Next month a 150-year-old document that would have made Kansas a slave state will return to the site of its birthplace, Lecompton’s Constitution Hall.

“I think it’s a pretty momentous occasion,” said Tim Rues, the hall’s administrator. “It’s almost unbelievable that the wood-frame building from where it was written is still there and the document still exists.”

Called the Lecompton Constitution, the eight-page document was created by pro-slavery advocates trying to get Kansas admitted into the Union as a slave state. After a series of political tussles in Congress that also involved President James Buchanan and Stephen Douglas, the constitution was ultimately rejected. Kansas became a free state in 1861.

Since 1957, the Lecompton Constitution has been kept in climate-controlled storage at the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka. During the decades before that it had been in the possession of Rutgers University. On Feb. 10 and 11 the document will be on display in Constitution Hall for the first time since it was taken to Washington, D.C., for ratification.

The constitution is being returned in conjunction with the 11th annual Bleeding Kansas program series at Constitution Hall. The program consists of a series of talks and presentations about the state’s pre-Civil War era.

Brian Jordan, a student at Pennsylvania’s Gettysburg College, will give a talk on “The Little Giant and Old Buck: Stephen Douglas, James Buchanan, the Lecompton Constitution and the Crisis of the American Republic” at 2 p.m. Feb. 11. Jordan – described by Rues as a “brilliant young historian” – wrote a biography of President Franklin Pierce while in high school.

In 1875, the Lecompton Constitution was donated to the New Brunswick, N.J., Historical Club by one of the delegates who wrote it, Col. Alfred W. Jones, Rues said. It’s unclear how Jones came into possession of it, although Rues theorizes that Jones took the document to Congress and when it was rejected it was returned to him. Rutgers kept it until the university gave it to Kansas in 1957 on the 100th anniversary of its writing.

Tim Rues, who runs Lecompton's Constitution Hall, tells about the 150-year-old Lecompton Constitution that's being returned to the hall.

One of the reasons the document is not permanently on display at Constitution Hall is because it must be kept under climate-controlled conditions because of its age, Rues said. The eight pages were handwritten on high-quality paper made from cotton ragwood, he said.

“They are in remarkably good shape,” Rues said.

The Lecompton Constitution, as well as two others that were proposed – the Leavenworth and Wyandotte constitutions – are housed by the historical society’s library and archives division, said Matt Veatch, state archivist and assistant division director. Digital images of them and other state territorial documents can be viewed at www.territorialkansasonline.org.

The controversial Lecompton Constitution led to a split in the Democratic Party along North-South ideologies, resulting in the election of President Abraham Lincoln.

“I always consider the Lecompton Constitution one of the major dominoes to fall leading this country into the Civil War,” Rues said. “The South lost Kansas as a slave state, Lincoln was elected and the country was coming apart.”

The document will be displayed from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 10 and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 11 at Constitution Hall, 319 Elmore.

Bleeding Kansas program

The 11th annual Bleeding Kansas program begins Jan. 28 at Constitution Hall in Lecompton.

There will be five programs on successive Sundays, and all will begin at 2 p.m. The programs are free and open to the public.

John Solbach, Lawrence attorney and former state legislator, will present the first program Sunday.

Solbach will talk about his great-great-great-grandfather, Michael Senn.

Senn was a Swiss immigrant who worked in a silver mine in Western Kansas territory where Colorado is now. He also fought in the Civil War with the Union, became a state legislator and was a women’s rights advocate.

“I think he was a very gentle man,” Solbach said. “I think he eschewed violence even though he saw a lot of violence in the Civil War.”

Here is the rest of the program schedule:

¢ Feb. 4 – “How I Became a Lane Man,” by Robert Collins, historian and author of the upcoming biography, “Jim Lane: Scoundrel, Statesman, Kansan.”

¢ Feb. 11 – “The Little Giant and Old Buck: Stephen A. Douglas, James Buchanan, the Lecompton Constitution, and the Crisis of the American Republic,” by Brian Matthew Jordan, sophomore at Gettysburg College.

¢ Feb. 18 – “Just Like Missouri: The Bogus Legislature’s Plan for Kansas,” by Charles E. Clark, researcher, Shawnee Indian Mission State Historic Site.

¢ Feb. 25 – “From Buckeye to Jay-Hawker: A Journey Through Bleeding Kansas,” a first-person portrayal by Rex Patty as Lot Pugh Patty, physician and legislator.