Download or read book Prologue to Conflict written by Holman Hamilton and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2014-10-17 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The crisis facing the United States in 1850 was a dramatic prologue to the conflict that came a decade later. The rapid opening of western lands demanded the speedy establishment of local civil administration for these vast regions. Outraged partisans, however, cried of coercion: Southerners saw a threat to the precarious sectional balance, and Northerners feared an extension of slavery. In this definitive study, Holman Hamilton analyzes the complex events of the anxious months from December, 1849, when the Senate debates began, until September, 1850, when Congress passed the measures.