Daniel Webster (1782-1852) rose to prominence in the 19th century as one of America’s greatest orators and most influential leaders. Under the leadership of Presidents William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and Millard Fillmore, he served as Secretary of State in the US Senate, Executive Branch, and House of Representatives.

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Key Facts & Information

EARLY LIFE

• Daniel was born on January 18, 1782 in the town of Salisbury, New Hampshire, now part of the city of Franklin. He was Abigail and Ebenezer Webster’s ninth child. His father was a farmer, tavern-keeper, and local authority who served in the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. 
• As a child, his family exempted him from working on the family farm because he was frequently sick. He often entertained tavern visitors with readings and recitations, exhibiting his oratory abilities early on.
• In 1796, he enrolled in Phillips Exeter Academy, a preparatory school in Exeter, New Hampshire. 
• After months of studying the classics and other topics under a clergyperson, Webster was enrolled at Dartmouth College at 15 in 1797.
• Declamation class was required at Dartmouth, honing his oratory skills while he also practiced at the United Fraternity Literary Society. This helped him conquer his fear of public speaking, which his schoolmates ridiculed. He also managed the school paper and became a skilled public speaker. Daniel Webster graduated from Dartmouth in 1801 and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.
• He served as an apprentice under Salisbury lawyer Thomas W. Thompson after graduating from Dartmouth. Though he had little desire to study the law, he believed that being a lawyer would allow him to “live comfortably” and avoid the spells of poverty that had struck his father. Webster temporarily resigned from the law firm to work as a schoolteacher at Fryeburg Academy to help support his brother Ezekiel’s education at Dartmouth.
• In 1805, he was admitted to the Massachusetts bar.
• In 1808, he married Grace Fletcher, daughter of a New Hampshire clergyman, and the couple had five children.

RISE TO PROMINENCE

• In 1804, he took a job in Boston with prominent lawyer Christopher Gore. He learned about a wide range of legal and political matters. He met many New England politicians while clerking for Gore, who was engaged in international, national, and state politics.
• He returned to New Hampshire after being admitted to the bar to establish his profession in Boscawen. He became more politically involved and began to campaign for Federalist issues and candidates on a local level.
• After his father died in 1806, he handed over his practice to his brother, Ezekiel, and established a law office in the larger town of Portsmouth. Over a decade, he resided in Portsmouth, and he handled around 1700 cases, being one of the most prominent lawyers in New Hampshire. He was appointed, along with two other lawyers, to revise the New Hampshire criminal code and devise regulations for state prisons.
• Webster was lured into politics by the economic concerns of his clients, wealthy shipowners, and merchants in Portsmouth. He opposed the economic blockade and other policies of Thomas Jefferson‘s administration that aimed to limit trade with France and Great Britain.
• Following the declaration of war by the United States against Great Britain in 1812, Webster gave a public speech in July criticizing Jeffersonian policies as unjust and punishing New England. The address, known as the Rockingham Memorial, helped drive Webster’s entry to Congress as a Federalist Party member in 1813.

EARLY POLITICAL CAREER

• From 1813 to 1817, he was a representative from New Hampshire in the House of Representatives.
• In the United States Capitol, he became renowned as a skilled orator, and frequently protested against the Madison administration’s war policies.
• During his term in Congress, he seriously considered migrating to Boston or New York in search of more profitable legal practice. In 1816, he declined to run for re-election to the House of Representatives, instead relocating to Boston.

LEADING LAWYER

• He gained a reputation as a competent lawyer and fought numerous high-profile cases before the United States Supreme Court during Chief Justice John Marshall’s tenure.
• From 1814 until 1824, he was involved in eight famous constitutional cases.  Many of these, especially Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819) and Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), were decided by the Supreme Court based mainly on his arguments.
• In McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), Marshall’s most famous remark, “the power to tax is the power to destroy”, was derived from Webster’s case against the state of Maryland. As a result of his Supreme Court victory, many people began referring to him as the “Great Expounder and Defender of the Constitution”.
• Daniel Webster was elected as a delegate to the 1820 Massachusetts Constitutional Convention because his reputation as a constitutional lawyer grew. 

RETURN TO POLITICS

• He agreed to run for the United States House of Representatives in 1822 at the request of Federalist leaders and the Boston business elites. He was re-elected to Congress in December 1823.
• His tenure in the House from 1822 to 1828 was marked by legislative success in changing the United States penal code and legislative failure in extending the size of the Supreme Court. He strongly backed the National Republican Adams administration, especially Adams’ campaign in the highly contested election of 1824.
• While in Congress, Webster frequently delivered public speeches, including eulogies honoring Thomas Jefferson and John Adams (who died on July 4, 1826). He gained a reputation as the country’s best public speaker.
• Webster’s performance in the House and reputation as an orator led to his election to the Senate from Massachusetts in June 1827, with the support of the coalition from both Federalists and Republicans. His first wife died in January 1828, and in December 1829, he married Caroline LeRoy.

SENATE CAREER

• Webster supported the Tariff of Abominations in 1828, which put him in conflict with John C. Calhoun, the intelligent and fiery political leader from South Carolina.
• Sectional disputes occurred, and Webster, a close ally of Calhoun, and U.S. Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina faced off in Senate floor debates in January 1830.
• Hayne advocated for state rights, while Webster fought forcefully for federal government authority in a famous rebuttal.
• Webster backed President Andrew Jackson‘s tactic of threatening to send federal soldiers to South Carolina as the Nullification Crisis progressed. The problem was averted before there was any violent action.
• After allying with Jackson during the Nullification Crisis, Webster battled bitterly against him over the Second Bank of the United States, which Jackson set out to destroy because he believed it was undemocratic and illegal. Webster became the bank’s defender, but when the bank’s charter expired in 1836, his efforts were unsuccessful. 
• The establishment of the Whig Party as a counterpart to the Jacksonian Democrats gave Webster a new party, and he ran for president on the Whig platform in 1836 but was defeated.
• After the 1844 election, Webster considered retiring from public duty, but accepted the election to the United States Senate in early 1845. He was re-elected the same year.
• Webster attempted to prevent the implementation of Polk’s domestic programs, but the Democratic-controlled Congress decreased tariff rates through the Walker tariff and re-established an Independent Treasury system.
• Webster opposed slavery spreading to new American territories. However, in the late 1840s, he began to embrace Henry Clay’s compromises to keep the Union intact. In his final significant action inside the Senate, he voted in favor of the Compromise of 1850, which contained the controversial Fugitive Slave Act in New England.
• During Senate debates, Webster made a widely anticipated speech called the Seventh of March Speech, in which he advocated in support of maintaining the Union.
• He resigned from the Senate a few months later, after Millard Fillmore was elected President.

SECRETARY OF STATE

• Daniel Webster ran for president in 1840 but was defeated by William Henry Harrison, who won the presidential election. Webster was appointed Secretary of State by Harrison.
• John Tyler succeeded Harrison when Harrison died of pneumonia in 1841. Despite their ideological differences (Tyler was a supporter of states’ rights) and personalities, Tyler and Webster reportedly had a good working relationship, partially because both considered Clay a rival for leadership in the Whig Party.
• Webster, unlike the rest of the cabinet, did not quit after Harrison’s successor, President John Tyler, vetoed the Bank of the United States, and instead remained heavily involved in discussions with Britain over the boundary between Canada and Maine.
• Webster resigned in May 1843 as Tyler moved away from Whig principles and began organizing a Democratic bid for the 1844 U.S. presidential election.
• After President Fillmore reappointed Webster as Secretary of State in 1850, he focused on domestic issues such as the 1850 Compromise and the Fugitive Slave Law.
• Fillmore appointed Webster not just because of his national prestige and pro-compromise stance but also because of his foreign policy knowledge. Fillmore depended on Webster to steer his administration’s foreign policy.
• In 1852, Webster ran for president on the Whig nomination but was defeated by war hero Winfield Scott. 

DEATH AND LEGACY

• Webster’s health deteriorated following a carriage accident in May 1852, which left him with head trauma and internal injuries that made it difficult for him to serve as secretary of state. On October 24, 1852, he died at his home in Marshfield, Massachusetts.
• He was laid to rest in Winslow Cemetery, close to his estate.
• Webster earned respect and appreciation for his Seventh of March speech in 1850 as support of the 1850 compromise measures that managed to postpone the Civil War. In Profiles in Courage, John F. Kennedy referred to Webster’s approval of the compromise as one of the “greatest acts of fearless principle” in Senate history, despite its risk to his presidential aspirations.
• In 1959, the Senate selected Webster, Calhoun, Clay, Robert M. La Follette, and Robert A. Taft as the five greatest senators of all time.
• Remini points out that before textbooks were widely available, Daniel Webster’s historical orations taught Americans their history.
• While opinions on his career in politics vary, Webster is widely regarded for his abilities as an orator and lawyer. According to former Solicitor General Seth P. Waxman, “in the arena of advocacy, Webster doesn’t just sit inside the Pantheon: he is Zeus himself”.
• Webster’s legacy has been honored in various ways, such as the Daniel Webster Highway in New Hampshire and Mount Webster in Massachusetts. His statue is in the National Statuary Hall Collection, and another is in Central Park.
• The very first Webster postage stamp was released in 1870. Daniel Webster was honored on 14 different U.S. postage stamps, more than most U.S. Presidents.
• There are 27 towns named after Webster in different states of the United States. 

Daniel Webster Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle that includes everything you need to know about Daniel Webster across 28 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use worksheets that are perfect for teaching kids about Daniel Webster, who rose to prominence in the 19th century as one of America’s greatest orators and most influential leaders. Under the leadership of presidents Harrison, Tyler, and Fillmore, he served as Secretary of State.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

1. Daniel Webster Facts 
2. Webster’s Bio
3. Webster’s Inquiry
4. Major Factors
5. Political Journey
6. This Is Him
7. Think Like a Leader
8. Headlines
9. Legacy in a Crossword
10. Stamp from the Present
11. Wisdom in Words

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Daniel Webster most known for?

In 1827, Webster was chosen to represent the United States and cemented his legacy with a spectacular debate against Senator Robert Hayne of South Carolina. Their argument revolved around states’ rights and nullification laws, concluding with Webster’s famous battle cry: “Liberty and Union are inseparable! Now, forevermore!”

Did Daniel Webster free slaves?

Although he was ethically against slavery, Webster exploited enslaved labor at home. His twist on this practice was that he would purchase their freedom and offer them a job to pay off their debt for him in return.

What did Daniel Webster defend?

Through his unwavering defense of the Union during the Nullification Crisis, Daniel Webster secured a place in history as one of America’s most renowned advocates for national unity.

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