Includes bibliographical references (p. [341]-376) and index.
Contents
A new year and a fresh start -- Politics and the social milieu -- James Buchanan : President-elect -- The President, the Chief Justice, and a slave named Scott -- The heart of the matter : slavery and sectionalism -- Popular sovereignty, Kansas style -- Dog days -- Flush times and an autumn panic -- Northern politics : the parties in equipoise -- Politics as farce : the Lecompton Constitution -- Politics as tragedy : Buchanan's decision -- 1858 : the fruits of Lecompton.
Summary
It was a year packed with unsettling events. The Panic of 1857 closed every bank in New York City, ruined thousands of businesses, and caused widespread unemployment among industrial workers. The Mormons in Utah Territory threatened rebellion when federal troops approached with a non-Morman governor to replace Brigham Young. The Supreme Court outraged northernRepublicans and abolitionists with the Dred Scott decision ("a breathtaking example of judicial activism"). etc.
United States. 36th Congress, 1st sess. House. Rept. 648
Notes
Famous investigation headed by Rep. John Covode, of Pennsylvania, into President James Buchanan's actions leading to the secession of the South and the start of the Civil War.
Label attached to t.-p.: This volume, subsequently expanded by the results of further research, was a dissertation submitted to the Graduate board of Clark university ... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of doctor of philosophy ... [1926]