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union and liberty. "Paradoxically," he concludes, "the compromise that was meant to tranquilize the nation and quiet antislavery agitation forever unintentionally but irrevocably lit the fires of liberty far and wide across the states of the North, awakening Americans to the thing that Stephen Douglas never cared about, that Henry Clay chose not to see, that Daniel Webster forgot: the moral dimension of slavery, and its corrup- tion of the entire body politic" (396). This is an important book not only for what it reveals about the Compromise of 1850 but also for the questions it raises about the nature of representative government and the role of compromise when issues seemirreconcilable. 1 Sanford Levinson, review of The Great Debate, by FergusM. Bordewich [online]; accessed 21May 2012; avail- able fromhttp://www.historybook- club.com/american-books/19th-centur y-books/americas-great-debate-by- fergus-m-bordewich-1074803673.html ~Reviewed by Donald R. Kennon GUY GUGLIOTTA Freedom's Cap: The United States Capitol and the Coming of the CivilWar (New York: Hill andWang, 2012), 496 pp., hardcover, $35.00; ebook, $16.99. IN HIS MOST RECENT BOOK, former Washington Post journalist Guy Gugliotta delivers a very thorough and well-researched account of the Capitol extension project that took place between 1851 and the mid- 1860s. Gugliotta uses narratives of the main players involved to weave this rich and interesting story, focusing mainly upon architect Thomas U. Walter, Jefferson Davis, and Capitol engineer and Army Captain Montgomery Meigs. All three men would play pivotal roles in getting the project started and seeing it through its many political and financial ups and downs until it was finally finished a decade later. The role of Jefferson Davis was, inmy estimation, themost intriguing of all. 1850 began one of the most divisive decades in our nation's history, culminating in the CivilWar, but it also marked the beginning of the proposals for improving and expanding the Capitol. With the size of the country growing substantially by the time 1850 rolled around, neither the House nor Senate 48 THE CAPITOL DOME chambers could adequately hold their members, and the whole building was in need of refurbishing as well as expansion. Davis was a senator from Mississippi, but he would soon be appointed Secretary of War under newly-elected President Franklin Pierce, a role that put him in charge of the Capitol extension; after Pierce left office, Davis returned once again for another term in the Senate. Throughout the entire period between 1850 and 1861, at which point the CivilWar broke out and he led the Confederacy as its president, Jefferson Davis was committed to the Capitol extension and believed fully in the project. There was a great irony to Davis's dedication to the expansion and beautification of the United States Capitol, a building that stands as the seat of the federal government and a symbol of equality and freedom for the world to see, while he was at the same time a staunch proponent of states' rights and slavery. This hypocrisy does not escape Gugliotta, and he spends a good deal of time examining how Davis wore his unionist hat when it came to the Capitol extension project and his states' rights hat for all other matters. Overall, Gugliotta has written an in-depth study of a story often bypassed when studying this period in American history, asmost focus on the events that were dividing the Congress and country rather than the events leading to the expansion of the Capitol itself. Even those familiar with all or even just some aspects of the story—the Statue of Freedom included—will find Gugliotta's telling of it entertaining, well-researched, and informative, presenting the story in a way not heard before—through the men and personalities who would shape it. ~Reviewed by Joanna Hallac SUMMER 2012