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WEBSTER, DANIEL (1782-1852)
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See also:WEBSTER, See also:DANIEL (1782-1852) , See also:American statesman, was See also:born in See also:Salisbury (now See also:Franklin), New See also:Hampshire, on the
18th of See also:January 1782. He was a descendant of See also: He led the opposition in his See also:state to the policy of See also:Madison's See also:administration, was elected by the Federalists a member of the See also:National See also:House of Representatives, and took his seat in May 1813. See also: Wheelock appealed to the legislature in the following year, when it was strongly Republican, and that See also:body responded by passing acts which virtually repealed the See also:charter received from See also:George III., created a state university, placed Wheelock at its See also:head, and transferred to it, the See also:property of the college. The case came before the Supreme Court of New Hampshire in May 18r7. See also:Jeremiah See also:Mason (1768-1848), a lawyer of the first See also:rank, Jeremiah See also: The state of New See also:York, in See also:order to See also:reward the enterprise of See also:Robert R. See also:Livingston and the inventive See also:genius of Robert See also:Fulton in the application of the See also:steam See also:engine to See also:traffic on the See also:water, had given to them a See also:monopoly of all transportation by steam within the See also:waters of New York. The highest court of that state sustained the validity of the monopoly. Gibbons, who had begun to run a steamboat from New See also:Jersey, appealed to the Supreme Court. Webster argued that the Federal Constitution gave to Congress See also:control over interstate See also:commerce, and that any interference by the legislature of a state with this commerce was unconstitutional and void. The Supreme Court so held; its See also:opinion, written by See also:Chief Justice See also:Marshall, being little else than a See also:recital of Webster's See also:argument. In the case of Ogden v. Saunders, heard in 1824 and reheard in 1827, in which the question was the validity or invalidity of the insolvent See also:laws of the several states, Webster argued that the clause prohibiting a state from impairing the obligation of contracts applied to future as well as to past contracts, but the court decided against him.
Meanwhile Webster had come to be recognized as the first American orator. His oration at See also:Plymouth, on the 22nd of See also:December 1820, on the second centennial anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims, placed him in this rank. No man mastered more thoroughly the fundamental principles of government and the currents of feeling which See also:influence the destiny of nations. His oration in 1825 at the laying of the corner See also: In the following year Webster delivered his oration in See also:commemoration of the second and third presidents of the United States—John See also: He stated that his See also:people, after giving warning in 1824 that they would consider protection the policy of the Government, had gone into protected manufactures, and he now asked that that policy be not reversed to the injury of his constituents. In later speeches, too, he defended protection rather as a policy under which See also:industries had been called into being than as advisable if the See also:stage had been clear for the See also:adoption of a new policy. The tariff of 1828 aroused See also:bitter opposition in See also:South Carolina, and called from See also:Vice-President Calhoun the statement of the See also:doctrine of See also:nullification which was adopted by the South Carolina legislature at the See also:close of the year and is known as the South Carolina Exposition. Senator Robert Y. See also:Hayne, from the same state, voiced this doctrine in the Senate, and Webster's reply was his most powerful exposition of the national conception of the See also:Union. The occasion of this famous Webster-Hayne debate was the introduction by Senator Samuel A. See also:Foote (178o–1846) of See also:Connecticut of a resolution of inquiry into the expediency of restricting the sales of the Western lands. This was on the 29th of December 1829, and after Senator See also:Benton of See also:Missouri had denounced the resolution as one inspired by hatred of the See also:East for the See also:West, Hayne, on the 19th of January 1830, made a vigorous attack on New England, and declared his opposition to a permanent See also:revenue from the public lands or any other source on the ground that it would promote corruption and the consolidation of the government and " be fatal to the See also:sovereignty and independence of the states." Webster's brief reply See also:drew froin Hayne a second speech, in which he entered into a full exposition of the doctrine of nullification, and the important part of Webster's second reply to Hayne on the 26th and 27th of January is a masterly exposition of the Constitution as in his opinion it had come to be after a development of more than forty years. He showed the revolutionary and unpractical See also:character of any doctrine such as nullification (q.v.) based on the See also:assumption that the general government was the See also:agent of the state legislatures. It placed the general government, he said, in the absurd position of a " servant of four-and-twenty masters, of different See also:wills and different purposes, and yet See also:bound to obey all." He then argued at length that the correct assumption was that both the general government and the state government were " all agents of the same supreme power, the people," that the people had established the Constitution of the United States and that in the Supreme Court, established under that Constitution, was vested the final decision on all constitutional questions. Whatever may be said of the See also:original creation of the Constitution, whether by the states or by the people, its development under the influences of a growing nationalism was a strong support to Webster's argument, and no other speech so strengthened Union sentiment throughout the See also:North; its keynote was " See also:Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable." South Carolina, however, insisted that its doctrinewas See also:sound, and in See also:November 1832 passed an See also:ordinance declaring the revenue laws of the United States null and void. President See also:Jackson responded with a See also:proclamation denying the right of nullification, and asked Congress for authority to collect the revenue in South Carolina by force if necessary. A bill, known as the Force Bill, was introduced in the Senate, and in the debate upon it Webster had an encounter with Calhoun. His reply to Calhoun, printed as " The Constitution not a compact between See also:sovereign States," is one of his closest legal arguments, but somewhat overmatched by the keen logic of his adversary. Webster's support of President Jackson in the South Carolina trouble helped to drive Calhoun into an See also:alliance with Clay; and Clay, whose See also:plan of preserving the Union was by See also:compromise, came forward with a bill for greatly reducing the tariff. Webster, strongly opposed to yielding in this way, made a vigorous speech against the bill, but it passed and South Carolina claimed a victory. In the same year (1833) the Whig party began to take definite See also:form under the leadership of Clay, in opposition, chiefly, to President Jackson's bank policy, and Webster joined the ranks behind Clay with an aspiration for the See also:presidency. He was formally nominated for that See also:office by the Massachusetts legislature in 1835, and received the electoral vote of that state, but of that state only. Four years later his party passed him by for William Henry See also:Harrison, the See also:hero of Tippecanoe, and Webster refused the proffered nomination for vice-president. President Harrison appointed Webster secretary of state but died one See also:month after taking office. John See also:Tyler, who succeeded to the presidency, was soon " read out of his party," and all his See also:cabinet except Webster resigned. Webster hesitated, but after consultation with a delegation of Massachusetts Whigs decided to remain. Although he was severely criticized there were good reasons for his decision. When he entered office the relations between the United States and Great See also:Britain were See also:critical. The M`Leod case' in which the state of New York insisted on trying a See also:British subject, with whose trial the Federal government had no power to interfere, while the British government had declared that it would consider conviction and See also:execution a casus See also:belli; the exercise of the hateful right of See also:search by British vessels on the See also:coast of See also:Africa; the Maine boundary, as to which the See also:action of a state might at any See also:time bring the Federal government into armed collision with Great Britain—all these at once met the new secretary, and he See also:felt that he had no right to abandon his See also:work for party reasons. With the See also:special commissioner from Great Britain, See also:Lord See also:Ashburton, he concluded the treaty of 1842 known as the Webster-Ashburton Treaty. See also:Differences arising out of the M`Leod case were adjusted by extending the principle of See also:extradition. The question of the suppression of the See also:African slave See also:trade, with which was connected the right of search, was settled by an agreement that each nation should keep in service off the coast of Africa a See also:squadron carrying not fewer than eighty guns, and that the two squadrons should act in See also:concert when necessary. The North-east boundary dispute was settled by a compromise which allowed Maine about 5500 sq. m. less than she had claimed, and allowed Great Britain about as much less on her claim, and by an agreement on the part of the government of the United States to pay to Maine and Massachusetts " in equal moieties " the sum of $300,000 for their assent (see MAINE).
Immediately after the treaty had been concluded the Whigs insisted that Webster should leave the cabinet. He refused, for a time, to be driven, but because of their continued attacks, together with his ambition to become president, and because Tyler favoured the See also:annexation of See also:Texas while he was opposed to it, he resigned in May 1843. He was forgiven by his party in the following year, but not until the opposition, provoked by the retention of his position under Tyler, had ruined whatever
' This case See also:grew out of the See also:Canadian See also:rebellion of 1837. See also: In June 1843, on the occasion of the completion of the Bunker Hill monument, Webster delivered another classic oration. In February 1844 he argued the See also:Girard Will Case before the United States Supreme Court. See also:Stephen Girard (q.v.) had devised and bequeathed the See also:residue of his See also:estate for the See also:establishment and See also:maintenance of Girard College, in which no minister of the See also:Gospel of any See also:sect or See also:denomination whatever should be admitted. The suit was brought to break the will, and Webster, for the plaintiffs, after stating that the devise could stand only on See also:condition that it was a charity, argued that it was not a charity because no teaching was such except See also:Christian teaching. He made an eloquent plea for See also:Christianity, but his case was weak in law, and the court sustained the will. Webster was returned to the Senate in 1845. He opposed the annexation of Texas and the Mexican War, and was, as before, the recognized spokesman of his party. At the beginning of the See also:quarrel of the North and the South over the organization of the territory acquired from See also:Mexico, Calhoun contended that the Constitution of the United States extended over this territory and carried See also:slavery with it, but Webster denied this on the ground that the territory was the property of, not part of, the United States, and Webster's view prevailed. The whole See also:matter had, therefore, to be adjusted by Congress, and as the growing intensity of the quarrel revealed the See also:depth of the chasm between the sections, Clay came forward with the famous compromise of 185o, and Webster's last great speech—" The Constitution and the Union," or as it is more commonly known " The Seventh of March Speech "—was in support of this Compromise. It was a See also:noble effort to secure a lasting See also:settlement of the slavery question, but he was bitterly denounced throughout the north as a renegade. In July 185o Webster again became secretary of state, in the cabinet of President See also:Fillmore. Perhaps the most important act of his second See also:term was obtaining the See also:release of See also:Kossuth and other Hungarian refugees who had fled to See also:Turkey, and whose surrender had been demanded by the See also:Austrian government. He died at his See also:home in See also:Marshfield, Massachusetts, on the 24th of See also:October 1852. Webster was twice married—first in r8o8 to See also:Grace, daughter of Rev. See also:Elijah See also:Fletcher, a New Hampshire clergyman. She died in 1828, leaving two sons, Daniel Fletcher, killed in the second See also:battle of See also:Bull Run, and See also:Edward, a See also:major in the United States See also:army, who died while serving in the Mexican War, and a daughter Julia, who married Samuel See also:Appleton. Webster's second wife was Caroline Le See also:Roy, daughter of See also:Jacob Le Roy, a New York See also:merchant. He was married to her in 1829 and she survived him. The universal expression of respect and admiration at the time of Webster's See also:death showed that he had retained the confidence of his people. Never, since the death of See also:Washington, had there been in the United States such a universal expression of public sorrow and bereavement. It is not too much to say that the conviction of the justice of their cause that carried the See also:northern states successfully through the See also:Civil War was largely due to the arguments of Webster. He had convinced the majority of the people that the government created by the Constitution was not a See also:league or confederacy, but a Union, and had all the See also:powers necessary to its maintenance and preservation. He had convinced the Supreme Court, and established the principle in American See also:jurisprudence, that whenever a power is granted by a Constitution, everything that is fairly and reasonably involved in the exercise of that power is granted also. He established the freedom of the instrumentalities of the national government from adverse legislation by the states; freedom of commerce between the different states; the right of Congress to regulate the entire passenger traffic through and from the United States, and the sacredness of public franchises from legislative See also:assault. The establishment of these principles was essential to the integrity and permanence of the American Union. Daniel Webster's Private See also:Correspondence (2 vols., Boston, 1857) ; H. C. See also:Lodge, Daniel Webster (Boston, 1899) ; J. B. McMaster, Daniel Webster (New York, 1902) ; E. P. See also:Wheeler, Daniel Webster, the Expounder of the Constitution (New York, 1905); S. W. McCall, Daniel Webster (Boston, 1902) ; and See also:Norman Hapgood, Daniel Webster (Boston, 1899). (E. P. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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