32 pages • 1 hour read
John F. KennedyProfiles in Courage
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1955A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2 Summary
Part 2 begins in 1850, in the weeks and months leading up to the Compromise of 1850. The central issue of the Compromise of 1850 is slavery, and its expansion into America's new Western Territories: Texas, New Mexico, Oregon, Minnesota, Utah, and Arizona. Although there wasn’t yet any federal law against slavery in the United States, the issue remained divisive. The dissolution of the Union by secession was an open question for both Northern abolitionists and Southern slaveholders. The Senate became a frequent battleground for this conflict.
In addition, conflicts of interests emerged between senators' regional interests and their obligation to the country as a whole. Part 2 centers on the efforts of three Senators—Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, Thomas Benton of Missouri, and Samuel Houston of Texas—who were forced to go against their parties and constituencies in order to support the Compromise and prevent secession. Although their efforts were ultimately a failure—both in permitting slavery to continue, and in preventing civil war—Kennedy argues that they nonetheless showed political courage in putting the integrity of the Union ahead of their own political careers. Daniel Webster was denounced by his New England constituents; the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson attacked his "profound selfishness" (73). Webster died destitute two years later, but confident in his choices. Benton was voted out of office in 1851, and then defeated in 1854 and 1856. Only Sam Houston, branded a traitor by his fellow Texans for opposing secession, and threatened with unrest and even assassination, lived to see the country consumed by civil war. When Texas voted for secession on February 23rd, 1861, Sam Houston refused to declare his allegiance to the Confederacy. In light of these men's collective failure to preserve the Union, it would seem that regionalism and division had triumphed.
Part 2 Analysis
Part 2 articulates and defends Kennedy's concept of political courage, remarking on the isolation faced by each of these senators. The underlying theme is that isolation provides the opportunity for moments of courage and character. In these moments, the stories illustrate, the national interest—in the case of the Compromise, national integrity itself—appears abstract and idealized, compared to the pressures and interests of real-life people. A frequent charge against the senators is that they are selfish and egotistical in choosing to honor their own oaths and principles before the wishers of their backers and colleagues. The argument is that the Senate is not strictly a representative body, but a legislative body that ought to operate not through the direct control of respective constituencies and interest groups, but principally by the conscience of individual senators. This implicit argument speaks to an idealistic vision of American democracy, one in which courage is the maintenance of one's conscience in the face of external pressures and influence. However, this idealism would seem to belie the reality of American political climate, which is as much characterized by regionalism and partisanship as any other political context. However, with Part 2, the political courage Kennedy aims to describe appears to be conscious of this baseline, and actively works against it.
