ABSTRACT
The Senate Select Committee chaired by Senator Felix Grundy of Tennessee in January 1838 was comprised of some of the most powerful men in the Senate. Three had been or would soon be candidates for President or Vice President of the Republic—Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, and Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. These three were joined by some lesser known senators including Garret Wall of New Jersey; Thomas Clayton, former Chief Justice of Delaware; and Robert John Walker from Mississippi who would later be elected governor of the new state of Kansas. For all these senators, December 1837 and January 1838 was a critical time in national politics:
there was still the national recovery to create after the banking panic of 1837, and Congress was reconsidering the entire banking system, the relationship of the Treasury and banks, and the national currency [ 1 , Chapters 3–5];
there was a revolt in British Canada called the Patriot War, and, in the confusion, an American steamship, the Caroline (see Figure 3), was commandeered, burned, and sent plunging over Niagara Falls [ 1 , Chapter 8];
there was fighting continuing in Florida under the leadership of Gen. Zachary Taylor in the long war with Osceola’s Seminoles [ 1 , Chapter 8; 2 , p. 260] and volunteer troops from Senator Benton’s home district were being dispatched to fight [ 3 , p. 288];
and, most important of all, the problem of slavery had seized the focus of many in Congress as new territories in the west such as Texas sought admission into the United States or appeared soon to seek admission. In this bitter quarrel a month earlier, an abolitionist had been lynched, and, in the national reaction, Senator Benjamin Swift from Vermont rose in the Senate to suggest prohibiting further annexations as well as abolishing slavery in the areas already in the Union, e.g., the District of Columbia. Senator Calhoun of South Carolina counterattacked in a series of blistering, lengthy speeches defending slavery and keeping the Senate in debate through the holidays until January 13, 1838 [ 1 ,p. 103].
Steamer <italic>Caroline</italic> plunging over Niagara Falls, December 1837. (Reprinted with permission from the Canadian Heritage Gallery.) https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315224633/610b66b7-61a5-4713-a9bd-0236d88d19da/content/fig3.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>