Thirty two current states were once territories, like Puerto Rico. All of them had anti-statehood factions and faced struggles to become states. Kansas had a particularly difficult and violent path to statehood.
Slavery
Many people today believe that states can only be admitted in pairs. This idea is left over from the days when that was true: a state that allowed slavery needed to be paired with a state that did not allow slavery, so that the slave states and the free states could be balanced in Congress. It may be hard for us to imagine this today, but it makes just as much sense as the current notion of balancing Republican and Democratic states. The object at the time that Kansas was being considered for admission was to avoid Civil War. By 1861, when Kansas eventually gained admission, states had already begun to secede and the Civil War began a few months later.
But the controversy over slavery and Kansas statehood had come to a boil in 1854, when the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed. This law allowed self-determination, or “popular sovereignty,” as it was known at the time, on the question of slavery. Voters would be allowed to vote on whether slavery should be allowed in Kansas or not.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act also set the borders of the two territories, but they were not admitted together. Kansas was admitted on its own after the Civil War had already begun so the pairing of slave and free states was a moot point. However, in 1854, there was concern that both of the newly defined territories would choose to be free states, and upset the balance between slave and free states in Congress. Slavery was contentious in Nebraska, which abolished the practice in 1861, but it was violently contested in Kansas
Bleeding Kansas
Between the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the admission of Kansas as a state, activists on both sides of the question fought as hard as they possibly could to get the vote to go their way. Gangs of pro-slavers and free-staters attacked one another and sympathizers on both sides as well. A number of incidents took place, many of which are remembered today as “massacres” and “battles.” The military terms made sense as bands of raiders captured citizens and imprisoned them, then attacked the buildings where their own supporters were being imprisoned. Murders were common, but the situation was essentially guerrilla warfare. Buildings were burnt, towns were sacked, printing presses were destroyed, and entire families were executed. By the time Kansas was admitted as a state, both sides had built up armies.
The competing sides worked to bring people into the territory to vote in their direction, and the eventual ballot on the constitution counted more votes than the territory had actual residents. Slavery won in that vote, and the new legislature passed pro-slavery laws immediately. In response, the anti-slavery forces set up their own government.
Meanwhile, President James Buchanan had decided that the way to stop the violence was to admit Kansas as a state. He didn’t care whether Kansas was a slave state or a free state, but believed that admitting it one way or the other would stop the violence in Bleeding Kansas. Congress, unwilling to admit Kansas as a slave state, voted to send the pro-slavery constitution back to Kansas for another vote.
This time, the pro-slavery constitution failed 11,300 to 1,788. Kansas remained a territory. Governor John Geary was appointed in 1856 with a mandate to stop the bloodshed. He was firm and impartial, and personally visited the leaders of the unofficial armies that had built up. He demanded that they disband, and they did. There continued to be some skirmishes and attacks by guerrilla bands, but by 1859 things had simmered down.
Congress and the nation as a whole feared that the violence in Kansas was a foretaste of the Civil War that seemed to be threatening the United States — and it was. Where the president believed that admitting Kansas as a state would end the violence, many in Congress thought the violence would spread if Kansas were admitted.
Corruption
During the violence and lawlessness of the period known as Bleeding Kansas, widespread corruption was the order of the day. In addition to acts of violence, there was the practice of importing temporary residents from bordering states in order to vote in elections, literal stuffing of ballot boxes, and the use of violence to influence the actions of people in the government. Political parties fractured and the territory’s leadership was no longer trusted by the people.
At the time of admission, Kansas still had both an official territorial government and a competing government claiming to be the legitimate government of the territory. Guerrilla warfare was still taking place along the border and bands of outlaws were taking advantage of the situation to get away with their crimes. The Kansas legislature was by no means in good shape.
Then what happened?
The “Kansas Question” became a major issue in the 1860 presidential election. The split of the Democratic Party into Northern and Southern factions over these issues allowed the Republican Party and their candidate, Abraham Lincoln, to prevail. Lincoln visited Kansas in 1895 and said that “no man, North or South, can approve of violence and crime.”
Kansas voted on their fourth constitution, this one prohibiting slavery, and was admitted as a state in 1861. President Buchanan, unconcerned about the switch from a slave state to a free state if the controversy could be settled, was happy to sign the admission bill. The rest of the country was past thinking about Kansas’s admission as the nation entered into the Civil War that would rage for four years and end the lives of 750,000 soldiers, plus many civilians. This is still the deadliest war the United States has ever been involved in.
Not a normal situation
We can look at the admission of Kansas as an anomaly which can’t be considered a real example of a way for a territory to be admitted as a state — except that every territory so far has had its own unique story of admission. Territories have been admitted when they were at war, in debt, suffering from famines, and in myriad other difficult situations. California was never a territory and Texas was an independent nation. There has never been a typical route to statehood.
