Daniel Webster
A Famous Orator
Daniel Webster was descended from one of the Puritans who came from Old England to New England in the “great emigration.” His father, Ebenezer Webster, was a sturdy pioneer who fought in the French and Indian War and in the Revolution. “Captain Webster, I believe I can trust you,” said General Washington, and this was the opinion of all who knew him.
Daniel, one of his ten children, was born in 1782 in Salisbury, New Hampshire. He was a delicate child and from babyhood was indulged and petted by his parents and brothers and sisters. He was fond of outdoor sports, but he was fond of study too and easily led his classes. Many characteristic stories are told of his boyhood. It is said that one of his first purchases was a handkerchief on which was printed the recently-adopted Constitution of the United States. Thus as a child he read and studied the great instrument which he was so eloquently to uphold. Looking back to his childhood in later years, Webster said: “I read what I could get to read, went to school when I could, and when not at school was a farmer’s youngest boy, not good for much for want of health and strength, but expected to do something.”
By means of many sacrifices on the part of his family, Daniel was kept at school and finally sent to college. The attitude of the family toward him is illustrated by an incident of his boyhood. He and his brother Ezekiel were one day allowed to go to town, each being provided with a small sum of spending-money. When they returned home Mrs. Webster asked Daniel, “What did you do with your money?”
“Spent it,” was the reply, and there followed an enthusiastic description of the day’s pleasures. Then the mother turned to the silent elder brother.
“And what did you do with yours, ’Zekiel?”
“Lent it to Dan’el,” was the quiet answer.
The family was always “lending to Daniel”—making sacrifices for him and feeling amply repaid by his affection and success.
Young Webster’s talents were early recognized; even in his college days his eloquence and commanding presence and deep sonorous voice attracted attention. When he was eighteen he delivered at Hanover a Fourth of July oration; in crude form it uttered the message—love of country and loyalty to the Constitution—which was the burden of his later speeches. After leaving college he began the study of law. He taught for awhile in order to aid his brother Ezekiel to obtain a collegiate education, but kept steadily on with his studies.
In 1805 he was admitted to the bar, and established himself in a New Hampshire village. He was an eloquent and able speaker, and gradually became prominent in politics, making addresses at Federalist meetings and on public occasions. In 1813, he was sent to Congress as a member of the House. There he met Clay and Calhoun, the other members of the “Great Triumvirate” of which you have heard. Webster spoke ably in behalf of a national bank, of the tariff, and of other measures advocated by the Federalists; he soon came to be recognized as one of the foremost men of his party.
After serving a term in Congress, however, he returned to private life for a few years. He removed to Boston where he continued the practice of his profession, earning money easily and spending it with equal facility, often before it was earned. He was known as one of the ablest lawyers and greatest orators in the country. The effect of his eloquence was aided by his commanding presence. “Good heavens, he is a small cathedral by himself,” said a witty Englishman.
Among Webster’s famous addresses on public occasions were the oration at Plymouth on the two hundredth anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims, the address five years later at the laying of the corner-stone of the Bunker Hill monument, and the eulogy on Adams and Jefferson. The best-known passage in the eulogy is the imaginary speech of John Adams, which many people have supposed to be an extract from a real speech. This begins with the famous words, “Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote.”
After serving again in the House, Webster was sent in 1827 to the Senate; there he supported Henry Clay’s “American system.” About this time the question of the tariff was causing much friction between the North and the South, and the people of South Carolina were discussing nullification. This discussion led to one of Webster’s ablest speeches. In 1830 General Hayne of South Carolina made a speech expressing the view that the Constitution was “a compact between sovereign states” and asserting the right of secession which Kentucky and Virginia in 1799 and New England in 1814 had threatened to exercise. In his reply to Hayne, Webster insisted that the Constitution was not a “compact” but a “national instrument,” and he made an eloquent argument for the Union and the Constitution. This speech was published and scattered far and wide; it was inserted in school-books and declaimed in debating societies; its author was regarded as the “great expounder and defender of the Constitution.”
The life-long ambition of Webster, as of Clay, was to become president, but like his rival he was doomed to disappointment. Many people thought that Webster might have attained the honor in 1852 had it not been for his speech in 1850 on the Fugitive Slave Law. Webster was not an extremist. He considered slavery “one of the greatest evils, both moral and political,” and he was opposed to its being admitted into the western territories. He said, however, that the Constitution “found slavery in the Union, it recognized it, and gave it solemn guaranties” which could not honestly and honorably be broken. He asserted that a state had no right to refuse to give up runaway slaves to their masters, as was provided by the Fugitive Slave Law. He concluded his speech with an eloquent appeal for national harmony and the Union. His position was legally unassailable and he was animated by a desire to conciliate and unite the jarring sections, but the speech called forth a storm of indignation from the abolitionists. There was no longer any hope that he would receive the presidential nomination.
But the time was at hand when earthly honors were a matter of no moment to the great orator. His health was giving way, and he died September 8, 1852, at Marshfield, his beloved home beside the sea. His dying eyes were gladdened by the sight of the flag he loved, the symbol of the “Union and liberty” for which he had striven.