Early this summer I went to a Cape Cod bookstore in search of a good summer read. I walked out with a history book called "America's Great Debate," written by Fergus M. Bordewich. It tells the compelling story of the debates in Congress that led up to the Civil War, including whether slavery should be permitted to spread to the western territories as they were being considered for statehood. The book, which I highly recommend, serves as a stirring reminder that the divisions we see in our country today are not unusual. Rather, America has always faced political division, and once was carried by it to the extreme consequence of a war between the states. I have not finished the book, but am in a chapter describing how Southerners in Congress were beginning to call for secession in 1850 as Northerners wanted to admit California as a state under laws that would outlaw slavery within its borders. As the calls for secession became louder, Daniel Webster gave a rousing sp
Meditations on Law and Life