After he studied law and was admitted to the bar, Kane commenced practice in
Nashville, Tennessee, and then moved to
Kaskaskia, Illinois in 1814. He became allied with
Jesse B. Thomas, a slaveholder who had secured the job of judge of the
Territory of Illinois. Like Judge Thomas and his rival
Ninian Edwards, Kane was a delegate to the first state
constitutional convention in 1818. At the convention, the Thomas/Kane faction unsuccessfully tried to add language permitting slavery in the new state (where it had been forbidden by the
Northwest Ordinance of 1787). However, that proposal was defeated by a faction whose leaders included
Baptist John Mason Peck,
Methodist Peter Cartwright,
Quaker James Lemen, publisher
Hooper Warren and future governor
Edward Coles. Kane claimed ownership of five people as slaves in 1820, After an unsuccessful 1820 campaign for election to the
17th Congress which featured numerous letters in the
Edwardsville Spectator concerning slavery, and which anti-slavery candidate
Daniel Pope Cook won, Kane became Illinois' first
Secretary of State, and served from 1820 to 1824. In that year, Kane led proslavery forces in the
Illinois House of Representatives which attempted to call another constitutional convention, but was again defeated by a coalition led by Governor Coles, U.S. Representative Cook and religious leaders of many denominations. However, fellow legislators twice appointed Kane to the
United States Senate. He served from March 4, 1825, until his death in
Washington, D.C., in 1835. ==Legacy==