The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Webster, Daniel
WEBSTER, Daniel, an American statesman,
born in Salisbury (now Franklin), N. H., Jan.
18, 1782, died at Marshfield, Mass., Oct. 24,
1852. He was the second son of Ebenezer
Webster and his second wife, Abigail Eastman.
(See Webster, Ebenezer.) The schools on
the frontier in his childhood (Salisbury being
then the furthest settlement toward Canada in
this part of New England) were very
indifferent; and the best part of his early education
was probably derived from his father and
mother. In 1796 he was sent to the Phillips
Exeter academy. While there, as he relates,
he could never muster courage to make a
declamation, but in other respects he gave
decided promise of future eminence. In
February, 1797, he was placed in the family of the
Rev. Samuel Wood, of the town of Boscawen,
and in the autumn entered Dartmouth college,
where he partly supported himself and aided
his elder brother Ezekiel to prepare for
college by teaching school in winter. He read
widely, especially in history and general
English literature, laid a good foundation in the
ancient languages, which enabled him to read
the Latin classics with pleasure through life,
and delivered addresses before the college
societies, some of which found their way into print.
By the close of his first year he had shown
himself decidedly the foremost man of his
class, and that position he held through his
whole college course. He graduated in 1801,
and immediately entered the law office of
Thomas W. Thompson, his father's next-door
neighbor, who was afterward a congressman
and United States senator. From January to
September, 1802, he was principal of the Fryeburg
academy, Maine, at a salary of $350 a
year, which he supplemented by copying for
the register of deeds, filling two folio volumes.
He afterward remained with Mr. Thompson
till February, 1804, when he went to Boston
and through a friend procured the charge of a
school for his brother Ezekiel. With the aid
which the latter was thus enabled to afford
him, he entered the office of Mr. Christopher
Gore, afterward governor of Massachusetts and
United States senator, to complete his legal
studies. With him he remained, though not
continuously, from July, 1804, to March, 1805.
Mr. Webster justly regarded his admission to
Mr. Gore's office as “a good stride onward.”
It was a situation which gave him the means
of studying books, and things, and men. While
there he made reports of every case decided in
the supreme court of Massachusetts, and in
the circuit court of the United States. Shortly
after his arrival in Boston his brother
returned to Dartmouth college, to attend to his
graduation, leaving his school to the care of
Daniel. In the spring of 1805 he was admitted
to the bar of the court of common pleas in
Boston. Shortly before he had been offered
the clerkship of the court of common pleas of
Hillsborough co., N. H. The post was worth
$1,500 a year, a large income for the time,
and his father, who was a member of the court,
wished him to accept it; but Mr. Gore, who
foresaw for him a splendid career at the bar,
dissuaded him. He practised for a year at
Boscawen, and in 1806 was admitted to the
superior court of New Hampshire, and
established himself at Portsmouth, then the capital
of the state. Here he rose at once to full
practice at a bar composed of eminent counsel,
and attended by others of distinction from
Massachusetts. — Mr. Webster came forward in
life at a time when party spirit ran high.
He had inherited from his father the
principles of the federal party, and advocated
them in speeches and resolutions on public
occasions, but did not for some years embark
deeply in politics. The declaration of war in
1812, long foreseen, and deprecated by the
federalists, created a demand for the best talent
the country could furnish. Mr. Webster had
already established a commanding reputation,
and in 1812 he was elected to congress. He
took his seat in the special session of May,
1813, and in the organization of the house was
placed on the committee of foreign affairs.
The complications with foreign powers which
had brought on the war, and the ways and
means for meeting the greatly increased
expenditure of the government, were the
subjects which principally occupied the house;
and in the debates on both Mr. Webster took a
leading part. Early in the session he moved a
series of resolutions on the repeal of the Berlin
and Milan decrees, and on June 10, 1813,
delivered his maiden speech on that subject.
Proceeding from a person almost wholly
unknown at Washington, it took the house and the
country by surprise. His subsequent speeches
on the increase of the navy, which he warmly
recommended, and the repeal of the embargo,
placed him in the first rank of debaters. He
cultivated friendly relations on both sides of
the house, and gained the respect of those
most warmly opposed to him in politics. He
was reëlected to congress in 1814. In the
succeeding session he opposed the bill for a new
bank of the United States, which should not
be obliged to redeem its notes in coin in a
speech which exhibits a perfect mastery of the
abstruse subjects of banking, finance, and
currency. The bill was lost by the casting vote
of the speaker, but revived on a motion for
its reconsideration by Mr. Webster, and so
amended that it passed the house by a large
majority, and was carried through the senate
but was vetoed by President Madison. In the
14th congress, which met in December, 1815,
Mr. Webster took an active part in support of
the charter of the bank of the United States,
which passed the house in April, 1816. His
most important service at this session was the
introduction of a resolution requiring all
payments to the treasury, after Feb. 20, 1817, to
be made in specie or its equivalents. This
measure prevailed, and restored the depreciated
currency of the country. — In December, 1813,
Mr. Webster's house at Portsmouth was burned
with all its contents, including his library and
the entire fruits of his professional labor.
This disaster, together with the limited
opportunities afforded in his profession by so small
a place, decided him to seek a wider field.
Accordingly, at the close of the session in August,
1816, after some hesitation between Boston
and Albany, he decided on Boston, in which
and its vicinity he made his home, except while
officially resident at Washington, till the end of
his life. For nearly seven years after his
removal, with a single exception, he filled no public
office, but devoted himself exclusively to the
practice of his profession, taking a position as
a counsellor and an advocate above which no
one has ever risen in this country. A choice
of the best business in New England, and of
that of the whole country which was adjudicated
at Washington, passed into his hands.
Besides the reputation which he acquired in
the ordinary routine of practice, Mr. Webster,
shortly after his removal to Boston, took a
distinguished lead in establishing what might be
called a school of constitutional law by his
argument in the Dartmouth college case. In
1816 the legislature of New Hampshire passed
laws altering the charter of Dartmouth college,
enlarging the number of the trustees, generally
reorganizing the corporation, and changing its
name to Dartmouth university. The newly
created body took possession of the corporate
property and assumed the management of the
institution. The old board brought an action
against the treasurer of the new board for the
record books, the original charter, the common
seal, and other corporate property of the
college. The case turned upon the points whether
the acts of the legislature were binding upon
the old corporation without their assent, and
not repugnant to the constitution of the United
States. It was argued twice with great ability
in the courts of New Hampshire, which decided
that the acts of the legislature were constitutional
and valid. The case was immediately
appealed to Washington, and on March 10,
1818, was argued by Mr. Webster and Mr.
Hopkinson of Philadelphia for the plaintiffs, and
Mr. John Holmes of Maine and Attorney
General Wirt for the defendants, in error. Mr.
Webster as junior counsel opened the case,
and made a novel and exhaustive argument on
the propositions that at common law colleges
under ordinary circumstances are private
eleemosynary institutions, over which the state
has no control except for acts in violation of
their charters; and that within the meaning
of the constitution of the United States the
charter of such an institution is a contract
which the legislature of a state cannot annul.
The decision of the court was pronounced by
Chief Justice Marshall, at the term for 1819,
declaring the acts of the legislature of New
Hampshire unconstitutional, and reversing the
decision of the court below. By this decision
the law of the land in reference to collegiate
charters was firmly fixed. This case established
Mr. Webster's reputation at the supreme
court of the United States, and he was
thenceforward retained in almost every considerable
cause argued at Washington. It will be
sufficient to name the cases of Gibbons and Ogden
(the great steamer monopoly case), the case of
Ogden and Saunders (state insolvent laws), the
Charles river bridge case, the Alabama bank
case, the validity of Mr. Girard's will, the Rhode
Island charter case, and the great India-rubber
case argued before the circuit court of New
Jersey in the last year of his life. In the trials
of Goodridge at Newburyport, shortly after
his removal to Boston, and the great cause
célèbre of Knapp at Saluin, Mr. Webster exhibited
skill as a criminal lawyer which has never
been surpassed. — In 1820 Mr. Webster was a
member of the Massachusetts convention to
revise the constitution of that state after the
separation of Maine. The principal subjects on
which he spoke at length were oaths of office,
the basis of senatorial representation, and the
independence of the judiciary. During its session
he pronounced, on Dec. 22, 1820, his celebrated
discourse at Plymouth on the anniversary
of the landing of the pilgrim fathers. This
was the first of a series of performances, apart
from the efforts of the senate and the bar, by
which he placed himself at the head of American
orators. The other addresses of this class
were his orations at the laying of the corner
stone of the Bunker Hill monument in June,
1825, and at the completion of that structure
in June, 1843; the eulogy on Adams and
Jefferson in 1826; and his discourse on laying
the corner stone of the extension of the capiitol
in 1851. In the autumn of 1822 he was
elected to congress from Boston by a very large
majority. Early in the session, commencing
in December, 1823, he made his famous speech
on the Greek revolution, a powerful
remonstrance against the principles of the “holy
alliance.” The subject of the tariff was
discussed at this session, and Mr. Webster
opposed an extravagant increase of protective
duties. As chairman of the judiciary
committee, he reported and carried through the house
a complete revision of the criminal law of the
United States. The second session of the 18th
congress is memorable for the election of John
Quincy Adams as president of the United
States by the house of representatives. Mr.
Webster, as long as he remained a member of
the house, was the leader of the friends of the
administration in that body. He was reëlected
in 1824. In 1827 he was elected by the
legislature of Massachusetts to the senate of
the United States to fill a vacancy, and retained
his seat by reëlection till 1841. The principal
topic at the first session of the 20th congress
was the revision of the tariff, with special
reference at first to protection of the woollen
interest. Mr. Webster, in an elaborate argument,
showed that a moderate protective system
had now become the settled policy of the
country; and that the capital invested in
manufactures was far too considerable to be
exposed to the caprices of the foreign market,
fraudulent invoices, and the competition of
foreign labor working on starvation wages.
The first session of the 21st congress was
signalized by the famous debate on Foot's
resolution relative to the survey of the public
lands, which gradually assumed the character
of partisan warfare, and mainly related to the
newly promulgated doctrines of the school of
Mr. Calhoun on the right of an individual state
to nullify an act of congress. Two speeches
were made by Mr. Webster, of which the
second, pronounced on Jan. 26 and 27, 1830, is
the most celebrated of his parliamentary
efforts. His first speech was an entirely
unpremeditated reply to the first of Mr. Hayne, who
endeavored in an elaborate argument to prove
that New England had always pursued an
unfriendly course toward the western states. Mr.
Benton followed Mr. Webster, and Mr. Hayne
then claimed the right of rejoinder. His second
speech was still more strongly marked
with bitterness toward the eastern states, and
bordered on the offensive toward Mr.
Webster. He also reaffirmed, with great emphasis,
the doctrine of nullification. This speech
occupied a part of one day and the whole of
the next. Mr. Webster began his reply the
next day, and completed it the day after.
He had a threefold task to perform: first, to
repel the personalities toward himself which
formed a very prominent part of Mr. Hayne's
speech, and this was done by a few retaliatory
strokes, in which the keenest sarcasm was so
mingled with unaffected good humor and
manly expostulation as to command the sympathy
of the audience; secondly, to vindicate
the eastern states in general, and Massachusetts
in particular, which was done with the
utmost spirit and effect; and lastly, and what
Mr. Webster deemed by far the most important
object, to overthrow the doctrine of
nullification, as held and expounded by the South
Carolina school. The senate chamber was
crowded to its utmost capacity on both days,
and certainly a more brilliant parliamentary
success was never achieved. At the close of
the second day Mr. Hayne attempted a reply.
He spoke only about half an hour, principally
in answer to Mr. Webster's constitutional
argument, and reaffirming the South Carolina
theory; but the report of the speech filled 19
columns in the public journals. Mr. Webster
made a brief rejoinder, including a recapitulation
of his own argument, which for condensation
and force may be cited as a specimen
of parliamentary logic never surpassed. The
speech was more widely circulated throughout
the country than any that had ever before
been made, and except in South Carolina was
universally considered as having given the
coup de grâce to the doctrine that it is competent
for an individual state to annul an act of
congress. From this time to the accession of
Gen. Harrison to the presidency in 1841, the
principal occurrences were the breaking up of
the combinations which had borne Gen. Jackson
into the presidency; the rejection of Mr.
Van Buren's nomination as minister to
England by the united votes of Messrs. Webster,
Clay, and Calhoun, and their friends; the bill
to recharter the bank of the United States,
and its veto by President Jackson; the ordinance
of nullification adopted by South
Carolina; the force bill in congress; the compromise
tariff of Mr. Clay; the removal of the
public deposits from the bank of the United
States and their distribution among the local
banks; the resolution of the senate disapproving
of that measure, and the message from
the president protesting against the resolution;
the expunging resolution; the election of Mr.
Van Buren to the presidency; the financial
crisis of 1837, and the extra session of
congress occasioned by it, with the new government
plan of finance. These events furnished
the topics of a series of debates in the senate,
in all of which Mr. Webster took a leading
part. Mr. Webster's argument on what was
called the “subtreasury” system of the
administration was the most elaborate and effective
of his speeches on the currency. — In the
spring of 1839 Mr. Webster crossed the Atlantic
and made a hasty tour in England, Scotland,
and France. Returning in the early winter, he
yielded the most efficient aid in bringing about
the great political change which was consummated
in the election of Gen. Harrison to the
presidency. His own name had been prominently
brought forward as candidate for vice
president, but, in conformity with the almost
invariable usage of the political parties, it was
deemed expedient that the candidates for the
two offices should not be from the same section
of the Union. On this ground Mr. Webster
withdrew his name, and that of Mr. Tyler was
substituted. Gen. Harrison, as soon as it was
ascertained that he was elected, offered to Mr.
Webster the choice of places in his cabinet.
The condition of the foreign relations of the
country was extremely critical, and it was
finally decided that he should take charge of
the department of state. Harrison's death
and the succession of Mr. Tyler to the presidency
menaced the harmony of the administration,
and finally overturned it; but no
changes took place immediately. Our
relations with England demanded prompt attention.
The differences between the two
governments relative to the northeastern boundary,
which for nearly two generations had
tasked to the utmost the resources of diplomacy,
the affair of the Caroline and McLeod,
and the detention and search of American
vessels by British cruisers on the coast of Africa,
were subjects of controversy which imperatively
demanded a peaceful solution.
Fortunately a change of ministry took place in
England at the end of August, 1841, and the new
administrations in both countries were able to
address themselves to the difficult task of a
comprehensive settlement. Lord Ashburton
was sent as a special envoy to the United States,
and in a few months a convention was agreed
upon equally advantageous and honorable to
both parties. Mr. Webster retired from the
administration of Mr. Tyler in the spring of
1843, the other members of the cabinet having
resigned their places in the preceding summer.
His continuance in office after the president's
change of policy had been severely blamed in
some quarters; but the critical state of foreign
relations and Mr. Tyler's undiminished confidence
in him were deemed sufficient justification
by the more moderate of his party. He
remained in private life during the residue of
Mr. Tyler's administration, for the first time
in 20 years, occupied more than ever with
professional duties. In the autumn of 1844 he
supported Mr. Clay's nomination to the presidency.
The question at issue was the annexation
of Texas, and was decided in favor of that
measure by the election of Mr. Polk. At the
first session of the 29th congress (December,
1845) Mr. Webster took his seat in the senate
of the United States, as the successor of Mr.
Choate. He opposed the annexation of Texas
as unconstitutional, but he thought it his duty,
after the war with Mexico was actually
commenced, not to withhold the supplies which
were required for the sustenance and
reënforcement of our troops. His second son,
Edward, obtained a major's commission in Gen.
Scott's army, and died in the city of Mexico.
The Oregon boundary question was settled at
this time, and Mr. Webster, though holding
no executive office, was able, through private
channels of influence in England, to contribute
materially to this result. In the spring of 1847
he set out upon a visit to the southern states,
where he was uniformly received with
cordiality, especially at Charleston, Columbia,
Augusta, and Savannah. At Savannah he was
threatened with severe illness, and obliged to
abandon the further prosecution of his tour.
In the course of this year the Mexican war
was brought to a triumphant close. Mr.
Webster, foreseeing that the territory acquired by
the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) would
prove a Pandora's box of evil to the country,
voted against its confirmation. The great
popularity of Gen. Taylor led to his nomination
as the candidate of the whig party at the
ensuing presidential election. The friends of Mr.
Webster had calculated, with some confidence,
that the choice of the nominating convention
would full upon him; but nothing occurred to
prevent him and his friends from giving a
cordial support to Taylor's administration. The
controversies relative to slavery had become
violent beyond former example, in consequence
of the recent territorial acquisitions.
California, having without previous congressional
sanction adopted a constitution by which slavery
was prohibited, was applying for admission
to the Union; New Mexico was to be
organized as a territory; a claim was set up
by Texas to an extensive region on her border;
while at this inauspicious season a more
stringent law for the extradition of fugitive
slaves was demanded by the south. The
excitement in congress and through the country
had reached a dangerous height, and a national
crisis seemed to be impending. A series of
compromise measures was at length adopted in
congress, by which the threatened catastrophe
was for the time averted. In the progress of
the senatorial debates on these subjects, Mr.
Webster delivered his much criticised speech
of the 7th of March, 1850, in which he
abandoned the Wilmot proviso and justified the
fugitive slave law. In making this concession
for the sake of conciliation, he was not without
melancholy forebodings of its failure to
unite even the unanimous suffrage of his
political friends. While the compromise
measures were still before congress, about
midsummer of 1850, President Taylor died. In
the reorganization of the cabinet by President
Fillmore, Mr. Webster was called to the
department of state. The movements of the
filibusters against Cuba, successful attempts in
different parts of the country to resist the
execution of the fugitive slave law, the arrival in
America of Kossuth and the other Hungarian
exiles, the apprehensions of a collision with
the British cruisers on the fishing grounds, the
affair of the Crescent City at Havana, the
misunderstanding with Peru relative to the Lobos
islands, the Japanese expeditions, the proposed
tripartite guaranty of Cuba, the reciprocity
treaty relative to the Canadian provinces, and
the affairs of Central America were the
subjects which engaged the attention of Mr. Fillmore's
administration while Mr. Webster
remained in charge of that department. On July
4, 1851, he delivered an address at the laying
of the corner stone of the extension of the
capitol, which was his last discourse of this
kind. In January, 1852, he argued the
important India-rubber patent cause at Trenton.
This was his last great forensic effort. In
the spring of that year the whig presidential
convention assembled at Baltimore. Sanguine
hopes were entertained by the friends of Mr.
Webster, but the choice of the convention fell
upon Gen. Scott. Early in May Mr. Webster
was seriously injured by being thrown from
his carriage near his farm in Marshfield. In
June he went back for a short time to
Washington, but his health required, in addition to a
cooler climate, the repose which he could only
find at home. He made another short visit
to Washington in August. The few closing
months of his life were passed at Marshfield.
The last matter of public business which
engaged much of his attention was the affair of the
American fisheries off the coasts of the British
provinces. After his final return from
Washington chronic complaints gained rapidly upon
him. Sensible that his failing health did not
admit the punctual discharge of the duties of his
office, he tendered his resignation, which was
declined by Mr. Fillmore. His funeral was
attended at Marshfield in the presence of a great
part of the population of that place and the
neighboring towns, of a large number of
persons from Boston and other parts of Massachusetts,
and of deputations from New York,
Albany, and Philadelphia. Funeral orations,
discourses, and sermons were delivered throughout
the country, in great numbers. — Mr. Webster's
person was imposing, of commanding height
and well proportioned; his head of great size;
his eyes deep-seated, large, and lustrous; his
voice powerful, sonorous, and flexible; his
action, without being remarkably graceful, was
appropriate and impressive. He went to bed
and rose early, and despatched the business of
the day as much as possible during the morning
hours. He was extremely fond of field
sports, particularly fishing, and was a remarkably
good shot. His social tastes were very
strong, and his conversational powers have
rarely been equalled. His happiest days were
passed upon his farms. He understood
agriculture theoretically and practically, and took
great pride in his fine stock and large crops.
He was a regular attendant on public worship.
Portraits at different periods of his life by
the most distinguished artists of the day, and
his bust by Powers, will convey to posterity
no inadequate idea of his countenance and
form. Mr. Webster was married in early life
to Grace Fletcher of Hopkinton, N. H. Of
this marriage were born Charles, Julia,
Edward, and Fletcher, of whom the last, the
only one who survived him, fell as colonel of
the 12th Massachusetts volunteers in the battle
of Aug. 29, 1862, near Bull Run. Mr.
Webster's first wife died in January, 1828,
and in December, 1829, he married Caroline
Bayard Le Roy, daughter of an eminent
merchant in New York, who survives him. — Several
editions of his collective works were
published during his lifetime, the most complete
in 6 vols. 8vo (1851). Two volumes of his
private correspondence were published by his son
in 1858. His biography has been written by
George Ticknor Curtis (2 vols., New York,
1869). See also “Daniel Webster and his
Contemporaries,” by the Hon. C. W. March
(New York, 1876).