Daniel Webster

Daniel Webster 1782-1852, American statesman, lawyer, and orator, b. Salisbury (now in Franklin), N.H.

Early Career

He graduated (1801) from Dartmouth College, studied law, and, after an interval as a schoolmaster, was admitted (1805) to the bar. Webster practiced law at Boscawen and Portsmouth, N.H., and rapidly gravitated toward politics. As a Federalist and a defender of the New England shipping interests, he sat (1813-17) in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he opposed James Madison 's administration, although he did not join forces with members of the Hartford Convention .

In 1816 he transferred his residence to Boston. Before he was returned (1822) to the House, Webster won fame as a lawyer, defending (1819) his alma mater in the Dartmouth College Case and the Bank of the United States in McCulloch v. Maryland . Again in Congress (1823-27), Webster began to gain repute as one of the greatest orators of his time; his brilliant speeches in the House were matched by his eloquent public addresses—notably the Plymouth address (1820), the Bunker Hill oration (1825), and the speech (1826) on the deaths of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams .

Senator and Secretary of State

As a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (1827-41), he became a leading political figure of the United States. The dominant interest of his constituency had changed from shipping to industry, so Webster now abandoned his earlier free-trade views and supported the tariff of 1828. In the states' rights controversy that followed he took a strong pro-Union stand, defending the supremacy of the Union in the famous debate with Robert Y. Hayne in 1830. Although Webster supported President Jackson in the nullification crisis, he vehemently opposed him on most issues, especially those concerning financial policy.

Webster became a leader of the Whig party and in 1836 was put forward as a presidential candidate by the Whig groups in New England. However, he won only the electoral votes of Massachusetts. His prominence brought him into consideration in later presidential elections, but he never attained his ambition. After William Henry Harrison was elected (1840) President on the Whig ticket, Webster was appointed (1841) U.S. Secretary of State. Although every other cabinet officer resigned (1841) after John Tyler had succeeded to the presidency and had broken with the Whig leaders, Webster remained at his post until he had completed the settlement of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1843).

Again (1845-50) in the Senate, Webster opposed the annexation of Texas and war with Mexico and faced the rising tide of sectionalism with his customary stand: slavery was an evil, but disunion was a greater one. He steadily lost his following and was sorely disappointed when the Whig party nominated Zachary Taylor for President in 1848. Cherishing the preservation of the Union above his own popularity, Webster, in one of his most eloquent and reasoned speeches, backed the Compromise of 1850 and was reviled by antislavery groups in the North and by members of his own party. He served again (1850-52) as Secretary of State under President Millard Fillmore .

Bibliography

His writings were edited by J. W. McIntyre (18 vol., 1903). See biographies by G. T. Curtis (1869), C. M. Fuess (1930, repr. 1968), J. B. McMaster (1939), and R. N. Current (1955); N. D. Brown, Daniel Webster and the Politics of Availability (1969); R. F. Dalzell, Daniel Webster and the Trial of American Nationalism, 1843-1852 (1972); S. Nathans, Daniel Webster and Jacksonian Democracy (1973). The diary kept by his second wife, C. L. R. Webster, was published as Mr. W. & I (1942).

Webster, Daniel (b. Salisbury, N.H., 18 Jan. 1782; d. Marshfield, Mass., 24 Oct. 1852), lawyer and statesman. At fifteen, Daniel Webster left his family's farm to attend Dartmouth College; after graduation he taught school, read law, and was admitted to the bar. He practiced in New Hampshire from 1805 until 1816, when he moved to Boston and to greater professional opportunities.

Webster had a remarkable career in politics and law. He was a conservative nationalist and Federalist‐Whig, serving as congressman (1813–1817 from New Hampshire and 1823–1827 from Massachusetts), senator (1827–1841, 1845–1850), and secretary of state (1841–1843, 1850–1852). He espoused policies to encourage economic growth and to preserve the Union, but sectionalism and slavery undermined those objectives and denied him the presidency as well. As a lawyer, he drew upon his political experience, particularly on constitutional questions.

Webster made many eloquent arguments before the Supreme Court, where he argued 249 cases. In Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), he supported a broad congressional commerce power. In Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819), he defended his alma mater against state regulation by bringing corporate charters within the Constitution's Contract Clause (Article I, section 10). Frequently successful in the Marshall Court before 1835, he was less so in the Taney Court, as it shifted toward greater state power and less judicial protection of vested rights. In Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge (1837), Chief Justice Roger B. Taney rejected Webster's argument for an implied monopoly in a corporate charter.

Maurice Baxter

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