This project began for me at Dartmouth. As a student there, one is rather constantly bombarded with imagery and reminders of the school’s favorite son. The continuing use of the “college” moniker for a school that is clearly, by definition, a university dates back to his famous peroration in Dartmouth College v. Woodward which according to college legend brought tears to the eyes of Chief Justice John Marshall. It was, I suppose, also a key case in defining the early limits and understanding of the Constitution’s Contracts Clause.

Beyond these prosaic and slightly silly starting points though I was unclear where to begin. So this weekend I decided on a different but perhaps equally shallow starting point: I visited Webster's statue in Central Park. The statue sits right near 72nd street on the Westside of the park (you drive right past it if you take the road through the park down to midtown) and on its base is inscribed “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseperable.” This is the closing line of his famous Second Reply to Hayne which he delivered in the Senate in 1830 during a course of debates over the nature of the Constitution with Senator Robert Hayne of South Carolina.

This speech and this statue then are my jumping off points for this project. After some digging on the internet I was able to find Robert C. Winthrop’s address at the unveiling of Webster’s statue in 1876. Winthrop had trained in Webster’s law office and knew him quite well. Though his speech at this unveiling is short it provides a fascinating first level of understanding of how such a giant of New England earned the honor of a statue in Central Park so quickly. Winthrop focuses on the image of Webster as the great protector of the US Constitution: “No Roman schoolboy ever committed to memory the laws of the Twelve Tablets more diligently and thoroughly than did he the Constitution of his country. He had it by heart in more senses of the word than one, and every part and particle of it seemed only less precious and sacred to him than his Bible.” This is the enduring idea and memory of Webster. He was a member of the great Senatorial Triumvirate and the greatest defender of the Constitution of his day. The mental images we have of him all seem to stem from either his imposing solo portraits or Joseph Gales enormous painting of his Second Reply. Therefore, on one hand, it seems easy to accept the idea that it is only natural that relatively soon after a bloody and fractious Civil War (which Webster tried valiantly to prevent and certainly helped delay by three to four decades) New York City as one of if not the most important city in the industrial North should erect a statue of this Patron Saint of the Republic and Constitution in a place of honor. Yet this explanation falls short.

Winthrop’s also goes on to talk about the great esteem in which Webster held New York City: “he would have appreciated such a tribute as this, I think, above all other posthumous honors…in your noble City, as he said, he recognized ‘the commercial capital, not only of the United States, but of the whole continent from the pole to the South Sea.’ ‘The growth of this City,’ said he, ‘and the Constitution of the United States are coevals and contemporaries.’ ‘New York herself,’ he exclaimed, ‘is the noblest eulogy on the Union of the States.’” In hindsight, and probably even when it was spoken in 1876, this too falls short. It is well and good that Webster should have praised New York City a few lines randomly culled from a life making speeches, arguments, and pronouncements is not reason enough for a statue in Central Park.

Instead, I was drawn back to Webster’s Second Reply to Hayne and the remarkable ease with which it and so many of his other speeches are found in print and online these days. It must be admitted that Webster lived and practiced in an era of orators where speeches were widely anticipated events. Yet, in this age of orators Webster reigned supreme. His speeches were routinely copied down and disseminated to the public (this in itself was not an extraordinary event but the broad circulation of his speeches was exceptional) and in researching Webster they became the primary ever present theme that I was unable to really escape from. Beyond the simple volume of Webster’s speeches that we have records of today what caught my attention was their diversity. While many of his famous speeches like his Second Reply and his March 7, 1850 oration were strong defenses of the Republic and the Constitution (and the various measures taken in Congress to prevent secession) he was by no means restricted to those topics. Indeed, a great many examples that we have of his speeches are not from his public career as a politician but from his private career as a lawyer. Only a few months after his debate with Hayne on the Senate floor Webster was called north participated in the Salem Murder trial that would become one of his most famous cases. We still have the complete text of his closing argument in this and many other cases. My reason for bringing this up is that I think that a large part of understanding Webster’s appeal to Wall Street and New York is aided by understanding the world he lived in.

Politics at this point in American history was not yet an entirely professional career. Many of the politicians of the day were, like Webster, practicing lawyers on the side, and I think this dual nature of Webster’s professional personality is part of what made him so readily adoptable by Wall Street. One of the best examples of this dual nature of the profession of politics at this era comes from the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville and his classic study Democracy in America. In that book he talks about his visits to the two houses of Congress. Of the House of Representatives he said, “One is struck by the vulgar demeanor of that great assembly. Often there is not a distinguished man in the whole number.” On the other hand, "At a few yards' distance is the door of the Senate, which contains within a small space a large proportion of the celebrated men of America. Scarcely an individual is to be seen in it who has not had an active and illustrious career: The Senate is composed of eloquent advocates, distinguished generals, wise magistrates, and statesmen of note, whose arguments would do honor to the most remarkable parliamentary debates of Europe." This was Webster’s milieu. He was not a professional politician but was rather a member this august body of august men who happened to, in addition to their flourishing private careers and achievements, also serve their country as a Senator out of a sense of responsibility and respect (or perhaps simply because they were asked to. Indeed, for all his fire and passion for religion, Union, and the Constitution Webster had some serious faults. He loved money but was absolutely terrible with it (he was constantly in debt to all and sundry including, for example, the great ornithologist painter John James Audubon who Webster owed money to for his original double elephant folio edition of Birds of America) and took many cases, such as the Salem trial because he was handsomely paid to not out of any fiery personal belief in the validity of the case or cause. In the final count he was in many ways just a man of action and commerce who also happened to be a politician. His image today is one of an unbendable idealist but during his lifetime he switched his position on many issues including tree trade and protective tariffs based on the whims of his constituents and his own personal interest. I am not trying to imply that Wall Street saw a kindred spirit in Webster because of his love of money and the way it moved him to certain actions. However, I do think that there was a duality to his character, a devotion to the country tinged and heavily colored by his own career and money, that made him an accessible and understandable character to the financiers of New York.

The final point I will make in this initial foray is a quick reference to Stephen Vincent Benet’s 1938 short story “The Devil and Daniel Webster.” Though the main theme of this story is patriotism, I think it is I interesting that we are shown a portrayal of Webster as a lawyer, and not a politician, railing against the Devil. It seems that we have chosen to remember Webster maybe more for his legal career and eloquence in that field than his political career. Not many people can tell you today who the members of the Senatorial Great Triumvirate were, but everyone knows of the great lawyer Daniel Webster (though to be fair my opinions here may once again be colored by my Dartmouth experience).

Either way, this is just an initial foray and explanation of the research I have undertaken. There is a good chance that my conclusion are leaps of faith that are fundamentally incorrect, but I thought this was an interesting light in which to examine this great figure. What follows is a list of sources that I have found and thought worthwhile. They are generally divided into three categories: Introductory and Background Reading, Online Sources, and Library Sources (unless otherwise noted the Library Sources are available in the CLS Library).

Preliminary Readings

-A Collection of Daniel Webster's Speeches

-Dartmouth Library Collection of "Webster's Great Speeches"

-The Devil and Daniel Webster

Online Sources (Other than those embedded in the above text):

-Henry Cabot Lodge, Daniel Webster, Houghtin, Mifflin & Co. (Boston, 1883)

-New York Times article about Webster’s funeral, November 1, 1852

-Sydney George Fisher, The True Daniel Webster, J. B. Lippincott & Co. (Philadelphia, 1911)

-The Daniel Webster Estate & Heritage Center. The Resources section is quite good.

-Irving H. Bartlett, Daniel Webster, W. W. Norton & Co. Inc. (New York, 1978)

-Frank Bergen, Webster’s Work for the Union, Yale University Press (New Haven, 1918)

-Everett Pepperrell Wheeler, Daniel Webster: Expounder of the Constitution, G.P. Putnam Son’s, (New York, 1905)

- Daniel Webster, The Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster vols. 1-18, Little, Brown, (Boston 1903)

-Will C. Wood, Webster on Protection, The Home Market Club, (Boston, 1894)

-The Webster Centennial: Proceedings of the Webster Historical Society at Marshfield Mass., October 12, 1882, ed. Thomas Harrison Cummings, Webster Historical Society (Boston, 1883)

-Thomas F. Bayard, Oration Pronounced on Webster Commemoration Day, June 28, 1882, At Dartmouth College, The Republican Press Association, (Concord, 1882)

-Stephen M. Allen, Address at the Tomb of Daniel Webster, Webster Historical Society (Boston, 1882)

-George Ticknor Curtis, The Last Years of Daniel Webster: a Monograph, D. Appleton & Co. (New York, 1878)

-Peter Harvey, Reminiscences and Anecdotes of Daniel Webster, Little, Brown, and Company (Boston 1877)

-Catalogue of the Private Library of the Late Daniel Webster to be Sold at Auction

-Daniel Webster, The Constitution not a compact between sovereign states : a speech, Woodfall and Kinder (London 1862)

-Daniel Webster, Daniel Webster on Slavery : extracts from some of the speeches of Mr. Webster on the subject of slaver, William Carter and Brother, (Boston 1861)

- Daniel Webster, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster Vols. 1 & 2, ed. Fletcher Webster, Little Brown (Boston 1857)

-Prairie Bird, Poem, and other Thoughts : suggested upon the death of Hon. Daniel Webster (Boston 1854)

Library Sources: Coming Soon

In the mean time, it is worth looking at the complete listing of the works of Webster that the CLS Library has:

-Webster, Daniel

-- AlexLawrence - 12 Nov 2009