Profiles in Courage

Daniel Webster is another senator from Massachusetts. Renowned as a constitutional lawyer, orator, and statesman, by 1850 Daniel Webster is a prominent figure of the Whig party, and an anti-slavery figure. In 1850, the question of slavery has created a political crisis. Several states—free and slave-owning alike—plan to secede. In order stave off a breakup of the US, Webster is sought out by Henry Clay of Kentucky, in order to attempt to reach a compromise. While such a compromise would be against Webster's own fierce opposition to slavery, Webster nonetheless gives an impassioned call for compromise, which does great damage to his political career and reputation.

Thomas Hart Benton is a senator from Missouri. A fighter by nature, he is the unofficial "kingpin" of Missouri politics. However, in 1844, he begins to go against the secessionist machinations of his own Democratic Party. Although the senator of a slave state, Benton continues to promote compromise, along with measures that would dilute the power of slave states to threaten secession. Nearly assassinated by Mississippi Senator Henry Foote in 1850, he is voted out of office in 1851. Although he briefly returns to politics in 1854, he is already a pariah with the Democratic Party, and quickly loses his seat in the House of Representatives.

Sam Houston is the first senator of Texas, which was admitted to the Union after its victory in the Mexican-American war. Famous for his wild personal history and military exploits, he is enormously popular in Texas. A Democrat, Southerner, and slaveowner, Sam Houston is expected both by his Texan constituents and fellow party members to resist the Compromise of 1850 and push for the inclusion of more slave states in the Union. However, Houston opts to preserve the Union, ahead of these regional and partisan pressures, declaring that he will be guided not by "sectionalism, but by nationality" (105). While Texas ignores his protests against secession, Houston is nominated for the Texas governorship. He refuses.

Edmund G. Ross is a Kansas senator. Ross is, in Kennedy's words, an "obscure" Senator, yet one whose actions demonstrate political courage. A member of the Republican Party, he was counted on to support the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson, after Johnson refused to follow the more stringent elements of the Republican Party's agenda. However, disturbed by the highly-partisan conduct of President Johnson's trial, Ross stuns his senatorial colleagues and fellow Republicans by casting the deciding vote not to remove President Johnson from office. Ross does not sympathize with the president, yet the irregularities of the trial convince him to vote against Johnson’s impeachment. As a result, Ross immediately becomes, in his words, a "leper." He is abandoned by the Republican Party and faces personal and physical attacks in his home state.

Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar is a senator from Mississippi. He takes office in 1876. In 1874, while a member of Congress, he gives an impassioned eulogy of the late Senator Charles Sumner, who has died from long-standing injuries from an extraordinary 1856 assault on the Senate floor by a fellow congressman. At the time, the Senate is deeply divided over Reconstruction, and lingering bitterness over the Civil War. After the speech, Lamar goes from relative obscurity to political prominence. Four years later, Lamar is involved in another controversy, one with the potential to alienate his constituents. Lamar is scholarly and erudite; he believes that his role is not to follow his constituents, but his own judgment. In so doing, he loses a great deal of support from these constituents.

In 1910, George W. Norris is a Nebraska Republican in the House of Representatives. Stunning his colleagues, he amends House of Representative Rules to break his own party's stranglehold in that chamber. He soon becomes a senator, much to the dismay of Republican party diehards. He dresses simply, in a black suit, white shirt, and simple black tie. He is a stout defender of progressive ideals. As war looms in Europe, Senator Norris, a pacifist, defends Woodrow Wilson's attempts to keep America out of the war. He believes that "Big Business" (177) is pushing the nation to a fruitless conflict. However, Norris opposes Wilson's "armed neutrality," judging it to be subtle subversion of Congress's right to declare war. Senator Norris embarks on a filibuster to prevent the bill from taking law. For this, he is criticized as a traitor. Later, in 1928, he breaks with other progressive Republicans on the issue of Prohibition, supporting Al Smith for President, with both Smith and Norris losing. However, even in defeat, Norris does not question the value of the positions he has taken.