Daniel Webster

Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852) was a United States Senator and Secretary of State. Famed for his ability as an orator, Webster was one of the most important figures in U.S. politics in the first half of the 19th century. Like Henry Clay, he had a predisposition to compromises marked by a passionate patriotic devotion to the Union.

Later career and death

In 1845 he was re-elected to the Senate where he opposed both the annexation of Texas and the resulting war with Mexico. However the country was becoming more polarized on the issue of the expansion of slavery and, despite opposing such expansion, Webster found himself faced with the prospect of the breakup of the Union. On March 7, 1850, in one of his most memorable speeches before the Senate, he supported the Compromise of 1850, thereby repulsing Southern threats of secession while urging Northern support for a stronger law for the recovery of fugitive slaves. In July 1850, Webster was once again named Secretary of State under President Millard Fillmore and he supervised the strict enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act. This made him massively unpopular with the anti-slavery lobby but his action in preventing southern secession is considered to have saved the Union.

Related Topics:
1845 - Texas - War with Mexico - Slavery - March 7 - 1850 - Compromise of 1850 - Secession - July - Millard Fillmore - Fugitive Slave Act

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Daniel Webster died on October 24, 1852 at his home in Marshfield as a result of a brain hemorrhage after he fell from his horse and took a crushing blow to the head.

Related Topics:
October 24 - 1852 - Marshfield

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After his death, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote:

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:Last Sunday I was at Plymouth on the beach....I supposed Webster must have passed, as indeed he had died at three in the morning. The sea, the rocks, the woods, gave no sign that America and the world had lost the completest man. Nature had not in our days, or not since Napoleon, cut out such a masterpiece. He brought the strength of a savage into the height of culture. He was a man in equilibrio; a man within and without, the strong and perfect body of the first ages, with the civility and thought of the last.

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The USS Daniel Webster (SSBN-626), Daniel Webster College in Nashua, New Hampshire, and Webster, New York are named for the statesman.

Related Topics:
USS ''Daniel Webster'' - Daniel Webster College - Nashua, New Hampshire - Webster, New York

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