Black residents of Topeka submitted a resolution to Governor Samuel J. Crawford concerning impartial suffrage. The resolution expresses the residents' gratitude to the legislature and the governor for their support of an amendment to the state constitution on impartial suffrage. Propositions put before the voters proposing to strike the words "white" and "male" from the state constitution were ultimately defeated. The proposed amendments followed Governor Crawford's submission of the proposed Article XIV of the United States Constitution to the Kansas Legislature for ratification. The Fourteenth Amendment defined U.S. citizenship and compelled Confederate states to adopt impartial (male) suffrage.
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Colored people of Topeka to Governor Samuel J. Crawford - 1