Daniel Webster

Massachusetts orator whose Senate speeches made him the voice of Union and nationalism.

Overview

Webster served New Hampshire and then Massachusetts in both chambers across four decades, from 1827 to 1841 and 1845 to 1850 in the Senate. His 1830 reply to Robert Hayne, closing with liberty and union, now and forever, became the classic statement of national indivisibility, and he championed the Second Bank of the United States against Andrew Jackson. As Secretary of State he negotiated the Webster-Ashburton Treaty fixing the Canadian border. His support for the Compromise of 1850, including the fugitive slave provision, cost him standing in the North, and he never gained the presidency he sought.