Thomas J. Rusk and the Compromise of 1850

Thomas J. Rusk and the Compromise of 1850

Author: Charles Neil Hoke

Publisher:

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13:

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"This project has as its purpose an exploration of the part played by the first United States Senator from Texas, Thomas J. Rusk, in securing for Texas and the nation the benefits received from the Compromise of 1850, including, most especially, the settlement of the Texas boundary dispute. The Compromise of 1850 had an enormous national significance; it temporarily calmed the sectional hostility between North and South over the issues of slavery and thus postponed the outbreak of a civil war for more than ten years. Rusk's actions and accomplishments are therefore discussed in relation to their impact on the national scene. The findings discussed herein will show that Rusk played a very prominent role in obtaining passage of the compromise legislation, a contribution almost completely overlooked in previous studies. Additionally, those findings indicate that Rusk induced from the United States a highly beneficial concession to the Texas territorial claims. Finally, the indications are clear that without a settlement of the Texas boundary dispute, a compromise of any sort was not likely to be achieved. The effort's focus is primarily limited to the events surrounding the transactions of the 1st Session of the 31st United States Congress (December, 1849 to September, 1850), especially those transpiring in the United States Senate."--Abstract, page vi


Prologue to Conflict

Prologue to Conflict

Author: Holman Hamilton

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2021-05-11

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 0813183081

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This account of the failed Compromise of 1850 a decade before the Civil War “has all the suspense of a novel . . . incisive and provocative” (The Journal of American History). In 1850, America was expanding rapidly westward as countless citizens went in search of land, opportunity—and, thanks to the gold rush in California, fortune. With settlements growing into towns and towns growing into cities, there was an urgent need for state and local government. But the simmering tension over slavery that existed between North and South would boil over as the effort to draw boundaries and establish civil administration proceeded. The slave states were concerned about the delicate balance of power tipping in the North’s favor, while the free states were wary about an expansion of slavery. The debate in the United States Senate lasted for months, and the nation waited anxiously for a resolution. This book tells the story of these events and analyzes their political complexities—and how they served as a dramatic prologue to the civil war that would erupt a decade later.


America's Great Debate

America's Great Debate

Author: Fergus M. Bordewich

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2013-04-16

Total Pages: 496

ISBN-13: 1439124612

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Chronicles the 1850s appeals of Western territories to join the Union as slave or free states, profiling period balances in the Senate, Henry Clay's attempts at compromise, and the border crisis between New Mexico and Texas.


The South and the Politics of Slavery, 1828–1856

The South and the Politics of Slavery, 1828–1856

Author: William J. Cooper, Jr.

Publisher: LSU Press

Published: 1980-06

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 0807142654

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Reporting on attitudes and reactions in each of the eleven states that were to form the Confederacy, William Cooper traces and analyzes the history of southern politics from the formation of the Democratic party in the late 1820s to the cessation of the Democratic-Whig struggle in the 1850s. He bases his study on extensive research of regional political manuscripts and newspapers.


Fronteras

Fronteras

Author: Jerry D. Thompson

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 1603444513

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Did this border caudillo fight to defend the rights, honor, and legal claims of the Mexicans of South Texas, as he claimed? Or was his a quest for personal vengeance against the newcomers who had married into his family, threatened his mother's land holdings, and insulted his honor?


The Man Who Punched Jefferson Davis

The Man Who Punched Jefferson Davis

Author: Ben Wynne

Publisher: LSU Press

Published: 2018-11-07

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 0807170143

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Regarded as one of the most vocal, well-traveled, and controversial statesmen of the nineteenth century, antebellum politician Henry Stuart Foote played a central role in a vast array of pivotal events. Despite Foote’s unique mark on history, until now no comprehensive biography existed. Ben Wynne fills this gap in his examination of the life of this gifted and volatile public figure in The Man Who Punched Jefferson Davis: The Political Life of Henry S. Foote, Southern Unionist. An eyewitness to many of the historical events of his lifetime, Foote, an opinionated native Virginian, helped to raise money for the Texas Revolution, provided political counsel for the Lone Star Republic’s leadership before annexation, and published a 400-page history of the region. In 1847, Mississippi elected him to the Senate, where he promoted cooperation with the North during the Compromise of 1850. One of the South’s most outspoken Unionists, he infuriated many of his southern colleagues with his explosive temperament and unorthodox ideas that quickly established him as a political outsider. His temper sometimes led to physical altercations, including at least five duels, pulling a gun on fellow senator Thomas Hart Benton during a legislative session, and engaging in run-ins with other politicians—notably a fistfight with his worst political enemy, Jefferson Davis. He left the Senate in 1851 to run for governor of Mississippi on a pro-Union platform and defeated Davis by a small margin. Several years later, Foote moved to Nashville, was elected to the Confederate Congress after Tennessee seceded, and continued his political sparring with the Confederate president. From Foote’s failed attempt to broker an unauthorized peace agreement with the Lincoln government and his exile to Europe to the publication of his personal memoir and his appointment as director of the United States mint in New Orleans, Wynne constructs an entertaining and nuanced portrait of a singular man who constantly challenged the conventions of southern and national politics.


Washington Brotherhood

Washington Brotherhood

Author: Rachel A. Shelden

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 146961085X

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Traditional portrayals of politicians in antebellum Washington, D.C., describe a violent and divisive society, full of angry debates and violent duels, a microcosm of the building animosity throughout the country. Yet, in Washington Brotherhood, Rachel Shelden paints a more nuanced portrait of Washington as a less fractious city with a vibrant social and cultural life. Politicians from different parties and sections of the country interacted in a variety of day-to-day activities outside traditional political spaces and came to know one another on a personal level. Shelden shows that this engagement by figures such as Stephen Douglas, John Crittenden, Abraham Lincoln, and Alexander Stephens had important consequences for how lawmakers dealt with the sectional disputes that bedeviled the country during the 1840s and 1850s--particularly disputes involving slavery in the territories. Shelden uses primary documents--from housing records to personal diaries--to reveal the ways in which this political sociability influenced how laws were made in the antebellum era. Ultimately, this Washington "bubble" explains why so many of these men were unprepared for secession and war when the winter of 1860-61 arrived.