Daniel Webster

For other people named Daniel Webster, see Daniel Webster (disambiguation).

"Senator Webster" redirects here. For other uses, see Senator Webster (disambiguation).

Daniel Webster
Daguerreotype of Webster, c. 1847
14th and 19th United States Secretary of State
In office July 23, 1850 – October 24, 1852
President	Millard Fillmore
Preceded by	John M. Clayton
Succeeded by	Charles Magill Conrad
In office March 6, 1841 – May 8, 1843
President	William Henry Harrison John Tyler
Preceded by	John Forsyth
Succeeded by	Abel P. Upshur
Chair of the Senate Finance Committee
In office December 2, 1833 – December 5, 1836
Preceded by	John Forsyth
Succeeded by	Silas Wright
United States Senator from Massachusetts
In office June 8, 1827 – February 22, 1841
Preceded by	Elijah H. Mills
Succeeded by	Rufus Choate
In office March 4, 1845 – July 22, 1850
Preceded by	Rufus Choate
Succeeded by	Robert Charles Winthrop
Chair of the House Judiciary Committee
In office 1823–1827
Preceded by	Hugh Nelson
Succeeded by	Philip P. Barbour
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
In office March 4, 1823 – May 30, 1827
Preceded by	Benjamin Gorham
Succeeded by	Benjamin Gorham
Constituency	Massachusetts's 1st district
In office March 4, 1813 – March 3, 1817
Preceded by	George Sullivan
Succeeded by	Arthur Livermore
Constituency	New Hampshire's at-large district
Personal details
Born	(1782-01-18)January 18, 1782 Salisbury, New Hampshire, U.S.
Died	October 24, 1852(1852-10-24) (aged 70) Marshfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political party	Whig
Other political affiliations	Federalist (before 1825) National Republican (1825–1833)
Spouses	Grace Fletcher ​ ​ (m. 1808; died 1828)​ Caroline LeRoy Webster ​ ​ (m. 1829)​
Children	5, including Fletcher
Education	Dartmouth College
Signature
Coat of arms

He wrote the dictionary. Remini writes that "Webster was a thoroughgoing elitist—and he reveled in it."

Webster retains his high prestige in some recent historiography. Baxter argues that his nationalistic view of the union as one and inseparable from liberty helped the union to triumph over the states-rights Confederacy, making it his greatest contribution. In 1959, the Senate named Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Robert M. La Follette, and Robert A. Taft as the five greatest senators in history. However Bartlett, emphasizing Webster's private life, says his great oratorical achievements were in part undercut by his improvidence with money, his excessively opulent lifestyle, and his numerous conflict of interest situations. Remini points out that Webster's historical orations taught Americans their history before textbooks were widely available.

While evaluations on his political career vary, Webster is widely praised for his talent as an orator and attorney. Former Solicitor General Seth P. Waxman writes that "in the realm of advocacy, Webster doesn't merely sit in the Pantheon: He is Zeus himself." Kennedy praised Webster's "ability to make alive and supreme the latent sense of oneness, of union, that all Americans felt but few could express." 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. Schlesinger, however, notes that he is also an example of the limitations of formal oratory: Congress heard Webster or Clay with admiration, but they rarely prevailed at the vote. Plainer speech and party solidarity were more effective, and Webster never approached Jackson's popular appeal.

Memorial

Main article: List of things named for Daniel Webster

Webster's legacy has been commemorated by numerous means,. His statue stands in the National Statuary Hall Collection, while another statue stands in Central Park. The USS Daniel Webster (SSBN-626) and the liberty ship SS Daniel Webster were both named for Webster. The first Webster postage stamp was issued in 1870. In all, Daniel Webster is honored on 14 different US postage issues, more than most U.S. Presidents. There is a Daniel Webster Highway and Mount Webster in New Hampshire There are 27 towns named for Webster in California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia, including two in Wisconsin (Webster, Burnett County and Webster, Vernon County), a ghost town in Colorado, and Webster and Webster Hollow in Tennessee. Seven counties or parishes are named for Webster.

Daniel Webster has been honored on numerous U.S. Postage stamps

Issue of 1879

Issue of 1890

Issue of 1903

Issue of 1932

Issue of 1969

In media

Webster is the major character in a fictional short story, The Devil and Daniel Webster, by Stephen Vincent Benét. It serves as the basis for a one-act opera of the same name written by American composer Douglas Moore.

Webster is briefly discussed in Chapter XIX of MacKinlay Kantor's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "Andersonville" (1955).

On film, Webster has been portrayed by

• George MacQuarrie in The Mighty Barnum (1934)
• Sidney Toler in The Gorgeous Hussy (1936)
• Emmett Vogan in The Monroe Doctrine (1939)
• Harry Humphries in Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940)
• Edward Arnold in The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941)
• Anthony Hopkins in Shortcut to Happiness (2007)
• John Rubinstein in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Episode: "The Trial of Sabrina Spellman")

See also

• List of deaths through alcohol
• Origins of the American Civil War
• Webster/Sainte-Laguë method

References

Works cited

• Cole, Donald B. (1993). The Presidency of Andrew Jackson. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 0-7006-0600-9.
• Gienapp, William E. (1988). The Origins of the Republican Party, 1852-1856. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195055016.
• Holt, Michael (1999). The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199772032.
• Howe, Daniel Walker (2007). What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199743797.
• Lodge, Henry Cabot (1883). Daniel Webster. Houghton, Mifflin. OCLC 16440580.
• Peterson, Norma Lois (1989). The Presidencies of William Henry Harrison and John Tyler. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-0400-5.
• Remini, Robert V. (1997). Daniel Webster: The Man and His Time. W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-04552-8.
• Schlesinger, Arthur M. (1945). The Age of Jackson. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 9780316773430.
• Smith, Elbert B. (1988). The Presidencies of Zachary Taylor & Millard Fillmore. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-0362-6.

Further reading

Biographies

• Bartlett, Irving H. Daniel Webster (1978) online edition
• Baxter, Maurice G. "Webster, Daniel"; American National Biography Online Feb. 2000. online edition at academic libraries
• Baxter, Maurice G. One and Inseparable: Daniel Webster and the Union. (1984).
• Brands, H. W. (2018). Heirs of the Founders: The Epic Rivalry of Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster, the Second Generation of American Giants. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0385542548.
• Current, Richard Nelson. Daniel Webster and the Rise of National Conservatism (1955), short biography
• Curtis, George Ticknor. Life of Daniel Webster (1870), useful for quotations online edition vol 1; online edition vol 2
• Fuess, Claude Moore Daniel Webster. (2 vols. 1930). scholarly biography
• Ogg, Frederic Austin. Daniel Webster (1914) online edition, old scholarly biography
• Paul, Joel Richard. Indivisible: Daniel Webster and the Birth of American Nationalism (2022) Review
• Peterson, Merrill D. The Great Triumvirate: Webster, Clay, and Calhoun (1983)
• Remini, Robert V. Daniel Webster: The Man and His Time (1997)

Specialized scholarly studies

• Arntson, Paul, and Craig R. Smith. "The Seventh of March Address: A Mediating Influence." Southern Speech Communication Journal 40 (Spring 1975): 288–301.
• Bartlett, Irving H. "Daniel Webster as a Symbolic Hero." New England Quarterly 45 (December 1972): 484–507. in JSTOR
• Baxter, Maurice G. Daniel Webster and the Supreme Court (1966)
• Birkner, Michael. "Daniel Webster and the Crisis of Union, 1850." Historical New Hampshire 37 (Summer/Fall 1982): 151–73.
• Brauer, Kinley J. "The Webster-Lawrence Feud: A Study in Politics and Ambitions." Historian 29 (November 1966): 34–59.
• Brown, Thomas. "Daniel Webster: Conservative Whig." In Politics and Statesmanship: Essays on the American Whig Party, (1985) pp. 49–92. online
• Carey, Robert Lincoln. Daniel Webster as an Economist. (1929). online edition
• Dalzell, Robert F. Jr. Daniel Webster and the Trial of American Nationalism, 1843–1852. (1973).
• Dubofsky, Melvyn. "Daniel Webster and the Whig Theory of Economic Growth: 1828–1848." New England Quarterly 42 (December 1969): 551–72. in JSTOR
• Eisenstadt, Arthur A. "Daniel Webster and the Seventh of March." Southern Speech Journal 20 (Winter 1954): 136–47.
• Fields, Wayne. "The Reply to Hayne: Daniel Webster and the Rhetoric of Stewardship." Political Theory 11 (February 1983): 5–28. in JSTOR
• Foster, Herbert D. "Webster's Seventh of March Speech and the Secession Movement, 1850." American Historical Review 27 (January 1922): 245–70. in JSTOR
• Formisano, Ronald P. The Transformation of Political Culture: Massachusetts Parties, 1790s–1840s (1983)
• Jones, Howard. To the Webster–Ashburton Treaty: A Study in Anglo-American Relations, 1783–1843. (1977). 251 pp.
• Nathans, Sydney. Daniel Webster and Jacksonian Democracy. (1973).
• Nathans, Sydney. "Daniel Webster, Massachusetts Man," New England Quarterly 39 (June 1966): 161–81. in JSTOR
• Nevins, Allan. Ordeal of the Union: Fruits of Manifest Destiny, 1847–1852 (1947), highly detailed narrative of national politics.
• Parish, Peter J. "Daniel Webster, New England, and the West." Journal of American History 54 (December 1967): 524–49. in JSTOR
• Prince, Carl E., and Seth Taylor. "Daniel Webster, the Boston Associates, and the U.S. Government's Role in the Industrializing Process, 1815–1830." Journal of the Early Republic 2 (Fall 1982): 283–99. in JSTOR
• Rakestraw, Donald A. Daniel Webster: Defender of Peace. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2018.
• 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. in Jstor
• Sheidley, Harlow W. "'Congress only can declare war' and 'the President is Commander in Chief': Daniel Webster and the War Power." Diplomatic History 12 (Fall 1988): 383–409.
• Shewmaker, Kenneth E. "Forging the 'Great Chain': Daniel Webster and the Origins of American Foreign Policy toward East Asia and the Pacific, 1841–1852." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 129 (September 1985): 225–59.
• Shewmaker, Kenneth E. ed. Daniel Webster: "The Completest Man. (1990), specialized studies by scholars
• Simpson, Brooks D. "Daniel Webster and the Cult of the Constitution," Journal of American Culture 15 (Spring 1992): 15–23. online in Blackwell Synergy
• 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
• Smith, Craig R. "Daniel Webster's July 17th Address: A Mediating Influence in the 1850 Compromise," Quarterly Journal of Speech 71 (August 1985): 349–61.
• Smith, Craig R. Defender of the Union: The Oratory of Daniel Webster. (1989).
• Szasz, Ferenc M. "Daniel Webster – Architect of America's 'Civil Religion'," Historical New Hampshire 34 (Fall/Winter 1979): 223–43.
• Wilson, Major L. "Of Time and the Union: Webster and His Critics in the Crisis of 1850." Civil War History 14 (December 1968): 293–306. ch 1 of Wilson, Space, Time, and Freedom: The Quest for Nationality and the Irrepressible Conflict, 1815–1861 (1974) online edition

Primary sources

• Select Speeches of Daniel Webster 1817–1845 edited by A. J. George, (1903) online at Project Gutenberg. Contains: Defence of the Kennistons; The Dartmouth College Case; First Settlement of New England; The Bunker Hill Monument; The Reply to Hayne; The Murder of Captain Joseph White; The Constitution Not a Compact Between Sovereign States; Speech at Saratoga; and Eulogy on Mr. Justice Story.
• The works of Daniel Webster edited in 6 vol. by Edward Everett, Boston: Little, Brown and company, 1853. online edition
• McIntyre, J. W., ed. The Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster. 18 vols. (1903). vol 8 online
• Tefft, B. F., ed. The Speeches of Daniel Webster and His Master-Pieces. Alta ed. Philadelphia, Penn.: Porter and Coates, 1854.
• Van Tyne, Claude H., ed. The Letters of Daniel Webster, from Documents Owned Principally by the New Hampshire Historical Society (1902). online edition
• Webster, Fletcher, ed. The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster. 2 vols. 1857. online edition vol 1
• 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.

External links

• Daniel Webster Estate
• Daniel Webster: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
• Works by Daniel Webster at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Daniel Webster at Internet Archive
• Webster–Hayne debate, 1830 on nullification & tariff
• The works of Daniel Webster... 6 vol, 1853 edition
• The private correspondence of Daniel Webster ed. by Fletcher Webster. 2v 1857 edition
• Portrait of Daniel Webster, painted by William Willard circa 1839–1985

• United States Congress. "Daniel Webster (id: W000238)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Daniel Webster Speeches Collection from the University of Missouri Division of Special Collections and Rare Books