentially a slave-State constitution of the most pronounced