?Daniel Webster contributed a large potion of the Civil War. To begin,he was born in Salisbury, New Hampshire on January 18, 1782.
His parentswere farmers so many people didn’t know what to expect of him. Even thoughhis parents were farmers, he still graduated from Dartmouth College in1801. After he learned to be a lawyer, Daniel Webster opened a legalpractice in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1807. ?Webster quickly became an experienced and very good lawyer and aFederalist party leader.
In 1812, Webster was elected to the U. S. House ofRepresentatives because of his opposition to the War of 1812, which hadcrippled New England’s shipping trade. After two more terms in the House,Webster decided to leave the Congress and move to Boston in 1816.
Over thenext 6 years, Webster won major constitutional cases in front of theSupreme Court making him almost famous. Some of his most notable caseswere Dartmouth College v. Woodward, Gibbons v. Ogden, and McCulloch v. Maryland. He made himself the nations leading lawyer and an outstandingskilled public speaker or an orator.
In 1823, Webster was returned toCongress from Boston, and in 1827 he was elected senator fromMassachusetts. ?New circumstances let Daniel Webster become a champion of Americannationalism. With the Federalist Party dead, he joined the NationalRepublican party, he joined with Westerner Henry Clay and then endorsingfederal aid for roads in the West. In 1828, since Massachusettses hadshifted the economic interest from shipping to manufacturing, Websterdecided to back the high-tariff bill of that year to help the small newmanufacturing businesses grow.
Angry southern leaders condemned thetariff, and South Carolina’s John C. Calhoun argued that South Carolina hadthe right to nullify or ignore the law. Replying to South Carolina’sRobert Hayne in a Senate debate in 1830, Webster triumphantly defended theUnion states by a very powerful but short speech. He said, “Liberty andUnion, now and forever, one and inseparable,” made him a favorite and madehim well known among many people worldwide.
?Webster and President Andrew Jackson joined forces in 1833 to try tochange South Carolina’s attempt to nullify the tariff, but Webster and theWhigs battled him on other issues including his attack on the NationalBank. Webster ran for the presidency in the election of 1836 as one of thethree Whig candidates, but he mostly only Massachusetts voted for him so helost badly because no one else voted for him. For the rest of his careerhe tried very hard to get to the presidency and ran in many electionshoping to get his shot at the office, but it never happened and he failedevery time. ?In 1841, Daniel Webster came close to his idea of President but wasonly named secretary. President William Henry Harrison appointed him tothis position. When he got killed in April 1841, John Tyler was brought tothe presidency.
In September 1841, all the Whigs resigned from the cabinetexcept Webster. He remained to settle an argument with Great Britainhaving to do with the Maine-Canada boundary and he wanted to finish theWebster-Ashburn Treaty, which he finally did in 1842. The Whigs finallypressured Webster enough so that he would leave the cabinet with everyoneelse in May of 1843. ?The annexation of Texas in 1845 and the war with Mexico, both which,were disliked by Webster, forced the country to face the issue of expansionof slavery.
Webster opposed the expansion but feared even more theseparation of the union over the dispute of the expansion of slavery. In apowerful speech on March 7, 1850, he supported the Compromise of 1850,lowering southern threats of separation but urging northern support for astronger law for the recovery of fugitive slaves. Webster was again namedsecretary of state in July 1850 by President Millard Fillmore andsupervised the strict enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act. Webster’sstand on the Act divided the Whig party, but it helped preserve the Unionand keep it together for a little while after until the Civil War started. ?BIBLIOGRAPHY?1.
Prodigy – Grolier Electronic Publishing, 1990, W-section2. Daniel Webster – John Melvin, Copyright 1976, Bonhill Publishing 3.Civil War Heros – American Books, 1979, p.244-247
