indeed, in one instance there practically was when senator henry foote pulled a horse pistol on thomas hart benton on the floor of the senate and threatened to blow his head off. of course, i was talking to somebody about this not long ago who said, well, if you'd listen to thomas hart benton for ten months you'd might want to do the same thing. it was unkind. >> might i add that senator foote was also a bloviater. i think we're going to lose our president zachary taylor because on july 4th of 1850, foote is going to give the july 4th oration which will go on and on under a sun hotter than today and then the president will day of sunstroke. >> so the compromise itself -- so bear in mind this atmosphere of terrible crisis. you're familiar with the sense of the crisis of 1861. it was the same in 1850. people expected the country to break any time. and break not necessarily just into two parts. a southern confederacy and the remainder of the union. but perhaps into three or four, because once secession had begun, it would be established as a precedent. on the floor of congress, fearful congressmen an

calhoun, daniel webster, and thomas hart benton. now, clay tried to use the senate as a platform to pursue the presidency in 1832. not an easy thing to do, considering that only three men have ever succeeded in this task, going straight from the senate to the white house. clay ran against the incumbent, his arch rival andrew jackson. the kentuckian, however, profoundly misread the national climate, and old hickory thrashed him handily. despite his poor showing in the race, clay decided to remain in the senate where important work remained to be done. it had taken less than a decade for the wounds clay had sutured in the two missouri compromises to begin to reopen. once again the nation needed a deal to be brokered or face potential ruin. the issue this time involved the a tariff which emerged as a political flash point in the late 1820s. congress had increased the tariff in 1828 and again in 1832 and had highlighted once again the growing differences between north and south. the north wanted protection for its fledgling industries,