LECOMPTON, Kan. (AP) The Lecompton Historical Society will receive a portrait of one of Kansas’ most notorious territorial figures this week.
A Michigan couple will donate the oil painting of John Calhoun, president of the Lecompton Constitution Convention, on Friday afternoon at the Constitutional Hall State Historic Site, where the convention met in 1857.
The portrait belongs to John and Mary Calhoun McCord, of L’Anse, Mich. John McCord in Calhoun’s great-great-grandson.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Calhoun was a leader of moderate proslavery factions in Kansas Territory during the 1850s.
In 1857, Calhoun became president of the Lecompton Constitutional Convention, which legalized a constitution making slavery legal. But the constitution was rejected twice by voters and Calhoun was suspected of tampering with returns in some elections to support the pro-slavery side.
