Editing Bleeding Kansas (section)

==Kansas admitted as a free state==
{{see also|Kansas in the American Civil War}}
The congressional legislative deadlock was broken in early 1861, when following [[1860 United States presidential election|the election of Abraham Lincoln as President]], seven Southern states seceded from the Union. Kansas's entry as a free state had already been approved by the House of Representatives, but had been blocked by Southern senators. When, early in 1861, the senators of the seceding states withdrew from Congress or were expelled, Kansas was immediately, within days, admitted to the Union as a free state, under the [[Wyandotte Constitution]]. While pro-Confederates in Missouri attempted to effect [[Missouri secession|that state's secession]] from the Union, and succeeded in having [[Confederate government of Missouri|a pro-Confederate government]] recognized by and admitted to the Confederacy, by the end of 1861, even that state was firmly in control of its Unionist government. [[Missouri in the American Civil War|Without control of Missouri]], regular Confederate forces were never in a position to seriously threaten the newly recognized free state government in Kansas.

Nevertheless, following the commencement of the American Civil War in 1861, [[Bushwhacker|additional guerrilla violence]] erupted on the border between Kansas and Missouri and sporadically continued until the end of the war.