Webster, DANIEL, American statesman and orator, was born at Salisbury, New Hampshire, 18th January 1782. His father, a sturdy farmer of the border, was a member of the state legislature and a county judge. As a child Daniel was delicate, and therefore exempt from the labours of the farm. He entered Dartmouth College in 1797, poorly prepared, but soon impressed his teachers with his remarkable power of acquiring what interested him and his fluent eloquence. He graduated in 1801, studied law at Salisbury and Boston, was admitted to the bar in 1805, and quickly rose into notice at Portsmouth, the chief town of his state. Political discussion also enlisted his energies, and with the New England Federalists he opposed the second war with Great Britain. Sent to congress in 1813, he served two terms, maintaining an honourable position in an unpopular party. In 1816 he removed to Boston, where he soon became prominent as an advocate. Having been admitted to the bar of the United States Supreme Court, he established his forensic fame by the Dartmouth College case, which formed an era in the interpretation of constitutional law. The New Hampshire Supreme Court had sustained the legislature in an attempt to remodel the college; but in 1818 Webster, by a great speech, moved Chief Justice Marshall to reverse that decision, and it was declared that the original royal charter of Dartmouth, in spite of the change of sovereignty consequent upon American independence, was still a contract which could not be impaired without violating the national constitution. In the field of popular eloquence Webster's fame was first made national by his oration on the 200th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims—an effort which was surpassed by his address at the laying of the corner-stone of the Bunker Hill monument, 17th June 1825, and equalled by his eulogy on Adams and Jefferson in August 1826.
Returning to congress in December 1823 as a representative from Massachusetts, Webster found few rivals. Henry Clay, then Speaker of the House, made him chairman of the judiciary committee. His speech on the Greek revolution, delivered in January 1824, and translated into most European languages, extended his fame still more widely. It was the first expression of his conception of the grand destiny of the United States. After rendering important services in the House of Representatives, Webster was in June 1827 transferred to the senate, the scene of his greatest triumphs. In the early part of his congressional career he had favoured free trade and opposed the policy of protection. But in 1828 he gave his adhesion to Clay's 'American system,' and vigorously defended the new protective tariff. His reason for the change was that the people of New England, adapting themselves to the policy imposed on them by the previous action of the Federal government, had established manufactures, and that it was now the duty of the government to respect and uphold vested interests. Webster's whole career was marked by a deep reverence for established institutions and accomplished facts. The principle of nationality, the dominant passion of his mind, was fully manifested in his prompt and thrilling reply to Senator R. Y. Hayne of South Carolina, who had in January 1830 attacked New England as opposing the growth of the Union. After repelling personal assaults and the slanders on his native section, he exposed the fallacy of nullification, and portrayed with matchless skill an ideal of the Union, which deeply impressed the hearts of the people, and became thenceforth a potent factor in the national life.
Benton describes Webster as then 'the colossal figure on the political stage;' he was courted by President Jackson, whom he was destined soon to oppose stoutly; he was rivalled only by Clay and Calhoun, above whom he towered in intellect, but before whom he was deficient in will-power; and in the crisis 'will more than intellect was to rule.' After wearisome years of opposition the Whig party triumphed in 1840, and Webster was called into President Harrison's cabinet as Secretary of State. Harrison died a month later, and his successor, Tyler (q.v.), changed the policy of the administration. Four of the secretaries resigned, and Webster was criticised and denounced by his own party for remaining. His persistence was justified by the successful negotiation of the Ashburton treaty with Great Britain. When this protracted business was finally settled he resigned in May 1843. In 1844 Webster refused his party's nomination for president and supported Clay, who was, however, defeated by Polk. In 1845 Webster returned to the senate. He assisted in averting a threatened war with England over the north-western boundary, which was fixed on the parallel of 49° suggested by him. His speech in defence of the Ashburton treaty in 1846 contained also answers to personal attacks on himself as being in the pay of New England manufacturers. The truth is that, being careless in money matters and lavish in expenses, he had accepted assistance from political friends, but he was entirely free from corruption or defalcation. The leading event of Polk's administration was the war with Mexico, which Webster opposed, as he did also any acquisition of territory by conquest. The war gave the Whig party its next candidate for the presidency, General Taylor. Webster bitterly declared the nomination 'one not fit to be made,' and refused the second place on the ticket. Yet he advised his friends to vote for Taylor, who was elected.
The question of slavery, which had long been agitated, now became the all-absorbing problem. Webster had held the prevalent Northern view that slavery was, under the constitution, a matter of domestic policy, left with the states, not to be interfered with by the general government. He deprecated the annexation of Texas and the extension of slavery, but he rebuked the formation of the Free Soil party, and in 1850, after expressing his approval of Clay's compromise, he wrote that he abhorred slavery, but was unwilling to break up the Union to abolish it. His final position was declared in his speech of the 7th March 1850, in which, after a dispassionate review of the history of slavery, he detailed the grievances of both North and South, giving emphasis and sympathy to the latter. His Northern friends were dismayed, while the Abolitionists were enraged. Whittier gave voice to a deep popular feeling in his Ichabod. Webster had come to regard slavery as one of the vested interests of the American nation. He had now lost his controlling influence in Massachusetts; but he was still a factor in national politics. After President Taylor's death in July 1850 Fillmore called him to his former post as Secretary of State, where again there were differences with England to settle—a protectorate in Honduras and disputes about the fisheries. Webster was deeply disappointed at not receiving the Whig nomination for the presidency in 1852. His health and spirits gave way, and he was obliged to retire from Washington to his home at Marshfield, Massachusetts, where he died on 24th October 1852.
Webster was the greatest of American orators. He was of large frame, and his brain greatly exceeded the average weight. His dark face, otherwise heavy, was lighted by large expressive eyes. His voice was of matchless compass, his utterance deliberate. Good taste, good sense, and an unrivalled gift of arrangement and style supported his glowing eloquence. The imposing dignity of his manner often rose to majesty, and he was called by his admirers 'the godlike Daniel.' As a secretary of state he was admirably qualified; his mighty memory and his power of working hard when he chose fitted him to deal with complicated international questions as they arose. But his statesmanship was throughout marked and limited by his reluctance to interfere with established institutions. His lasting service to his country was as the apostle of nationality. It must be admitted that his moral character deteriorated under adulation and the disappointment of his most cherished ambition. Had his conscience matched his intellect he would have taken a nobler position on the question of slavery, and might have attained the first rank among American statesmen. Dreading innovation, he was content to be known as 'the great expounder of the constitution.'
Webster's Speeches, Forensic Arguments, and Diplomatic Papers were published in six volumes (1851); his Private Correspondence in two volumes (1857). The best biographies are by G. T. Curtis (2 vols. 1869) and by Henry Cabot Lodge (1884).