Section #1 - The Congressmen Who Built Then Broke The Union
Chapter 27: Congressional Profile: 1817-1827
While the author of the Talmadge Amendment is simply a one-term congressmen, others who start their political careers during the presidencies of Monroe and JQ Adams, become more lasting forces in Congress.
Two will compete for political domination in the new state of Missouri – Thomas Hart Benton and Edward Bates. Benton fights in the War of 1812 before beginning a five-term stint of 30 years in the Senate. He is a loyal Democrat, a slave-holder and a “hard money” advocate whose nickname is “Old Bullion.” Edward Bates also serves in the War of 1812 but loses a senate race to Benton in 1835, before becoming a Whig. He later lobbies to keep Missouri from seceding and joins Lincoln’s cabinet as Attorney General, where he eventually opposes the Emancipation Proclamation and falls out of favor.
South Carolina sends a pair of outspoken states’ rights advocates in the eloquent orator, Robert Hayne, and the rough and tumble George McDuffie, the latter becoming a leader of the “Nullifier” party in 1828 and then governor of his home state.
John J. Crittenden of Kentucky actually joins the senate at twenty-nine, one year short of the legal minimum set in the Constitution. He will serve there for 21 years and play a central role in trying to stave off the North-South schism over slavery and save the Union.
Sam Houston fights in the War of 1812 and then begins his amazing political career in 1823, winning a House seat from Tennessee before becoming its governor. In 1832 he migrates to the Mexican province of Tejas and helps create the Republic of Texas in 1836. Nine years later he begins a 13 year stint in the Senate as a dedicated Unionist.
John Bell joins the House in 1827 as a pro-Jackson Democrat from Tennessee and authors the Indian Removal Act of 1830. But Bell then splits with Jackson over closing the 2nd US Bank and refuses to support Jackson’s protégé, Van Buren, in the 1837 race.
The towering Massachusetts intellectual Edward Everett teaches at Harvard, enters the House in 1825 and becomes Governor of his state in 1836.
Silas Wright is a central figure in the “Albany Regency,” and proves intensely loyal to Van Buren.
