How bitter infighting over the expansion of slavery in western
territories almost destroyed the fragile United States.
From the early days of the republic, American leaders knew that an
unpredictable time bomb--the question of slavery--lay at the heart of
national politics. An implicit understanding between North and South
helped to keep the issue at bay: northern states, where slavery had been
set on course for extinction via gradual emancipation, tacitly agreed to
respect the property rights of southern slaveholders; in return,
southerners essentially promised to view slaveholding as a practical
evil and look for ways to get rid of it. By 1819-1820, however, westward
expansion had brought the matter to a head. As Thomas Jefferson wrote at
the time, a nation dealing with the politically implacable issue of
slavery essentially held the "wolf" by the ears--and could neither let
go nor hang on forever.
In Wolf by the Ears, John R. Van Atta discusses how the sectional
conflict that led to the Civil War surfaced in the divisive fight over
Missouri statehood. The first organized Louisiana Purchase territory to
lie completely west of the Mississippi River and northwest of the Ohio,
Missouri carried special significance for both pro- and anti-slavery
advocates. Northern congressmen leaped out of their seats to object to
the proposed expansion of the slave "empire," while slave-state
politicians voiced outrage at the northerners' blatant sectional attack.
Although the Missouri confrontation ultimately appeared to end amicably
with a famous compromise that the wily Kentuckian Henry Clay helped to
cobble together, the passions it unleashed proved vicious, widespread,
and long lasting.
Van Atta deftly explains how the Missouri crisis revealed the power that
slavery had already gained over American nation building. He explores
the external social, cultural, and economic forces that gave the
confrontation such urgency around the country, as well as the beliefs,
assumptions, and fears that characterized both sides of the slavery
argument. Wolf by the Ears provides students in American history with
an ideal introduction to the Missouri crisis while at the same time
offering fresh insights for scholars of the early republic.
