THOMAS HART BENTON

Stars Brian Keith. Set in 1850, this episode dramatizes the Missouri senator’s fight against a bill that would admit California into the Union as a slave state. Although a slaveholder himself, Benton opposes the expansion of slavery into the West, fearing that it would split the country. Among the issues raised are Congress’s right to legislate slavery, sectional antagonism vs. preservation of the Union, and the responsibility of politicians to represent their constituency.