[Kansas Laws]:

$2,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

GENERAL LAWS OF THE STATE OF KANSAS, PASSED AT THE FIRST SESSION OF THE LEGISLATURE, COMMENCED AT THE CAPITAL MARCH 26, 1861…. The first set of laws published after Kansas achieved statehood at the beginning of the Civil War, printed with the Kansas Organic Act and the 1859 Wyandotte Constitution, which is still in force today. Kansas' long and bloody struggle with the issue of slavery is encapsulated in these documents, from the Organic Act's explicit provision to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act, to the Constitution's outright ban on forced labor. This anti-slavery constitution was passed easily in the House, but only cleared the Senate after Southern senators seceded from the Union and left their seats vacant.The laws published in this first compilation do much to establish the geographic, legal, and political conditions of the fledgling state, but also closely reflect the time and circumstances of their adoption. Considerable space is devoted to the establishment of the militia, including "An Act to Authorize the Governor to Tender One or More Regiments of the Volunteer State Militia to the President of the United States" and an act to "Borrow Money to Repel Invasion, Suppress Insurrection, and to Defend the State in Time of War." Another notable law is the Act "relinquishing the right of the State to the Capitol property at Lecompton," which had been the de jure capital of Kansas Territory (with the de facto capital in Lawrence), and which was the headquarters of a splinte

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