Description
Book Synopsis It didn''t take long for freshman Congressman Stephen A. Douglas to see the truth of Senator Thomas Hart Benton''s warning: slavery attached itself to every measure that came before the U.S. Congress. Douglas wanted to expand the nation into an ocean-bound republic. Yet slavery and the violent conflicts it stirred always interfered, as it did in 1844 with his first bill to organize Nebraska.
In 1848, when America acquired 550,000 square miles after the Mexican War, the fight began over whether the territory would be free or slave. Henry Clay, a slave owner who favored gradual emancipation, packaged territorial bills from Douglas''s committee with four others. But Clay''s Omnibus Bill failed. Exhausted, he left the Senate, leaving Douglas in control.
Within two weeks, Douglas won passage of all eight bills, and President Millard Fillmore signed the Compromise of 1850. It was Douglas''s greatest legislative achievement. This book, a sequel to the author''s St
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“In this second volume, gifted biographer Reg Ankrom chronicles the rise of the able, ambitious Douglas, who arrived in Washington at the age of thirty-one and quickly gained fame as an eloquent critic of the free soil movement and became one of the key architects of the Compromise of 1850. Elegantly written and deeply researched, Ankrom's meticulously textured volumes will long stand as the definitive life of Douglas.” — Douglas R. Egerton, author of Year of Meteors: Steven Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election That Brought on the Civil War
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Part
1. "I am a Western man"
2. Douglas Runs for Congress
3. U.S. Representative Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois
4. "This chrysalis state, between worm and butterfly"
5. "Steam engine in breeches"
6. Public Works
7. Manifest Destiny: "Ah, the discomforts"
8. When Is Enough Enough?
9. Re-Election and Re-Annexation
10. Simplify, Simplify: Douglas Gets Texas
11. Douglas and "Squatter Sovereignty"
12. Climate, Soil, Productions
Part Two
13. The American Claim on Oregon
14. Why Oregon?
15. "Enthusiasms of pearly youth"
16. Friends and Foes
17. "Notice will be given"
18. Douglas Does His Homework
19. "A lion in the way"
20. "The whole of Oregon is ours"
21. Elevating the Level of Statesmanship
22. The Surprising Pre-Emption of Wilmot
23. Senator Stephen A. Douglas
24. Rumors of War
25. Polk: "…War exists"
26. Douglas Seeks a Military Commission
27. Wilmot Creates a Southwestern Earthquake
28. Wilmot and a Challenge to Lead
29. Free Soil. Free Labor. For Free White Men
30. Advancement
31. Oregon—Free or Slave?
32. Weighing Wilmot and the Missouri Compromise
33. The Long Lament of John C. Calhoun
34. Douglas, the West, and Rails
35. Encountering Slavery
36. Southern Fears
37. Having It Both Ways: Federal Protection
Part Three
38. A Principle for Compromise
39. Death of a President
40. Golden California
41. Missouri
42. "Young America"
43. "California, do it yourself"
44. Henry Clay Going and Coming
45. Triumvirates Major and Minor
46. "A higher law"
47. "Fraud elected a president and senator"
48. Douglas Warns the South: Freedom Is Inevitable
49. Compromising Without Compromising
50. Groundwork for Compromise
51. Clay: "Tranquility reigns"
52. The Omnibus's Wheels Come Off
53. The Rise of the Douglas Bills
54. Fugitives and Trade
55. Taking It to the House
56. Villain or Victor?
Epilogue
Appendix A: Resolution of the Chicago Common Council Adopted October 21, 1850
Appendix B: Douglas Resolutions at Chicago Meeting, Adopted October 23, 1850
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
