Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. 1 From Lincoln to Garfield, with a Review of the Events Which Led to the Political Revolution of 1860 — A Reader’s Guide

Committee Assignments as Political Map

Blaine devotes unusual attention to the allocation of Senate committee chairmanships in the 37th Congress. He lists eleven New England senators and their posts—Sumner on Foreign Relations, Fessenden on Finance, Wilson on Military Affairs, Hale on Naval Affairs—and observes that these four committees “shaped almost the entire legislation in time of war.” The author does not merely report; he interprets the imbalance as a source of lasting resentment. “Twenty-two States were represented in the Senate,” he writes, “and it was impossible to make sixteen of them … recognize the justice of placing the control of National legislation in the hands of six States in the far North-East.” This passage reveals Blaine’s method: using institutional detail to expose sectional friction. He adds that the retirement of Seward, Chase, and Cameron to the Cabinet increased New England’s share, a remark that underscores how personnel shifts could alter the balance of power.

The Rise and Drift of John C. Breckinridge

Blaine’s portrait of John C. Breckinridge exemplifies his technique of tracing a politician’s trajectory through personal connections and parliamentary context. He recounts how Henry Clay, in a warm public endorsement, seemed to “confer upon Breckinridge the leadership in Kentucky.” That moment helped Breckinridge win a congressional seat. But Blaine emphasizes that “by the irresistible drift of events he was carried into an association with extreme Southern men.” The phrasing is careful: Blaine does not accuse Breckinridge of deliberate radicalism but shows how institutional forces—the slavery debate, the Buchanan administration, the rivalry with Douglas—pulled him southward. He notes that Breckinridge was “not the equal of many Southern men who deferred to him as a leader,” attributing his precedence to “personal character, strong connections, well-tempered judgment, and especially a certain attractiveness of manner.” The sketch is both a character study and a lesson in political momentum.

The Oregon Boundary and the 54° 40′ Crisis

Blaine treats the Oregon boundary dispute as a case study in how domestic politics intersected with diplomacy. He references the slogan “54° 40′ or 49°” and describes the “critical relations with the British Government” that preceded the Treaty of 1846. The author, writing decades later, offers a retrospective judgment: “Character of the Adjustment” and “Our Probable Loss” appear as section headings in the table of contents, hinting at a critical assessment. Blaine’s narrative moves between the Senate floor and the White House, showing how President Polk’s administration balanced expansionist fervor against the risk of war with Britain. The episode illustrates Blaine’s broader argument that territorial questions—Oregon, Texas, the Mexican cession—continually forced the slavery issue back into national politics, each compromise or conflict shifting the ground beneath the parties.

The Missouri Compromises and the Abolitionist Stir

The opening chapter reviews the “Original Compromises between the North and the South embodied in the Constitution” and then traces the “Agitation of the Slavery Question in Connection with the Admission of Missouri.” Blaine identifies two Missouri Compromises—1820 and 1821—and links them to the “Origin and Development of the Abolition Party” and the “Struggle over the Right of Petition.” He does not linger on moral argument; instead, he maps the legislative mechanics. The Louisiana Purchase, he notes, was acquired by Jefferson despite Northern opposition, and the admission of Louisiana as a state provoked similar resistance. By framing these early disputes as precursors to 1860, Blaine establishes a chain of causation. His method is cumulative: each chapter adds another layer of congressional maneuvering, personal ambition, and sectional grievance, building toward the “political revolution” announced in the title.

Blaine’s volume rewards readers who attend to its structural choices: the emphasis on committee rosters, the tracing of individual careers, and the repeated return to territorial expansion as a driver of conflict. The author’s own role as a participant—he served in Congress during part of this period—gives the account a insider’s texture without descending into memoir. For those interested in the mechanics of antebellum politics rather than a simple chronology, this work offers a detailed, if partisan, map of the road to disunion.