Read complete books and articles on: Daniel Webster

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

Early Career

Webster, Daniel - 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).

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12 of the Best Books and Articles on: Daniel Webster

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1.

Daniel Webster » Read Now
by Irving H. Bartlett. 338 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...DANIEL WEBSTER DANIEL WEBSTER Irving H. Bartlett W W NORTON COMPANY INC New...CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA Bartlett, Irving H. Daniel Webster. Includes...
2.

Life of Daniel Webster, Vol. I » Read Now
by George Ticknor Curtis. 596 pgs.

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3.

Life of Daniel Webster, Vol. II » Read Now
by George Ticknor Curtis. 740 pgs.

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...York, D. Appleton C LIFE OF DANIEL WEBSTER. BY GEORGE TICKNOR CURTIS...Death--Funeral, 566-705 LIFE OF DANIEL WEBSTER. CHAPTER XXV. 1838-1839...hay harvest. "Yours, adieu...
4.

To the Webster-Ashburton Treaty: A Study in Anglo-American Relations, 1783-1843 » Read Now
by Howard Jones. 254 pgs.

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5.

Daniel Webster's First Bunker Hill Oration » Read Now
by Daniel Webster. 48 pgs.

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...ECLECTIC ENGLISH CLASSICS DANIEL WEBSTERS FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION WITH...Burke in Great Britain, and Daniel Webster in America. A comparison of the...studied by every...
6.

Reminiscences and Anecdotes of Daniel Webster » Read Now
by Peter Harvey. 480 pgs.

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...REMINISCENCES AND ANECDOTES OF DANIEL WEBSTER BY PETER HARVEY BOSTON...an entire generation--since Daniel Webster died. During this period new...pages, propose to write a...
7.

Politics and Statesmanship: Essays on the American Whig Party (Chap. 3 "Daniel Webster: Conservative Whig") » Read Now
by Thomas Brown. 334 pgs.

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8.

The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War (Chap. 18 "Webster Is Now Engaged in Strenuous Efforts to Secure the Succession") » Read Now
by Michael F. Holt. 1248 pgs.

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The political home of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Horace Greeley, and the young Abraham Lincoln, the American Whig Party was involved at every level of American politics--local, state, and federal--in the years before the Civil War, and controlled the White House for eight of the twenty-two years...
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The political home of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Horace Greeley, and the young Abraham Lincoln, the American Whig Party was involved at every level of American politics--local, state, and federal--in the years before the Civil War, and controlled the White House for eight of the twenty-two years that it existed. Now, in The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party, Michael F. Holt gives us the only comprehensive history of the Whigs ever written--a monumental history covering in rich detail the American political landscape from the Age of Jackson to impending disunion. In Michael Holt's hands, the history of the Whig Party becomes a political history of the United States during the tumultuous Antebellum period. He offers a panoramic account of a time when a welter of parties (Whig, Democratic, Anti-Mason, Know Nothing, Free Soil, Republican) and many extraordinary political statesmen (including Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun, William Seward, Daniel Webster, Martin Van Buren, and Henry Clay) struggled to control the national agenda as the U.S. inched towards secession. It was an era when Americans were passionately involved in politics, when local concerns drove national policy, and when momentous political events rocked the country, including the Nullification Controversy, the Panic of 1837, the Annexation of Texas, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Holt captures all of this as he shows that, amid this contentious political activity, the Whig Party continuously strove to unite North and South, repeatedly trying to find a compromise position. Indeed, the Whig Party emerges as the nation's last great hope to prevent secession and civil war. The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party is a magisterial work of history, one that has already been hailed by William Gienapp of Harvard as "one of the most important books on nineteenth-century politics ever written."
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9.

Cavalier and Yankee: The Old South and American National Character ("Daniel Webster and the Transcendence of Sectionalism" begins on p. 109) » Read Now
by William R. Taylor. 386 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, History, Entire Library
10.

Daniel Webster as an Economist » Read Now
by Robert Lincoln Carey. 222 pgs.

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...SCIENCE OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY Number 313 DANIEL WEBSTER AS AN ECONOMIST DANIEL WEBSTER AS AN ECONOMIST BY ROBERT LINCOLN CAREY...this work to present such an analysis of...
11.

American Statesmen: Secretaries of State from John Jay to Colin Powell ("Daniel Webster (1782-1852)" begins on p. 523) » Read Now
by Edward S. Mihalkanin. 572 pgs.

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The Secretary of State is in charge of defining and implementing U.S. foreign policy. While that role has weakened some over the past fifty years, a mere roll call of illustrious past Secretaries of State invokes the position's importance. Thomas Jefferson, Henry Kissinger, John Quincy Adams...
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The Secretary of State is in charge of defining and implementing U.S. foreign policy. While that role has weakened some over the past fifty years, a mere roll call of illustrious past Secretaries of State invokes the position's importance. Thomas Jefferson, Henry Kissinger, John Quincy Adams, William Jennings Bryan, Henry Clay, James Madison, George C. Marshall, George Schultz, and Daniel Webster are just a few of the Secretaries profiled within these 65 entries. Arranged A-to-Z, each essay is multifaceted, offering information personal, professional, and political. The majority of each piece deals with foreign policy ideas before he or she became the Secretary, what American foreign policy was like while in office, and the major foreign policy issues during tenure. Each piece concludes with a concise and useful bibliography.
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12.

The Private Life of Daniel Webster » Read Now
by Charles Lanman. 206 pgs.

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...BIRTH-PLACE. THE PRIVATE LIFE OF DANIEL WEBSTER. BY CHARLES LANMAN. He...beginning to gather upon the tomb" of Daniel Webster, the writer has deemed it his...APPENDIX 187...