By Fergus M. Bordewich
The Mexican War introduced vast new territories into the
United States, among them California and the present-day Southwest. When gold
was discovered in California in the great Gold Rush of 1849, the population
swelled, and settlers petitioned for admission to the Union. But the U.S.
Senate was precariously balanced with fifteen free states and fifteen slave
states. Up to then states had been admitted in pairs, one free and one slave,
to preserve that tenuous balance in the Senate. Would California be free or
slave? So began a paralyzing crisis in American government, and the longest
debate in Senate history.
Fergus Bordewich tells the epic story of the Compromise of
1850 with skill and vigor, bringing to life two generations of senators who
dominated the great debate. Luminaries such as John Calhoun, Daniel Webster,
and Henry Clay—who tried unsuccessfully to cobble together a compromise that
would allow for California’s admission and simultaneously put an end to the
nation’s agony over slavery—were nearing the end of their long careers. Rising
stars such as Jefferson Davis, William Seward, and Stephen Douglas—who
ultimately succeeded where Clay failed—would shape the country’s politics as
slavery gradually fractured the nation.
The Compromise saved the Union from collapse, but it did so
at a great cost. The gulf between North and South over slavery widened with the
strengthened Fugitive Slave Law that was part of the complex Compromise. In
America’s Great Debate Fergus Bordewich takes us back to a time when compromise
was imperative, when men swayed one another in Congress with
the power of their ideas and their rhetoric, when partisans on each side
reached across the aisle to preserve the Union from tragedy.
About the Author
Fergus M. Bordewich is the author of several books,
among them Washington: The Making of the American Capital and Bound
for Canaan, a national history of the Underground Railroad. As a journalist
he has written widely on political and cultural subjects in Europe, the Middle
East, and East Asia. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The
Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian, American Heritage, The Atlantic, and many
other publications. He lives in Washington, D.C.
ISBN 978-1439124604, Simon & Schuster, © 2012,
Hardcover, 496 pages, Photographs & Illustrations, End Notes, Bibliography
& Index. $30.00
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