WEBSTER, DANIEL

born Jan. 18, 1782, Salisbury, N.H., U.S. died Oct. 24, 1852, Marshfield, Mass. American orator and politician who practiced prominently as a lawyer before the U.S. Supreme Court and served as a U.S. congressman (1813-17, 1823-27), a U.S. senator (1827-41, 1845-50), and U.S. secretary of state (1841-43, 1850-52). He is best known as an enthusiastic nationalist and as an advocate of business interests during the period of the Jacksonian agrarianism. Additional reading The standard biography is Claude M. Fuess, Daniel Webster, 2 vol. (1930, reprinted 1968). Richard N. Current, Daniel Webster and the Rise of National Conservatism (1955, reprinted 1962), emphasizes the patterns of his thought. Speak for Yourself, Daniel: A Life of Webster in His Own Words, ed. by Walker Lewis (1969), amounts to a kind of synthesized autobiography. Irving H. Bartlett, Daniel Webster (1978), is well written and well researched, based on Webster's papers and other manuscripts published in the 1970s. C.H. Van Tyne (ed.), The Letters of Daniel Webster (1902, reprinted 1970), is based on documents owned by the New Hampshire Historical Society. Charles M. Wiltse has edited a comprehensive microfilm edition of the Webster papers and has prepared a Guide and Index to the Microfilm (1971), which provides a valuable introduction to the study of Webster. Also edited by Wiltse et al., The Papers of Daniel Webster (1974- ).