Chapter 17: Death of the Congressional giants

The so-called Great Triumphrate now vanish from the scene. First to go in 1850 is South Carolina’s John C. Calhoun who dies of tuberculosis at sixty-eight. He calls slavery “a positive good,” preaches that the North is determined to ruin the South, and leads the drive for States’ Rights and secession.

Henry Clay departs from DC after four decades of service and dies in 1852 of tuberculosis at age seventy-five. Noone will be left to fill his role as the Great Compromiser.

“Black Dan” Webster passes four months after Clay, while still serving his second term as Secretary of State. He is seventy years old and back on his estate in Massachusetts, suffering from cirrhosis of the liver.