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    America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union
    America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union
    America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union
    Audiobook17 hours

    America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union

    Written by Fergus M. Bordewich

    Narrated by Norman Dietz

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    About this audiobook

    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 this point, 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, and when partisans on each side reached across the aisle to preserve the Union from tragedy.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateSep 10, 2012
    ISBN9781452679426
    Author

    Fergus M. Bordewich

    Fergus M. Bordewich is the author of several books, among them America’s Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in history. His articles have appeared in many magazines and newspapers. He lives in San Francisco. Visit him at FergusBordewich.com.

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    Reviews for America's Great Debate

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      A thoroughly entertaining and sweeping portrait of the period, places, and personalities we've come to know in other works, the writer takes us from the llano, the gold fields, the plantations, and into the backrooms of the halls of power to lay bare the passions and gullibilities of characters struggling to avoid, and foment, the "irrepressible conflict"
    • 4/5
      I didn't care for the topic, but the writing is excellent so made it enjoyable anyway.
    • 4/5
      Book provides background to the Compromise of 1850 through insights to the significant players, Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Douglas, and Seward.