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DANIEL WEBSTER: THE MAN AND HIS TIME

I am totally sick of Daniel Webster.  He was the greatest lawyer of his age, the greatest orator of his age, and one of the most influential and powerful Senators and Statesmen in all of American history.  And I’m sick of him.

The late Professor Robert Remini’s massive biography of Webster comes in at a whopping 796 pages.  I can’t do any better in summarizing this massive tome than Kirkus Review did in its’ review of Remini’s  Daniel Webster: The Man and His Age (1997):

“This massive biography leaves no stone unturned in portraying a familiar but little studied antebellum figure, considered the young country’s best orator.  Veteran historian Remini maintains a delicate balance between Webster’s two personas: “the Godlike Daniel,” so called for his brilliant public addresses and eulogies of heroes of the American Revolution, and “Black Dan,” a tag referring not only to his dark appearance but to his ruthless politicking and ferocious temper.  Much of the study of Webster’s public life is organized around the famous speeches that defined and shaped his career, including his dual eulogy of presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, and his congressional address appealing for early recognition of Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire, which positioned the congressman and senator for later appointments as secretary of state.  Black Dan is more evident in Remini’s description of the statesman’s private life.  Besides being alcoholic, Webster had the terrible misfortune of outliving four of his five children, launching three abortive and embarrassing attempts to gain the presidency, and suffering endless financial problems.  Remini quite deftly shows why he was known as “the Great Expounder and Defender of the Constitution,” depicting Webster as one of the earliest strict constuctionists, a man who felt that the Constitution was the defining American document and that the preservation of the Union took precedence over all other policy considerations.  Unfortunately, it is here that Webster’s political clout was eventually devalued, as he refused to combat the Fugitive Slave Act and chose to accept House Speaker Henry Clay’s Missouri Compromise, which perpetuated slavery and did nothing but guarantee the outbreak of war. . . . Though Remini’s obvious admiration for Webster may sometimes cloud his view, a more complete and engrossing biography could not be produced.”

Professor Robert V. Remini (1921-2013)

Professor Remini (1921-2013) is best known for his endless series of books about Andrew Jackson.  Remini tries to spice this up with all of “Black Dan’s” dalliances with women and reckless spending.  Webster liked women, and not just the two he was married to.   A female portrait painter, Sarah Goodridge, who was probably Webster’s mistress, painted a miniature of her bare breasts and gave it to Webster.  If Miss Goodridge was expecting a marriage proposal, she was disappointed, Webster instead married the daughter of a prominent New York family for her money.

 

Sarah Goodridge

"Beauty Revealed" self-portrait given to Daniel Webster by Sarah Goodridge

Although Webster made a literal fortune in legal fees during his career as a lawyer, he blew practically all of it.  Just about every major constitutional law case you can think of in the early nineteenth century, Webster was involved in it as a lawyer.  It was not unusual for Webster to make a speech on the floor of the Senate then descend to the basement of the capital building to address the Supreme Court.

Daniel Webster (1782-1852)

However much Professor Remini tried, however, a book consisting of one debate and speech after another can only be so interesting.  Now that I’ve finished, Daniel Webster: The Man and His Time, I’m thinking of using it a doorstop.  I recommend the book to anyone interesting in early American history and politics or the antebellum legal profession, however, unless you’re really interested in Webster I’d take it in small doses.