Daniel Webster

Daniel Webster (1782-1852) was a leading American politician in the Second Party System, famous for his oratory, his legal and diplomatic skills, and his efforts to avoid the Civil War in the name of American nationalism. He was one of the nation's most prominent conservatives, as an opponent of Andrew Jackson, a spokesman for the industrial interests of New England and a leader of the Whig Party. During his forty years in national politics Webster served in the House of Representatives for ten (representing New Hampshire), the Senate for nineteen (representing Massachusetts), and served as Secretary of State for three presidents. He aspired to the White House but was an elitist, not a "man of the people," and the people knew it.

Early Career

He was born on January 18, 1782, in Salisbury, New Hampshire, the ninth of the ten children of Ebenezer Webster, a prominent local politician. Webster attended Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1801. After teaching school briefly in Maine, he studied law with the noted politician Christopher Gore in Boston, where he was admitted to the bar in 1805. Webster practiced law in Boscawen, N.H., and then (1807-1816) in Portsmouth, N.H. He became a spokesman for merchants and shipowners who objected to the embargo and other commercial restrictions imposed by the federal government under presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. They opposed the Embargo of 1807 and the Nonintercourse Acts. At this time an advocate of states rights, Webster suggested that New Hampshire might "interpose" to protect its citizens from unconstitutional measures of the federal government. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from New Hampshire as a Federalist in 1812 and again in 1814. In the House of Representatives he criticized the war with England and opposed conscription and other measures for carrying it on, but he did not support the Hartford Convention of 1814 as did more extreme Federalists.

Diplomat

Webster believed in a peace policy, and strongly opposed both the War of 1812 and the Mexican American War, which were deeply unpopular in New England. As a Federalist, and a disciple of George Washington, Webster opposed the implicit alliance with Napoleonic France and the invasion of Canada in 1812. Although he never advocated rebellion, and did not support the Hartford Convention of 1814, Webster's strong opposition to the war enabled his opponents to question his loyalty for many years, and undercut his presidential prospects.

Oratory

Webster made many famous speeches, including the presentation to the Supreme Court in the Dartmouth College case, the Plymouth Speech (1820, where he interpreted the sweep of American history), the Second Reply to Hayne (1830, where Webster emphasized the indissolvable nature of the government), and the Seventh of March speech during the debates on the Compromise of 1850, where he cried out for compromise and reconciliation to preserve the Union. In every case the theme was the links between past, present and future, especially the roles of republicanism and civic virtue with nationalism a sacred cause that should override all other concerns.

Webster, in his speech at the "Mass Meeting at Saratoga," makes a similarly consensual plea for the establishment of a common currency throughout the U.S., and uses the analogy of the circulation of currency through the nation and the circulation of blood through the body in order to represent the interdependency between the idea of Union and its material, particular manifestations.[7]

In 1840 Webster spoke at Saratoga, New York, to rebut Andrew Jackson's attack on the National Bank as a danger to the nation. Webster insists there must be some form of abstract assurance for the nation's economic continuity. His argument was not so much a specialist economic analysis but rather a depiction of the national currency as intrinsic and fundamental to the larger question of national unity and sovereignty. The logic of his presentation thus persuades the audience of its details by first getting it to embrace his grand vision of the American Union:

"When that fluid in the human system indispensable to life becomes disordered, corrupted, or obstructed in its circulation, not the head or the heart alone suffers; but the whole body--head, heart, and hand, all the members, and all the extremities--is affected with debility, paralysis, numbness, and death. The analogy between the human system and the social and political system is complete; and what the lifeblood is to the former, circulation, money, currency, is to the latter; and if that be disordered or corrupted, paralysis must fall on the system. The original, leading, main cause, then, of all our difficulties and disasters, is the disordered state of the circulation. This is, perhaps, not a perfectly obvious truth; and yet it is one susceptible of easy demonstration. In order to explain this the more readily, I wish to bring your minds to the consideration of the internal condition, and the vast domestic trade, of the United States. Our country is not a small province or canton, but an empire, extending over a large and diversified surface, with a population of various conditions and pursuits. It is in this variety that consists its prosperity; for the different parts become useful one to the other, not by identity, but by difference, of production, and thus each by interchange contributes to the interest of the other. Hence, our internal trade, that which carries on this exchange of the products and industry of the different portions of the United States, is one of our most important interests, I had almost said the most important. Its operations are easy and silent, not always perceptible, but diffusing health and life throughout the system by the intercourse thus promoted, from neighborhood to neighborhood, and from State to State. This circuit of trade, in a country of such great extent as ours, demands, more than in any country under heaven, a uniform currency for the whole people; that what is money in Carolina shall be so elsewhere; that what the Kentucky drover receives, what the planter of Alabama sells for, what the laborer in New York gets in pay for his work, and carries home to support his family, shall be of ascertained and uniform value."

Lawyer

Webster was undoubtedly the best constitutional scholar of his generation and probably had more influence on the powerful Marshall Court than any other advocte. Of the 223 cases he argued before the Supreme Court, he won about half of them. But, even more, Webster played a crucial role in eight of the most celebrated constitutional cases decided by the Court between 1801 and 1824. In many of these--particularly in Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819) and Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)--the Supreme Court handed down decisions based largely on Webster's arguments. Marshall patterned some of his Court decisions after Webster's briefs, and Webster played a crucial role in helping many of the justices interpret matters of constitutional law. As a result many people began calling him the Great Expounder of the Constitution.

"Godlike Dan" and "Black Dan"

Whether people hated Webster or admired him--there was little middle ground-- everyone agreed on the majesty of his oratory, the immensity of his intellectual powers, and the primacy of his constitutional knowledge. He was the heroic champion of nationalism and modernization.

Webster produced not one significant piece of legislation, and his record as Secretary of State was mixed. He botched a number of important negotiations and his greatest accomplishment, the Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842), was marred by scandal. There is also evidence that Webster took bribes while in public office and sold diplomatic appointments for private gain, both taboos even by 19th standards of probity.

Webster indulged his extravagant tastes (he spent enormous sums on wine, boats, and improvements to his Marshfield estate). A poor money manager, he relied on wealthy friends for indefinite "loans" to sustain his spendthrift lifestyle, a phenomenon that led his enemies to call him "Black Dan." Historians have not found any positions that he adjusted to curry favor with his rich friends, who saw it their duty to see what they considered the greatest man of the era be able to stay in office--they called him "Godlike Dan." "Black Dan" had several mistresses, and drank excessively, but did not dramatically differ from other Senators in these regards.

Webster's "Reply to Hayne" in 1830 was generally regarded as "the most eloquent speech ever delivered in Congress," and was a stock exercise for oratory students for 75 years.

The historic Daniel Webster farm, known as The Elms, located near Franklin, New Hampshire, was also the site of the New Hampshire Home for Orphans during 1871-1959. Threatened by development in 2004-05, the property was saved by last-minute efforts by the Webster Farm Preservation Association working with the Trust for Public Land.

Bibliography

• Bartlett, Irving H. Daniel Webster (1978) online edition
• Baxter, Maurice G. Daniel Webster and the Supreme Court (1966)
• Brown, Thomas. Politics and Statesmanship: Essays on the American Whig Party 1985 online
• Carey, Robert Lincoln. Daniel Webster as an Economist. (1929). online edition
• Current, Richard Nelson. Daniel Webster and the Rise of National Conservatism (1955), short biography
• Curtis, George Ticknor. Life of Daniel Webster (1870) online edition vol 1; online edition vol 2
• Formisano, Ronald P. The Transformation of Political Culture: Massachusetts Parties, 1790s–1840s (1983)
• Hammond, Bray. Banks and Politics in America from the Revolution to the Civil War (1960), Pulitzer prize; the standard history. Pro-Bank
• Holt, Michael F. The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War (1999), 1000pp comprtehensive scholarly history online edition
• Howe, Daniel Walker. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (2007). 928pp; survey of the political history
• Nevins, Allan. Ordeal of the Union: Fruits of Manifest Destiny, 1847–1852" (1947), highly detailed narrative of national politics.
• Ogg, Frederic Austin. Daniel Webster (1914)
• Peterson, Merrill D. The Great Triumvirate: Webster, Clay, and Calhoun (1983)
• Remini, Robert V. Daniel Webster (1997), 796pp; the standard scholarly biography excerpt and text search
• Shade, William G. "The Second Party System" in Paul Kleppner ed., "Evolution of American Electoral Systems (1983)
• Sheidley, Harlow W. "The Webster-hayne Debate: Recasting New England's Sectionalism." New England Quarterly 1994 67(1): 5-29. Issn: 0028-4866 Fulltext: in Jstor

• Smith, Craig R. "Daniel Webster's Epideictic Speaking: A Study in Emerging Whig Virtues" online edition
• Smith, Craig R. Daniel Webster and the Oratory of Civil Religion. (2005) 300pp

Primary sources

• Select Speeches of Daniel Webster 1817-1845 edited by A. J. George, (1903) online at Project Gutenberg
• The works of Daniel Webster edited in 6 vol. by Edward Everett, Boston: Little, Brown and company, 1853. online edition
• Howe, Daniel Walker, ed. The American Whigs: An Anthology (1973) online edition
• Wiltse, Charles M., Harold D. Moser, and Kenneth E. Shewmaker (Diplomatic papers), eds., The Papers of Daniel Webster, (1974–1989). Published for Dartmouth College by the University Press of New England. ser. 1. Correspondence: v. 1. 1798–1824. v. 2. 1825–1829. v. 3. 1830–1834. v. 4. 1835–1839. v. 5. 1840–1843. v. 6. 1844–1849. v. 7. 1850–1852 -- ser. 2. Legal papers: v. 1. The New Hampshire practice. v. 2. The Boston practice. v. 3. The federal practice (2 v.) -- ser. 3. Diplomatic papers: v. 1. 1841–1843. v. 2. 1850–1852 -- ser. 4. Speeches and formal writings: v. 1. 1800–1833. v. 2. 1834–1852.

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See also

• Second Party System
• Whig Party

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