Prologue to Conflict: The Crisis and Compromise of 1850

by Holman Hamilton

The crisis facing the United States in 1850 was a dramatic prologue to the conflict that came a decade later. The rapid opening of western lands demanded the speedy establishment of local civil administration for these vast regions. Outraged partisans, however, cried of Southerners saw a threat to the precarious sectional balance, and Northerners feared an extension of slavery. In this definitive study, Holman Hamilton analyzes the complex events of the anxious months from December, 1849, when the Senate debates began, until September, 1850, when Congress passed the measures.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

Reviews

[Jay H. Hahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the end of the 1840’s the United States was fascinated with two events: The 49’er Gold Rush and the possible violent consequence of a nation half slave state/ half free. The conflict was not on the main issue itself, but on an omnibus selection of related grievances, extension of slavery into the lands seized in the Mexican War being but one of them. This time, the likely flashpoint wasn’t in the South itself, but far to the west in a broad swath of land claimed by both Texas and the New Mexico Territory. In this book, author Holman Hamilton walks us through how Congressional leaders faced these issues using the Constitutional tools they had to keep the nation at peace.
The book is a solid piece of research, but it is no casual read. It best serves those with a taste for political science, heavily flavored with American Constitutional Government. Its primary focus is the men of Congress, both Houses, and their interactions within the Capitol as well as the inns and taverns, the salons and rooming houses that surround it. These men were diverse yet bound to dogmas, parties, wings, and sectionalism. Many also enjoyed a fair share of ego and many had a firm belief in the American experiment and their roles as the stewards of that experiment.
How they are influenced by forces outside of Washington – and how some hoped to shape those forces – gives us a snapshot of the country ten years before the more familiar pictures we have of the United States on the eve of the Civil War. Attitudes may seem surprising, of just who was calling for peace, who wanted the abolitionists to just shut up, Southerners devotedly attempting to avoid any secession, and the vast number of Northerners who didn’t care if the South stayed or left, as long as it didn’t interfered with business.
The agreed alternative to warfare was what these legislators brought about: the bundle of bills collectively known as the Compromise of 1850. While, as Hamilton points out, the Compromise often failed on the specifics (or was of no consequence), it was a classic example of the use of influence and of pragmatic negotiation in the service of democracy in crisis. And, as many of the great compromises in our history, it was decided not with a broad coalition, but by a mere handful of votes.
The Compromise years moved on to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, ‘Bloody Kansas,’ Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the popular ideas about the Second Fugitive Slave Law, and Dred Scott v. Sandford. Hamilton wisely limits his analysis to his subject and doesn’t speculate on these later developments, but speculation isn’t necessary. Hotheads wanted to shoot somebody in 1849; By 1861, entire armies wanted to shoot, and they knew the South would bear the brunt of the coming savagery.

[Jon Price · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic interpretation of the Compromise of 1850. Though a bit dated, it really makes you think about the politics before the Civil War.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful book for providing details on the Compromise of 1850.