The Political Career of Daniel Webster Essay -- Biography Biographies

The Political Career of Daniel Webster Daniel Webster contributed a large potion of the Civil War. To begin, he was born in Salisbury, New Hampshire on January 18, 1782. His parents were farmers so many people didn't know what to expect of him. Even though his parents were farmers, he still graduated from Dartmouth College in 1801. After he learned to be a lawyer, Daniel Webster opened a legal practice in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1807. Webster quickly became an experienced and very good lawyer and a Federalist party leader. In 1812, Webster was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives because of his opposition to the War of 1812, which had crippled 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 the next 6 years, Webster won major constitutional cases in front of the Supreme Court making him almost famous. Some of his most notable cases were Dartmouth College v. Woodward, Gibbons v. Ogden, and McCulloch v. Maryland. He made himself the nations leading lawyer and an outstanding skilled public speaker or an orator. In 1823, Webster was returned to Congress from Boston, and in 1827 he was elected senator from Massachusetts. New circumstances let Daniel Webster become a champion of American nationalism. With the Federalist Party dead, he joined the National Republican party, he joined with Westerner Henry Clay and then endorsing federal aid for roads in the West. In 1828, since Massachusettses had shifted the economic interest from shipping to manufacturing, Webster decided to back the high-tariff bill of that year to help the small new manufacturing businesses grow. Angry souther... ...sue of expansion of slavery. Webster opposed the expansion but feared even more the separation of the union over the dispute of the expansion of slavery. In a powerful speech on March 7, 1850, he supported the Compromise of 1850, lowering southern threats of separation but urging northern support for a stronger law for the recovery of fugitive slaves. Webster was again named secretary of state in July 1850 by President Millard Fillmore and supervised the strict enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act. Webster's stand on the Act divided the Whig party, but it helped preserve the Union and keep it together for a little while after until the Civil War started. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Prodigy - Grolier Electronic Publishing, 1990, W-section 2. Daniel Webster - John Melvin, Copyright 1976, Bonhill Publishing 3. Civil War Heros - American Books, 1979, p.244-247