Finally,  and  after  continued  agitation,
more  peaceful,  however,  than  that  which
characterized  the  earlier  stages  of  the  strug
gle,  the  territorial  legislature  of  Kansas
called  an  election  for  delegates  to  meet  and
form  a  constitution.  They  assembled  in
convention  at  Wyandot,  in  July,  1859,  and
sported  a  constitution  prohibiting  slavery,
his  was  adopted  by  a  majority  exceeding
4000,  and  under  it  Kansas  was  admitted  to
the  Union  on  the  29th  of  January,  1861.
The  comparative  quiet  between  the  re
jection  of  the  English  proposition  and  the
adoption  of  the  Wyandot  constitution,  was
at  one  time  violently  disturbed  by  a  raid
made  by  John  Brown  at  Harper's  Ferry,
with  a  view  to  excite  the  slaves  to  insur
rection.  This  failed,  but  not  before  Gov.
Wise,  of  Virginia,  had  mustered  his  militia,
and  called  for  the  aid  of  United  States
troops.  The  more  radical  anti-slavery  men
of  the  North  were  at  first  shocked  by  the
audacity  of  an  offense  which  many  looked
upon  as  an  act  of  treason,  but  the  anxiety
of  Virginia  to  hang  Brown  and  all  his
followers  who  had  been  captured  alive,
changed  a  feeling  of  conservatism  in  the
North  to  one  of  sympathy  for  Brown  and
deeper  hatred  of  slavery.  It  is  but  fair  to
say  that  it  engendered  hostility  to  the
Union  in  the  South.  The  right  and  wrong
of  slavery  was  thereafter  more  generally
discussed  than  ever.  The  talent  of  the
South  favored.it;  while,  with  at  least  a
large  measure  of  truth  it  can  be  said  that
the  talent  of  the  North  opposed  it.  So
bitter  grew  the  feeling  that  soon  the
churches  of  the  sections  began  to  divide,
no  other  political  question  having  ever  be
fore  disturbed  the  Union.
