This is Kansas Day, marking 165 years of statehood; the admission of Kansas into the United States of America became effective January 29, 1861, on the cusp of the Civil War.
The Kansas Territory was created in 1854, and the largest issue by far in territorial Kansas was whether or not slavery was to be permitted or prohibited.
There was some resistance in the United States Senate to Kansas being admitted to the Union as a free state. However, as 11 slave states seceded from the Union, their Senators left their seats and on January 21, 1861, the U.S. Senate passed the Kansas bill; it was signed into law by President James Buchanan in the waning weeks of his term in the White House.
The Kansas constitution also dramatically reduced the size of the state, so its western border did not extend as far as the Rocky Mountains as part of Kansas Territory; that land that was given up became part of the Colorado Territory.
Before statehood, Kansas burst onto the political scene with the Kansas-Nebraska Act, rupturing the truce of the Missouri Compromise. During several years of the 'Bleeding Kansas' period, Kansas saw slavery and anti-slavery forces in violent confrontations to determine the state’s path forward. John Brown, the subject of the "Tragic Prelude" mural in the state capitol in Topeka, came from this period.
Kansas was the 34th state admitted into the U.S.A.; the state motto of Kansas is "Ad astra per aspera" (To the stars through difficulties).