a year passed with little change. however, james buchanan was elected president of the united states. he chose robert j. walker to be the territorial governor of kansas. his instructions to walker were to help the "regular legislature" in creating a new constitutional convention. buchanan promised kansans that voters would be protected from force or fraud, and they should not protest the convention. between mid-october and early november the lecompton constitution was drafted. when it was presented to kansas voters it had two choices: a “constitution with slavery” and a “constitution with no slavery.” but it was cleverly worded in that it did not allow a vote against a constitution. this caused an angry response from voters. governor walker was forced to resign. by a vote of 6,226 to 569, on december 21, the constitution with slavery option won. however, congress did not like the lecompton constitution. the newly-created republican party joined forces with northern democrats, including senator stephen a. douglas, to block the constitution because they felt it did not represent the will of the people of kansas. the democratic party was split over the issue. douglas and free-stater in kansas got a referendum held on january 4, 1858. this time, abolitionists, many of whom had earlier protested the vote, voted. more than 10,000 voters completely rejected the lecompton constitution.