Daniel Webster: The Man and His Time by Robert Remini

A percentage of the proceeds from your purchase of this book from Amazon.com will benefit the
Ashbrook Center.

In almost every respect, Daniel Webster was larger than life. A major player in American politics in the era between the war of 1812 and the beginning of the Civil War, he was involved with every signigicant issue confronting the new nation. Webster had no equal as an orator, then or since. Whether in the Senate, before the Supreme Court, or on the political stump, he was a golden-tounged spellbinder, often holding audienced in thrall for hours. In his lifelong defense of the Constitution and as a constand upholder of the Union, Webster won love and respect. He was often referred to as "the Godlike Daniel," and many people felt he was a natural to become president, none more so than Webster himself. But he was also referred to as "Black Dan" because of his questionable dealings with men of wealth and power, his political conniving, his habitual non-payment of debts, and perhaps even his somewhat roving eye. Webster was an intellectual colossus, a statesman of the first rank, and a man of towering and, finally, unfulfilled ambition.

In this monumental new biography, Robert V. Remini gives us a full life of Webster from his birth, early schooling, and rapid rise as a lawyer and politician in New Hampshire to his equally successful career in Massachusetts where he moved in 1816. Remini treats both the man and his time as they tangle in issues such as westward expansion, growth of democracy, market revolution, slavery and abolitionism, the National Bank, and tariff issues. Webster's famous speeches are fully discussed as are his relations with the other two of the "great triumvirate," Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. Throughout, Remini pays close attention to Webster's personal life--perhaps more than Webster would have liked--his relationships with family and friends, and his murky financial dealings with men of wealth and influence.

This is biography at its best, taking advantage of the great mass of documents made available to The Webster Papers Project at Dartmouth College as well as never-used documents in the Capitol tracing the history of Congress. It is written by a man who has made the early nineteenth century his own through his previous books and articles.

Table of Contents

Genealogy of the Webster Family

Chronology of Webster's Life, 1782-1852

Abbreviations and Short Titles Used in the Notes

1. The Godloke Daniel and the Black Dan

2. Dartmouth

3. "School Keeping" and the Law

4. Portsmouth

5. Congress

6. The Supreme Court

7. The Dartmouth College Case

8. Nationalism and Conservatism

9. The Plymouth Oration

10. An Expanding Reputation

11. The Steamboat Case

12. "The Demosthenes of America"

13. The Bunker Hill Oration

14. The "Godlike Daniel"

15. Election to the Senate

16. "Poor Grace Has Gone to Heaven"

17. Marriage

18. The Webster-Hayne Debate

19. Presidential Politics

20. Marshfield

21. The Bank War

22. Nullification

23. On the Presidential Trail

24. The Great Triumvirate

25. The Whig Party

26. The Presidential Nomination

27. A Humiliating Defeat

28. The Charles River Bridge Case

29. Panic!

30. Europe

31. Secretary of State

32. "I Will Stay Where I Am"

33. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty

34. Formulating Foreign Policy

35. "The Return of the Prodigal Son"

36. Charges of Official Misconduct

37. A Tour of the South

38. A Double Tragedy

39. "I am Old, and Poor, and Proud"

40. The Seventh of March Speech

41. "Union, Union, Union, Now and Forever"

42. Exploring New Channels for Commerce

43. "A Disappointed, Heart-Stricken Man"

44. "That Voice, Alas! We Shall Hear No More Forever"

Biographical Essay