Correspondence! Judge Blake on the Admission of Kansas.

7 7/8 x 5 1/2. Single sheet, printed on recto only. Printed three years before Kansas entered the union, this addresses the Bleeding Kansas period of American history, and therefore the slavery issue, with regard to ceding the territory as a state. John W. Blake, who was seeking election to Congress at the time, speaks to constituents who have asked whether he would admit Kansas to the union, and what requirements would be made regarding its adoption of a constitution. The alternatives were the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution, or a different constitution. Ultimately there were four proposed, and the Wyandotte Constitution won out, which admitted Kansas as a free state. While slavery had already been prohibited in the territory by the Missouri Compromise, the adoption of an anti-slavery constitution for the state was a significant victory for racial equality.