The further history of popular sovereignty in Kansas must be lightly touched upon, for it is the reflex action in the halls of Congress that interests the student of Douglas’s career.  Twenty-eight of the thirty-nine members of the first territorial legislature were men of pronounced pro-slavery views; eleven were anti-slavery candidates.  In seven districts, where protests had been filed, the governor ordered new elections.  Three of those first elected were returned, six were new men of anti-slavery proclivities.  But when the legislature met, these new elections were set aside and I the first elections were declared valid.[542]

In complete control of the legislature, the pro-slavery party proceeded to write slavery into the law of the Territory.  In their eagerness to establish slavery permanently, these legislative Hotspurs quite overshot the mark, creating offenses and affixing penalties of doubtful constitutionality.[543] Meanwhile the census of February reported but one hundred ninety-two slaves in a total population of eight thousand six hundred.[544] Those who had migrated from the South, were not as a rule of the slave-holding class.  Those who possessed slaves shrank from risking their property in Kansas, until its future were settled.[545] Eventually, the climate was to prove an even greater obstacle to the transplantation of the slave-labor system into Kansas.

Foiled in their hope of winning the territorial legislature, the free-State settlers in Kansas resolved upon a hazardous course.  Believing the legislature an illegal body, they called a convention to draft a constitution with which they proposed to apply for admission to the Union as a free State.  Robinson, the leader of the free-State party, was wise in such matters by reason of his experience in California.  Reeder, who had been displaced as governor and had gone over to the opposition, lent his aid to the project; and ex-Congressman Lane, formerly of Indiana, gave liberally of his vehement energy to the cause.  After successive conventions in which the various free-State elements were worked into a fairly consistent mixture, the Topeka convention launched a constitution and a free-State government.  Unofficially the supporters of the new government took measures for its defense.  In the following spring, Governor Robinson sent his first message to the State legislature in session at Topeka; and Reeder and Lane were chosen senators for the inchoate Commonwealth.[546]

Meantime Governor Shannon had succeeded Reeder as executive of the territorial government at Shawnee Mission.  The aspect of affairs was ominous.  Popular sovereignty had ended in a dangerous dualism.  Two governments confronted each other in bitter hostility.  There were untamed individuals in either camp, who were not averse to a decision by wager of battle.[547]