in the fall of 1857 a convention met in constitution hall. they drafted the famous lecompton constitution, which would have made kansas become a slave state. the constitution was rejected after angry national debate and was one of the main ideas of the lincoln-douglas debates. the controversy added to the growing fight that became the civil war. the lecompton constitution failed, in part, because the antislavery people had control of the territorial legislature in the election of 1857. the new legislature met at constitution hall and quickly started to get rid of the pro-slavery laws.