Profiles in Courage

Part 2 begins in 1850, in the weeks and months leading up to the Compromise of 1850. The central issue of the Compromise of 1850 is slavery, and its expansion into America's new Western Territories: Texas, New Mexico, Oregon, Minnesota, Utah, and Arizona. Although there wasn’t yet any federal law against slavery in the United States, the issue remained divisive. The dissolution of the Union by secession was an open question for both Northern abolitionists and Southern slaveholders. The Senate became a frequent battleground for this conflict. 

In addition, conflicts of interests emerged between senators' regional interests and their obligation to the country as a whole. Part 2 centers on the efforts of three Senators—Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, Thomas Benton of Missouri, and Samuel Houston of Texas—who were forced to go against their parties and constituencies in order to support the Compromise and prevent secession. Although their efforts were ultimately a failure—both in permitting slavery to continue, and in preventing civil war—Kennedy argues that they nonetheless showed political courage in putting the integrity of the Union ahead of their own political careers. Daniel Webster was denounced by his New England constituents; the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson attacked his "profound selfishness" (73).