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Ordeal of the Union #2
Ordeal of the Union, Vol 2: A House Dividing, 1852-57
From 1852 to 1857 the American people lived through one crisis after another. Tension was steadily increasing over the issue of slavery. Senator Stephen A Douglas forced through the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. Since this meant the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, Douglas invoked the doctrine of "popular sovereignty" to silence the outcry over the expansion of slavery implicit in this move. Although politics dominates this volume, Allan Nevins has not overlooked the development of our agriculture, our industry, and our railroads; he also reveals the condition of our labor force and of immigration. In other words, this is the most complete picture to date of America in the years from 1852 to 1857.
598 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1947
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About the author
Allan Nevins
489 books26 followersAllan Nevins was an American historian and journalist, renowned for his extensive work on the history of the Civil War and his biographies of such figures as President Grover Cleveland, Hamilton Fish, Henry Ford, and John D. Rockefeller.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 27, 2022
I had some reservations about the first volume in Allan Nevins's Ordeal of the Union, but I have none about this second volume. It is outstanding from beginning to end. The book begins with the election of Franklin Pierce as President, and essentially covers his term in office. The centerpiece of this volume is the controversy over Nebraska and Kansas. Should these newly-opened territories allow slavery or not? The solution, advocated by Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas, and approved by President Pierce, was "popular sovereignty." In the most rosy-eyed interpretation, this allowed the settlers themselves to decide on the laws of the territories. In practice, however, this meant the end of the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Though more settlers arrived from northern states, militant slaveholders from Missouri invaded the area whenever it was time to vote. This led to the crisis of "Bleeding Kansas," arguably the first fighting of the Civil War years before it officially began.
Nevins shows us how the politicians of the era maneuvered and connived, creating and reacting to turbulent events. He also delves into economic and cultural developments of the period. The reader gets fully immersed in the history 0f the period. I had known that Franklin Pierce was considered a poor president, but now I understand why. He tried to please all members of his Democratic Party, from firebrand advocates of slavery to the more moderate wing. In the end, the most militant men usually got their way.
I look forward to the remaining volumes in this series. I only wish Nevins had lived to complete his plan with two more volumes on the Reconstruction period. And then I wish he had gone back to the earlier nineteenth century to delve into the creation of the Missouri Compromise. And then the Revolutionary period. And then the colonial period. And then...
Nevins shows us how the politicians of the era maneuvered and connived, creating and reacting to turbulent events. He also delves into economic and cultural developments of the period. The reader gets fully immersed in the history 0f the period. I had known that Franklin Pierce was considered a poor president, but now I understand why. He tried to please all members of his Democratic Party, from firebrand advocates of slavery to the more moderate wing. In the end, the most militant men usually got their way.
I look forward to the remaining volumes in this series. I only wish Nevins had lived to complete his plan with two more volumes on the Reconstruction period. And then I wish he had gone back to the earlier nineteenth century to delve into the creation of the Missouri Compromise. And then the Revolutionary period. And then the colonial period. And then...
January 13, 2023
At the end of Volume I of Allan Nevins' 8-volume history on the Civil War era, we were already starting to see the cracks show in the short-lived peacefulness after the passage of the Compromise of 1850. Contrary to what Nevins seems to believe, slavery was an unavoidable issue that was not going to be solved by compromise. Volume II covers the bending and eventual break of whatever goodwill was left-over from 1850 while discussing the Franklin Pierce administration and the main domestic issue of the mid-1850s, the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
With Henry Clay and Daniel Webster both dying within the first 100 pages of this volume, the men who worked so hard to pass the Compromise of 1850 don't live to see how many concessions they had given to the South in exchange for very little going the North's way. To add fuel to the fire, Pierce, a Southerner in a Northerner's body, lucks his way into winning the Democratic nomination in 1852, and a Whig party that is quickly spiraling out of control counters by nominating a faceless, elderly general in Winfield Scott, who is roundly defeated. Although Pierce is genial and well-liked, Nevins' depiction of him is negative, as a man who lacked true principles and simply went at the will of his cabinet (which included future Confederate President Jefferson Davis) while also catering to the wants of his Southern allies at every step. This came to a head during the crisis in Kansas.
The strengthening of the Fugitive Slave Act had already flared up Northern tensions, but the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act ended any facade of friendliness between the two sections. The Act attempted to establish territorial governments for Kansas and Nebraska, while in the process nullifying the Missouri Compromise's ban on slavery north of the 36'30" parallel at the insistence of Senator Stephen A. Douglas. Douglas, who saw slavery purely from an economic standpoint, insisted that it should be up to the settlers of the territory to decide whether or not to allow slavery, and for whatever variety of reasons (in my view: he mainly wanted a signature legislative accomplishment ahead of the 1856 election) failed to predict the extremely obvious tensions that were to rise once the act pushed through Congress. After the act was passed, various illegitimate territorial governments went into effect in Kansas, and fights over the future of slavery in the territory quickly turned deadly.
Nevins provides copious evidence that it was, in fact, almost entirely the fault of pro-slavery Missourians and their allies that poured into Kansas and commenced violence and madness amongst anti-slavery men that had settled in the territory. From well-known events like the sacking of Lawrence to numerous smaller anecdotes about men attacked and newspapers burned by followers of David Atchison, it is clear as day that the violence in Kansas was begun by pro-slavery men. John Brown's unfortunate and unnecessary slaughter of pro-slavery men in 1856 was brutal and inexcusable, but Nevins is correct in asserting that it has distorted the historical view of which side was the aggressor in the Kansas crisis. Pierce, who had already angered Northerners early in his terms by capitulating to Southern demands and vetoing bills on internal improvements, took the side of Atchison and the border ruffians, calling the anti-slavery men the aggressors, which only further enraged the North.
One of the saddest notes to this whole crisis, as Nevins neatly points out, is that most settlers of the Kansas area were not immigrants with a dog in the fight - they were simply farmers who were anti-slavery in principle because of the (racist) idea that it hurt white free labor. Penetrating chapters in the middle of this volume on agriculture and industry help support the evidence that the 1850s were truly a period of economic boom for the north, and certainly could have been for the South if they were not stuck in their ways about sticking to a clearly failing economic system in slavery. Kansas may have very well pushed forward the agricultural economy in numerous ways given its fertile lands and wide prairies, but the violence of pro-slavery men (many of whom, as Nevins details, were skeptical on slavery prospects in Kansas!) rendered that impossible.
As with the first volume, given the length of this series Nevins is given plenty of space to dive deep into other topics outside of the political realm. Beyond the fascinating chapter on agriculture, we also learn about the production of railroads and other forms on transport throughout the decade, as well as the origins of immigration in the 50s and the quickly dividing cultural gap between the North and the South. Another chapter covers foreign affairs of the period, which was largely attempts by Southerners to extend slave area by capturing Cuba and Central America. As much as William Marcy, the calming New Yorker Secretary of State in the Pierce administration, tried, all of these attempts ended in bumbling disaster that led to both no increase in slave area and further anger from the North (the Ostend Manifesto, one of James Buchanan's few notable appearances in this volume, is covered in-depth). At times this volume, given its breadth, can get excessively detailed, but these times are few and far between.
The main issue I had with Volume I was Nevins' antiquated views on slavery and African-Americans. Luckily in this volume he avoids those pitfalls by mostly avoiding the slaves' role in the conflict at all. Given the time this book was written, his inability to consider them in the equation is understandable, but if he had been more enlightened perhaps it would have made an already fascinating book even more interesting. His conclusion that the ineptitude of the Pierce administration harmed the sectional compromise has some merit to it, but I still find it hard to believe, given the evidence that Nevins provides, that *any* president could have successfully avoided the Civil War. Onto Volume III!
With Henry Clay and Daniel Webster both dying within the first 100 pages of this volume, the men who worked so hard to pass the Compromise of 1850 don't live to see how many concessions they had given to the South in exchange for very little going the North's way. To add fuel to the fire, Pierce, a Southerner in a Northerner's body, lucks his way into winning the Democratic nomination in 1852, and a Whig party that is quickly spiraling out of control counters by nominating a faceless, elderly general in Winfield Scott, who is roundly defeated. Although Pierce is genial and well-liked, Nevins' depiction of him is negative, as a man who lacked true principles and simply went at the will of his cabinet (which included future Confederate President Jefferson Davis) while also catering to the wants of his Southern allies at every step. This came to a head during the crisis in Kansas.
The strengthening of the Fugitive Slave Act had already flared up Northern tensions, but the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act ended any facade of friendliness between the two sections. The Act attempted to establish territorial governments for Kansas and Nebraska, while in the process nullifying the Missouri Compromise's ban on slavery north of the 36'30" parallel at the insistence of Senator Stephen A. Douglas. Douglas, who saw slavery purely from an economic standpoint, insisted that it should be up to the settlers of the territory to decide whether or not to allow slavery, and for whatever variety of reasons (in my view: he mainly wanted a signature legislative accomplishment ahead of the 1856 election) failed to predict the extremely obvious tensions that were to rise once the act pushed through Congress. After the act was passed, various illegitimate territorial governments went into effect in Kansas, and fights over the future of slavery in the territory quickly turned deadly.
Nevins provides copious evidence that it was, in fact, almost entirely the fault of pro-slavery Missourians and their allies that poured into Kansas and commenced violence and madness amongst anti-slavery men that had settled in the territory. From well-known events like the sacking of Lawrence to numerous smaller anecdotes about men attacked and newspapers burned by followers of David Atchison, it is clear as day that the violence in Kansas was begun by pro-slavery men. John Brown's unfortunate and unnecessary slaughter of pro-slavery men in 1856 was brutal and inexcusable, but Nevins is correct in asserting that it has distorted the historical view of which side was the aggressor in the Kansas crisis. Pierce, who had already angered Northerners early in his terms by capitulating to Southern demands and vetoing bills on internal improvements, took the side of Atchison and the border ruffians, calling the anti-slavery men the aggressors, which only further enraged the North.
One of the saddest notes to this whole crisis, as Nevins neatly points out, is that most settlers of the Kansas area were not immigrants with a dog in the fight - they were simply farmers who were anti-slavery in principle because of the (racist) idea that it hurt white free labor. Penetrating chapters in the middle of this volume on agriculture and industry help support the evidence that the 1850s were truly a period of economic boom for the north, and certainly could have been for the South if they were not stuck in their ways about sticking to a clearly failing economic system in slavery. Kansas may have very well pushed forward the agricultural economy in numerous ways given its fertile lands and wide prairies, but the violence of pro-slavery men (many of whom, as Nevins details, were skeptical on slavery prospects in Kansas!) rendered that impossible.
As with the first volume, given the length of this series Nevins is given plenty of space to dive deep into other topics outside of the political realm. Beyond the fascinating chapter on agriculture, we also learn about the production of railroads and other forms on transport throughout the decade, as well as the origins of immigration in the 50s and the quickly dividing cultural gap between the North and the South. Another chapter covers foreign affairs of the period, which was largely attempts by Southerners to extend slave area by capturing Cuba and Central America. As much as William Marcy, the calming New Yorker Secretary of State in the Pierce administration, tried, all of these attempts ended in bumbling disaster that led to both no increase in slave area and further anger from the North (the Ostend Manifesto, one of James Buchanan's few notable appearances in this volume, is covered in-depth). At times this volume, given its breadth, can get excessively detailed, but these times are few and far between.
The main issue I had with Volume I was Nevins' antiquated views on slavery and African-Americans. Luckily in this volume he avoids those pitfalls by mostly avoiding the slaves' role in the conflict at all. Given the time this book was written, his inability to consider them in the equation is understandable, but if he had been more enlightened perhaps it would have made an already fascinating book even more interesting. His conclusion that the ineptitude of the Pierce administration harmed the sectional compromise has some merit to it, but I still find it hard to believe, given the evidence that Nevins provides, that *any* president could have successfully avoided the Civil War. Onto Volume III!
February 2, 2019
The second volume in Allan Nevins’ series on the Civil War covers the timeframe of 1852-1857. It discusses how a relatively weak President Pierce essentially did the bidding of the slave states. This weakness, as well as the proposal to allow Kansas to self-determine whether it would be free or slave, shattered the short-lived peace from the Compromise of 1850. In the mid-1850’s, the division between North and South rapidly widened.
June 10, 2025
Compromise in politics is not clean, nobody gets a 100% of what they want but to get some what they do and to keep peace they’re willing to endure something they dislike, but when one side decides to betray the other…hell hath no fury. Ordeal of the Union, Volume Two: A House Dividing, 1852-1857 is the second of Allan Nevins’ eight volume series on the lead to and history of the American Civil War with the focus on how a compromise to keep the peace was undermined by one of its architects and how all concerned reacted.
Nevins begins the volume by introducing the factor that he believed upset the hard fought and crafted Compromise of 1850 between North and South, Franklin Pierce. A dark horse candidate for the Democratic nomination in 1852 that benefited from being seen as the candidate that supported “the Compromise” only to show his fickleness and weakness by appointing those on either side of the anti-Compromise North and South into his administration thus sowing the seeds of discord. With a weak President potentially causing a rift in the party along with various economic factors at stake, Stephen Douglas brought further the Kansas-Nebraska Bill which shattered the Compromise he helped pass, destroy the Whig Party while dividing the Democratic and bringing furth the Republicans, and causing bloodshed on the plains of Kansas. Nevins shows how a weak man, another in a line of such men to occupy the White House, allowed the nation to literally begin killing over the future of slavery in the nation just a few years after it appeared everyone had peacefully agreed on a ‘final’ settlement. But while the domestic situation was tearing a part, internationally the United States looked incompetent as its ambassadors in Europe made fools of themselves while private citizens waged wars of conquest in various Latin American nations. Over the course of one Presidential term, the nation went from peaceful to threatening to tear itself apart when the election of 1856 saw the nation decide upon the one candidate that looked like he would bring peace and unity back to the nation, James Buchanan, surely things would be looking up.
Ordeal of the Union, Volume Two reveals how the United States unraveled so quickly towards civil war thanks to the poor judgment of one individual compounded by another. Allan Nevins explores not only the political, but the economic and cultural situations in both North and South which revealed shows the two halves of the nation apparently becoming two, as if a clash was becoming unavoidable.
Nevins begins the volume by introducing the factor that he believed upset the hard fought and crafted Compromise of 1850 between North and South, Franklin Pierce. A dark horse candidate for the Democratic nomination in 1852 that benefited from being seen as the candidate that supported “the Compromise” only to show his fickleness and weakness by appointing those on either side of the anti-Compromise North and South into his administration thus sowing the seeds of discord. With a weak President potentially causing a rift in the party along with various economic factors at stake, Stephen Douglas brought further the Kansas-Nebraska Bill which shattered the Compromise he helped pass, destroy the Whig Party while dividing the Democratic and bringing furth the Republicans, and causing bloodshed on the plains of Kansas. Nevins shows how a weak man, another in a line of such men to occupy the White House, allowed the nation to literally begin killing over the future of slavery in the nation just a few years after it appeared everyone had peacefully agreed on a ‘final’ settlement. But while the domestic situation was tearing a part, internationally the United States looked incompetent as its ambassadors in Europe made fools of themselves while private citizens waged wars of conquest in various Latin American nations. Over the course of one Presidential term, the nation went from peaceful to threatening to tear itself apart when the election of 1856 saw the nation decide upon the one candidate that looked like he would bring peace and unity back to the nation, James Buchanan, surely things would be looking up.
Ordeal of the Union, Volume Two reveals how the United States unraveled so quickly towards civil war thanks to the poor judgment of one individual compounded by another. Allan Nevins explores not only the political, but the economic and cultural situations in both North and South which revealed shows the two halves of the nation apparently becoming two, as if a clash was becoming unavoidable.
September 3, 2022
Takes the reader to the 1856 election of Buchanan. As the title indicates, this is a history of the nation leading up to the civil war. Several chapters are rather dry and can be endured only through curiosity of the subject. Development of agriculture, transportation, industry and immigration are consecutive chapters in the middle of this volume. In every case, Nevins points out how slavery was the reason the South came up short in each category. I, for one, love the detail and obscure topics Nevins brings to his work
July 17, 2022
Arguably still the best read about the presidency of Franklin Pierce. In the span of 550+ pages Mr. Nevins provides not only a detailed account of the tumultuous years of Kansas-Nebraska controversy but also gives the story a valuable context devoting several chapters to the economics, agriculture and industry of a slowly dividing America...
October 17, 2021
Extremely detailed, covering more than I really wanted to know about the time period. But most of it was interesting.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews