Daniel Webster (18 January 1782 – 24 October 1852) was Secretary of State of the United States from 1841 to 1843 (succeeding John Forsyth and preceding Abel P. Upshur) and from 1850 to 1852 (succeeding John M. Clayton and preceding Edward Everett), as well as serving as senator from Massachusetts from 1827 to 1841 (succeeding Elijah H. Mills and preceding Rufus Choate) and from 1845 to 1850 (succeeding Rufus Choate and preceding Robert Charles Winthrop). A member of the liberal American Whig Party, Webster was known as an excellent orator and diplomat.
Biography[]
Daniel Webster was born on 18 January 1782 in Salisbury, New Hampshire, United States, and he became a lawyer after graduating from Dartmouth College. Webster became known as an excellent lawyer, and he was elected to the Senate in 1827 as a Whig. Webster was a vocal opponent of Andrew Jackson and the US Democratic Party, arguing that Congress should have more power than the president. However, Webster's speeches established him as an elitist, a conservative, and an American nationalist. In 1841, Whig president William Henry Harrison had him appointed as Secretary of State, and the 1842 Webster-Ashburton Treaty led to the British cession of Caribou (northern Maine) to the USA and the definition of the US-Canada border. He was again appointed Secretary of State under President Millard Fillmore in 1850, and he supported the passage of the Compromise of 1850, which was aimed at preventing war between the north and the south. Webster died in office in 1852 at the age of 70.