Daniel Webster

Daniel Webster (1782-1852), a notable orator and leading constitutional lawyer, was a major congressional spokesman for the Northern Whigs during his 20 years in the U.S. Senate.

Daniel Webster was born in Salisbury, N. H., on Jan. 18, 1782. After graduating from Dartmouth College, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1805. He opened a law office in Portsmouth, N. H., in 1807, where his success was immediate. He became a noted spokesman for the Federalist point of view through his addresses on patriotic occasions. In 1808 he married Grace Fletcher.

Early Years in Politics

Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1813, Webster revitalized the Federalist minority with his vigorous attacks on the war policy of the Republicans. Under his leadership the Federalists (with the help of dissident Republicans) often successfully obstructed war measures. After the War of 1812 he advocated the rechartering of the Bank of the United States, but he voted against the final bill, whose provisions he considered inadequate. As the representative of a region where shipping was basic to the economy, he voted against the protective tariff.

Webster's congressional career ended temporarily in 1816, when he moved to Boston. As a result of his success in pleading before the U.S. Supreme Court, his fame as a lawyer grew, and soon his annual income rose to $15, 000 a year. In 1819 he experienced a notable victory for the trustees of Dartmouth College, who were seeking to prevent the state from converting the college into a state-supported institution. Chief Justice John Marshall's opinion in the Dartmouth College case was not so much colored by Webster's emotion-charged argument as by Marshall's determination to take the opportunity to further bolster the contract clause. A few weeks later Webster secured an even greater triumph in defending the Bank of the United States in McCulloch v. Maryland. On this occasion Marshall drew from Webster's brief the doctrine that the power to tax is the power to destroy. In 1824 Webster was also successful on behalf of his clients in Gibbons v. Ogden.

When Webster returned to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1823, his speeches in behalf of the popular cause of the Greek revolution attracted national attention. President James Monroe, however, was able to prevent the passage of Webster's resolutions announcing American sympathy for the rebels. From 1825 to 1829 Webster was one of the staunchest backers of President John Quincy Adams, endorsing Federal internal improvements and supporting Adams in his conflict with Georgia over the removal of the Cherokee Indians.

The Senator

Upon his election to the Senate in 1827, Webster made the first about-face in his career when he became a proponent of the protective tariff. This shift reflected the growing importance of manufacturing in Massachusetts and his own close involvement with factory owners both as clients and as friends. It was largely due to his support that the "Tariff of Abominations" was passed in 1828. His first wife died shortly after he entered the Senate, and in 1829 he married Catherine Le Roy of New York.

In January 1830 Webster electrified the nation by his speeches in reply to the elaborate exposition of the Southern states'-rights doctrines made by John C. Calhoun's close friend Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina. In memorable phrases Webster exposed the weaknesses in Hayne's views and countered them with the argument that the Constitution and the Union rested upon the people and not upon the states. These speeches, delivered before crowded Senate galleries, defined the constitutional issues which agitated the nation until the Civil War.

Webster was at the height of his powers in 1830. Regarded by contemporaries as one of the greatest orators of the day, he delivered his speeches with tremendous dramatic impact. He modulated his voice, speaking at one moment in stentorian tones, the next in a whisper. Yet, in spite of his emotional style and the florid character of his oratory, he rarely sacrificed logic for effect. His striking appearance contributed to the forcefulness of his delivery: tall, rather gaunt, and always clad in black; his face was dominated by deep, luminous black eyes under craggy brows and a shock of black hair combed straight back. As he grew older, his figure remained erect, but his eyes seemed to be more cavernous and to burn with greater intensity.

In private Webster was less formidable. He was fond of convivial gatherings and was a lively talker, although at times given to silent moods. His taste for luxury often led him to live beyond his means. While his admirers worshiped the "Godlike Daniel, " his critics felt that his constant need for money deprived him of his independence. During the Panic of 1837, he was in such desperate circumstances as a result of excessive speculation in western lands that only loans from business friends saved him from ruin. Again, in 1844, when it seemed that financial pressure might force him to leave the Senate, he permitted his friends to raise a fund to provide him with a supplementary income.

Secretary of State

Although Webster was one of the leaders of the anti-Jackson forces which coalesced in the Whig party, he un-hesitatingly endorsed President Andrew Jackson's stand during the nullification crisis in 1832. In 1836 the Massachusetts Whigs named Webster as their presidential candidate, but in a field against other Whig candidates he polled only the electoral votes of Massachusetts. In recognition of his standing in the party and in gratitude for his support during the campaign, President William Henry Harrison appointed him secretary of state in 1841. He continued in this post under John Tyler, who succeeded to the presidency when Harrison died a month after the inauguration. Webster was the only Whig to remain in the Cabinet after Tyler refused to approve the party program formulated by Henry Clay. Webster stayed on in the hope of using Tyler's influence to build up a following which would ensure his nomination as Tyler's successor. He won general approval for his skill in settling the Maine-Canada dispute in the Webster-Ashburton Treaty in 1843. This dispute had been a major source of Anglo-American tension for nearly a decade. He also sent Caleb Cushing to the Orient to establish commercial relations with China, although he was no longer in office when Cushing concluded the agreement. Late in 1843 Webster, feeling that he no longer enjoyed Tyler's confidence, yielded to Whig pressure and retired from office.

In spite of his disappointment at not receiving the presidential nomination in 1844, Webster actively campaigned for Henry Clay, his archival within the party. On his return to the Senate in 1844, Webster opposed the annexation of Texas and denounced the expansionist policies that culminated in the war with Mexico. After the war he worked to exclude slavery from the newly acquired territories and voted for the Wilmot Proviso. Yet, when confronted by the crisis precipitated by California's application for admission to the Union as a free state in 1849, he dismayed his constituents by supporting Clay's compromise.

Although Northern businessmen, desiring domestic tranquility, approved Webster's speech of March 1850 in defense of the new Fugitive Slave Law, the average citizen was outraged. Webster again became secretary of state in July 1850, in Millard Fillmore's Cabinet. In 1852 he lost his last hope for the presidency when the Whigs passed over him in favor of Gen. Winfield Scott, a former Democrat. Deeply outraged, he refused to support the party candidate. He died just before the election on Oct. 24, 1852.

Further Reading

Until the modern edition of Webster's correspondence under the editorship of Charles M. Wiltse appears, the old, inadequate editions must be used: The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, edited by Fletcher Webster (2 vols., 1857), and The Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster, edited by J. W. Mclntyre (18 vols., 1903). The standard biography is Claude M. Fuess, Daniel Webster (2 vols., 1930). Richard N. Current, Daniel Webster and the Rise of National Conservatism (1955), is an excellent brief survey. Webster's important influence on American constitutional development is examined in Maurice G. Baxter, Daniel Webster and the Supreme Court (1966). □

WEBSTER, DANIEL

Daniel Webster was a nineteenth-century lawyer, representative, senator, secretary of state, and one of the great orators in U.S. history. A man of prodigious talent and great political ambition, Webster reversed himself on issues involving the economy and slavery in hopes of becoming president. As the greatest constitutional lawyer of his day, he helped shape the nationalist jurisprudence favored by Chief Justice john marshall.

Webster was born on January 18, 1782, in Salisbury, New Hampshire. He entered Dartmouth College when he was fifteen and graduated in 1801. He then studied law with an attorney in Boston before becoming a member of the New Hampshire bar in 1805. Webster moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1807 and quickly developed a legal association with the shipowners and merchants of the city. Webster became the spokesperson for the Portsmouth business community, who opposed the Jefferson administration's trade restrictions with Great Britain and France. His vehement denunciations of the trade embargo and the war of 1812 against Great Britain led to his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1812. He aligned himself with the pro-British federalist party and endorsed a strong national government.

"God grant liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it."
—Daniel Webster

Webster left Congress in 1817 and relocated to Boston where he emerged as an eminent attorney, specializing in constitutional law. His reputation increased when he became involved in three landmark cases. In the first, trustees of dartmouth college v. woodward, 17 U.S. (4 Wheat.) 518, 4 L. Ed. 629 (1819), Webster successfully defended his former college against the state of New Hampshire's attempt to disregard the corporate charter of the school and make it a public institution. The Court, with Chief Justice Marshall writing the opinion, ruled that a corporate charter was a contract that could not be impaired.

In that same year, Webster argued for the validity of the bank of the united states and against the right of a state to tax a federal institution in mcculloch v. maryland, 17 U.S. (4 Wheat.) 316, 4 L. Ed. 579. Again, Chief Justice Marshall agreed with Webster's nationalist philosophy, finding that the necessary and proper clause provided the basis for Congress's creation of a national bank and that "the government of the Union, though limited in its power, is supreme within its sphere of action."

Five years later, in gibbons v. ogden, 22 U.S. (9 Wheat.) 1, 6 L. Ed. 23 (1824), Webster argued against navigation monopolies granted by the state of New York to private individuals. Chief Justice Marshall and the Court sided with Webster, holding that the Constitution's commerce clause empowered Congress to regulate interstate commerce, establishing a precedent that had far-reaching effects in the economic expansion of the nineteenth century.

With these accomplishments to his credit, Webster returned to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1822, where he represented Massachusetts for the next five years. In the House he chaired the Judiciary Committee and opposed the 1824 tariff, believing that it would injure the merchant class. Following his election to the U.S. Senate in 1826, however, Webster made one of his famous reversals and embraced the need for a tariff. He endorsed the tariff of 1828.

Webster's skills as an orator were renowned. Oral arguments before the Supreme Court could last several days, requiring attorneys to have both mental and physical stamina. Webster excelled in oral argument but he was also famous for his public addresses. In 1826 he delivered addresses on the deaths of john adams and thomas jefferson. In 1830 he debated Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina, who favored a coalition between Western and Southern states to benefit both areas in tariffs and land prices. Webster opposed this sectionalism and denounced the doctrine of nullification, which upheld the right of a state to declare a federal law invalid within its boundaries. Webster's phrase "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!" came from the Hayne debate and helped cement his popularity in the North.

In 1836 Webster abandoned the Federalist Party and helped form the whig party, made up of groups opposed to President andrew jackson and the Democrats. He was considered for the Whig presidential nomination in 1836 but was defeated. In 1841 President william henry harrison appointed Webster secretary of state. When

Harrison died shortly after taking office, President john tyler asked Webster to remain at his post.

The Tyler administration was a troubled one, largely because Tyler was a Democrat with a cabinet of Whigs. His decision to reject a Whig measure establishing a new national bank caused a revolt in his cabinet, with most members resigning in protest. Webster alone remained to aid Tyler, motivated by the possibility of becoming his vice-presidential running mate in 1844. However, Tyler was not renominated. As secretary of state, Webster did negotiate the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, which established the boundary line for Maine.

Webster returned to the Senate in 1845, with his salary supplemented by a fund raised by Boston and New York businessmen. Critics charged that he had surrendered his political independence to manufacturing interests. As a senator he opposed the Mexican War and the acquisition of Texas. He opposed slavery but feared civil war. Because of this fear Webster supported the compromise of 1850. This act admitted California into the Union as a free state, gave the Utah and New Mexico territories the right to determine the slavery issue for themselves at the time of their admission to the Union, outlawed the slave trade in the District of Columbia, and gave the federal government the right to return fugitive slaves under the fugitive slave act (9 Stat. 462).

In 1850 President millard fillmore appointed Webster secretary of state. He used his influence to enforce the Compromise of 1850, especially the Fugitive Slave Act. Though the act was unpopular in the North, Webster sought to demonstrate to Southern politicians his determination to uphold the law. Aside from promoting national unity, Webster dreamed of a "Union" party that would help make him president in 1852. However, Webster died on October 24, 1852, at his farm in Marshfield, Massachusetts.

further readings

Remini, Robert V. 1997. Daniel Webster: The Man and His Time. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.

Waxman, Seth P. 2000. "In the Shadow of Daniel Webster." The Federal Lawyer 47 (November-December).

Webster, Daniel (1782–1852), lawyer, politician, orator, secretary of state.Born in Salisbury, New Hampshire, Webster graduated from Dartmouth College (1801), entered the bar in 1805, and practiced law in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Gaining national recognition for his argument before the U.S. Supreme Court in Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1818), he eventually argued more than 170 cases before the high court, including such landmarks as Gibbons v. Ogden (1824). He helped determine the nation's constitutional and economic direction by upholding property rights and the federal government's authority over interstate commerce.

A celebrated public speaker, he established the tradition of commemorative oratory in the United States. Active in the Federalist and later the Whig party, Webster served in Congress as a representative from New Hampshire (1813–1817) and Massachusetts (1823–1827) and then as senator from Massachusetts (1827–1841, 1845–1850). A conservative, he spoke for his business constituents. Like New England's merchants and shippers, he initially supported low tariffs and opposed the Embargo Act and the War of 1812 for disrupting trade. By the 1820s, however, as mills and factories arose in the region, he advocated high protective tariffs. In 1830 he engaged in a notable series of debates with the South Carolina senator Robert Y. Hayne, who, in opposition to the high tariff of 1828, championed states' rights and nullification. On the contrary, said Webster, the Constitution had created a perpetual union of one people: “Liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable!” In 1850, however, he outraged abolitionists by endorsing the Fugitive Slave Act as part of a sectional compromise.

Webster served two noteworthy terms as secretary of state (1841–1843 and 1850–1852). In 1842 he negotiated the Webster‐Ashburton Treaty, which improved relations with Great Britain. He fashioned U.S. policy toward Asia by formulating a statement of America's position toward Hawai'i (1842), inaugurating the first diplomatic mission to China (1843), and initiating Matthew C. Perry's 1851–1852 voyage to Japan.
See also Antislavery; Compromise of 1850; Dartmouth College Case; Factory System; Federal Government, Executive Branch: Department of State; Federal Government, Legislative Branch: Senate; Foreign Relations; Perry, Matthew and Oliver Hazard.

Bibliography

Maurice G. Baxter , One and Inseparable: Daniel Webster and the Union, 1984.
Kenneth E. Shewmaker, ed., Daniel Webster: “The Completest Man,” 1990.

Kenneth E. Shewmaker

Webster, Daniel (1782–1852) US statesman. A famous lawyer and orator, he defended the interests of New England in Congress, opposing the War of 1812. Although opposed to the extension of slavery, he engineered the Compromise of 1850, which solved the crisis over whether the new state of California should be slave-holding or free. He negotiated the Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842), fixing the boundary between Maine and Canada.