On Thursday afternoon, April 1, the delegates began considering the proposed constitution in its entirety. When they reached Article II, the elective franchise, Hampton P. Johnson of Leavenworth, "moved to insert the word 'white' before the word 'male'." Jim Lane's motion to refer the matter to a special committee failed, as did B.B. Newton's motion to table "the whole subject"--yeas 35, nays 41. The yeas and nays were recorded. Among those voting to table, and thus to stifle the effort to add the word "white," were Lane, Ritchie, Preston B. Plumb, Thacher, and Amasa Soule.
Kansas Memory
Kansas Historical Society
Leavenworth Constitutional Convention journal - p. 1