[Sidenote: =Daniel Webster, 1782=]
[Sidenote: =Loves the woods and fields=]
[Sidenote: =A good reader=]
=153. A College Boy and a Young Lawyer.= Daniel Webster was born of
good Puritan stock, in 1782, in New Hampshire. He was a very weakly
child. No one dreamed that one day he would have an iron-like body.
Daniel spent much of his time playing in the woods and fields. He loved
the birds and beasts that he found there. He went to school, but the
schoolmasters were not very learned, and Daniel could read better than
most of them. The teamsters, stopping to water their horses, were glad
to hear him read. He went to work in an old-fashioned sawmill, but he
read books even there in odd moments of time.
[Sidenote: =Webster at Exeter Academy=]
One day in spring his father took him to Exeter Academy to prepare for
college. The boys laughed at his rustic dress and manners. The timid
little fellow was greatly hurt by their scorn.
He finally entered Dartmouth College at the age of fifteen. He was
simple, natural, and full of affection.
[Sidenote: =The best student at Dartmouth=]
[Sidenote: =He loved public speaking=]
Webster was the best student at Dartmouth. He still kept the reading
habit. The students liked him. They had a feeling that he would amount
to something some day. At this time he was tall and thin, with high
cheek bones. His eyes were deep set, and his voice was low and musical
in its tones. He loved to speak, even then.
At the age of eighteen Webster gave the Fourth of July oration in his
college town. The speech was full of the love of country and of the
Union, then in its first days of trial.
[Illustration: HOUSE AT ELM FARMS
_The birthplace of Daniel Webster. The site is now occupied by the New
Hampshire State Orphans Asylum_]
[Sidenote: =Teaches school and studies law=]
He never forgot his father's sacrifice in sending him to college. After
he had finished at Dartmouth, Webster taught school in order that he
might help his parents send his elder brother to college. He afterwards
studied law. But he longed to finish his law studies in Boston. Finally
good fortune put him in the office of Christopher Gore, a wise man, a
great lawyer, and a statesman. In his office Daniel Webster studied
until he was given the right to practice law.
Within a few years, he was earning enough to enable him to take a life
partner, the beautiful and accomplished Grace Fletcher, the daughter of
a minister. She made a delightful home for him and their children.
[Sidenote: =Elected to Congress=]
[Sidenote: =Favors a naval war=]
Webster was gaining name and fame as a lawyer, but the approach of
the War of 1812 drew him into politics. He was elected to Congress,
and took his seat in 1813. Henry Clay was Speaker of the House of
Representatives. Webster's most important speech was in favor of a war
carried on by the navy: "If the war must be continued, go to the ocean.
There the united wishes and exertions of the nation will go with you.
Even our party divisions cease at the water's edge."
[Illustration: SCENE OF THE FOURTH OF JULY ORATION
_Daniel Webster asserting the dignity of patriotism at Dartmouth, July
4, 1800_]
[Sidenote: =Webster's appearance=]
[Sidenote: =His battle with Hayne=]
After the war, Webster left Congress for a number of years. He was now
a great man. When he entered a room, by his mere look and presence he
drew all eyes toward him, and all conversation hushed. In size, he
looked larger and broader than he really was. His forehead was broad
and massive. It towered above his large, dark, deep-set eyes. His hair
was black and glossy as a raven's wing. He looked thus in 1830 in the
Senate, when he made his famous speech in reply to Senator Hayne of
South Carolina.
[Illustration: SCENE IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE
_Daniel Webster defending the Federal Constitution against Hayne's idea
of nullification_]
[Sidenote: =Denies the right of nullification=]
[Sidenote: ="Liberty and Union, one and inseparable"=]
=154. The Greatest Statesman of his Time.= Hayne had spoken against a
protective tariff and in favor of nullification. Webster felt called
upon to reply. He denied the right of a state to nullify a law of
Congress, and said that nullification was another name for secession.
He closed his great speech with these words: "When my eyes shall be
turned to behold, for the last time, the sun in heaven, may I not
see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once
glorious Union ... but may I see our flag with not a stripe erased or
polluted, nor a single star obscured ... but everywhere spread all
over in characters of living light, blazing on its ample folds, as
they float over the sea and over the land ... that sentiment, dear to
every American heart--Liberty _and_ Union, now and forever, one and
inseparable!"
[Illustration: DANIEL WEBSTER
_From a daguerreotype taken in 1850 by J. J. Hawes of Boston_]
This speech made Daniel Webster immortal. It did more; it fired the
heart of every lover of his country.
[Sidenote: =Opposes Clay's Compromise Tariff=]
We saw how South Carolina went on toward nullification, and how Clay's
Compromise Tariff settled the difficulty. Webster strongly opposed
this compromise, and said that South Carolina should get out of the
difficulty the best way she could.
[Sidenote: =Jackson praises Webster=]
President Jackson was delighted, and praised Webster in public and in
private.
[Sidenote: =Harrison makes him Secretary of State=]
When Harrison captured the presidency, after the greatest campaign
ever seen up to that time, he wanted the best men in the Whig party to
advise him, so he made Daniel Webster Secretary of State.
[Sidenote: =Webster back in the Senate=]
It was a sad day when President Harrison died, after being in office
just one month. John Tyler, of Virginia, the vice-president, became the
president. But he would not accept measures which Congress had passed.
Daniel Webster left the cabinet after a time because he disliked the
way Tyler was doing. He went back to the United States Senate, where he
joined Clay, supporting the great Compromise of 1850.
[Sidenote: =His speech on the Compromise=]
On March 7, Webster made his speech on the Compromise, entitled "For
the Union and the Constitution." It was an appeal to all persons to
stand by the Constitution and the Union. In blaming both the North and
the South, much to the surprise of everybody, he blamed the North more
than the South.
Because he did this, many of his supporters in the North, especially
those in New England, turned their backs upon him. Webster was an old
man now. Ever since 1832 he had looked forward to being nominated for
the presidency, but his party always took some other man. His last days
were made bitter and unhappy by the thought that some old friends had
forsaken him.
[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES IN 1850]
[Sidenote: =Boston welcomes Webster=]
[Sidenote: =Death at Marshfield, 1852=]
One bright spot for Webster lay in the fact that President Fillmore
invited him to be Secretary of State again. After two years of service,
he went back to Boston. He was received with joy by some of his friends
and neighbors, and was hailed with shouts by the multitude. This must
have made his heart leap with gratitude, for the praise of friends
is pleasant. But men saw he was not like his former self. He went to
his home at Marshfield, where he died, October 24, 1852, the greatest
figure in American politics in his day.