Party Like It's 1850: Compromise, Revelry, and Hangovers
Find out why Congress got drunk in 1850–and why the Compromise of 1850 left Congress and the nation with a nasty hangover.
Intro Music: "Between Your Eyes" by P-01
Image Source: The United States Senate, A.D. 1850, by Peter F. Rothermel (Public Domain) [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_United_States_Senate,_A.D._1850,_by_Peter_F._Rothermel_(crop2).jpg]
Bibliography:
Benton, ThomasHart. “Against the Compromise of 1850,” Speech, Senate Floor, June 10, 1850.From Byrd, Robert C. The Senate,1789-1989: Classic Speeches, 1830-1993 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1994.).https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/BentonSpeech1850.pdf.
“Bitter Feelings in the Senate Chamber, April 3, 1850,” U.S. Senate: Historical Highlights, https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Bitter_Feelings_In_the_Senate_Chamber.htm. (accessed April 1, 2025).
Clay, Edward Williams. "Scene in Uncle Sam's Senate. 17th April 1850," Print, Washington D.C., Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Cartoon Prints, American Collection, https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661528/ (accessed April 1, 2025).
Conference committee report on the Missouri Compromise, March 1, 1820; Joint Committee of Conference on the Missouri Bill, 03/01/1820-03/06/1820; Record Group 128l; Records of Joint Committees of Congress, 1789-1989; National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/missouri compromise (accessed April 1, 2025).
Fitzhugh, George. 1854. “Slavery Justified,” in Sociology for the South, or the Failure of Free Society. Documenting the American South. University Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1998. https://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/fitzhughsoc/fitzhugh.html.
Garrison, William Lloyd. “To the Public,” The Liberator, January 1, 1831.
Guelzo, Allen C. Fateful Lightning: A New History of the Civil War and Reconstruction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Hamilton, Holman. “`The Cave of the Winds’ and the Compromise of 1850.” The Journal of Southern History 23, no. 3 (1957): 331–53. https://doi.org/10.2307/2954884. (accessed April 1, 2025).
Moss, David and Campasano, Marc. (2017). “A Nation Divided: The United States and the Challenge of Secession”. HBS No. 9-716-048. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.
Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States North West of the River Ohio; 7/13/1787; Miscellaneous Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774 - 1789; Records of the Continental and Confederation Congresses and the Constitutional Convention, Record Group 360; National Archives Building, Washington, DC. https://www.archives.gov/milestone documents/northwest-ordinance. (accessed April 1, 2025)
“Struggles Over Slavery: The ‘Gag’ Rule,” Treasures of Congress, 10, National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/treasures_of_congress/text/page10_text.h tml (accessed April 1, 2025).
Thoreau, Henry David. “Resistance to Civil Government,” (1849; Project Gutenberg, 1993), https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/71/pg71 images.html.
