He returned to the U. Senate from to The treaty settled the Maine boundary, increased U. The agreement also ushered in an era of rapprochement between the two nations, allowing the U. Government to focus on westward expansion. Webster extended diplomatic protection to U. He resigned from the Secretaryship in due to financial difficulties and a disagreement with President Tyler over the annexation of Texas , a move stridently opposed by Webster. After temporarily serving as Secretary of State, Webster returned to the Senate in His senatorial swan song came in , as the Senate debated a compromise drafted by Henry Clay.
Clay's compromise proposed to admit California as a free state but also pass a far more strict Fugitive Slave Law, putting those who had escaped from slavery to free states at risk of arrest by federal agents. On March 7, , Webster put his political clout behind the compromise, and in a highly publicized speech stated:.
Mason] has a bill on the subject now before the Senate, which, with some amendments , I propose to support, with all its provisions, to the fullest extent I put it to all the sober and sound minds at the North as a question of morals and a question of conscience.
What right have they, in their legislative capacity or any other capacity, to endeavor to get round this Constitution, or to embarrass the free exercise of the rights secured by the Constitution to the persons whose slaves escape from them? None at all; none at all. Webster's support of the Fugitive Slave Law put every single formerly enslaved person at risk, and it permanently damaged his reputation in Boston, a city at the heart of the abolitionist movement.
Webster maintained this hardline position on slavery and union throughout his time in the cabinet. All were ambitious for the presidency. Whigs generally considered him unavailable because of his close association with the Bank of the United States and with Boston and New York businessmen, from whom he received generous subsidies. Although identified with the Boston aristocracy, Webster had come from a plain New Hampshire farm background.
A college education, at Dartmouth, helped him to rise in the world. Despite his large income he remained constantly in debt as a result of high living, unfortunate land speculations, and expenses as a gentleman farmer. Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, Editors. All rights reserved. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present.
Daniel Boone was an early American frontiersman who gained fame for his hunting and trailblazing expeditions through the Cumberland Gap, a natural pass through the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky. Boone achieved folk hero status during his lifetime, but Known as the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the controversial bill raised the possibility that slavery could While his admirers worshiped the "Godlike Daniel," his critics thought his constant need for money deprived him of his independence.
During the Panic of , a desperate financial crisis resulting from the expansion into western lands, he was in such desperate circumstances as a result of excessive investments in western lands that only loans from business friends saved him from ruin. Again, in , when it seemed financial pressure might force him to leave the Senate, he permitted his friends to raise a fund to provide him with an income.
Webster was one of the leaders of the anti-Andrew Jackson — forces that came together in the Whig party, a political party which opposed Jackson's Democrats.
Regardless, Webster did endorse President Jackson's stand during the nullification crisis in , where several states threatened to leave the Union unless granted the right to "nullify," or make void, certain federal laws. In the Massachusetts Whigs named Webster as their presidential candidate, but in a field against other Whig candidates he polled only the electoral votes of Massachusetts.
In recognition of his standing in the party and in gratitude for his support during the campaign, President William Henry Harrison — appointed him secretary of state in He continued in this post under John Tyler — , who succeeded to the presidency when Harrison died a month after he was sworn in as president. Among other accomplishments, Webster sent Caleb Cushing — to the Orient Far East to establish commercial relations with China, although he was no longer in office when Cushing concluded the agreement.
Late in Webster, feeling that he no longer enjoyed Tyler's confidence, gave in to Whig pressure and retired from office. Webster, in spite of his disappointment at not receiving the presidential nomination in , actively campaigned for Henry Clay — , his rival within the party. On his return to the Senate in , Webster opposed the annexation acception into the Union of Texas and as well as the expansionist policies that peaked in the war with Mexico —48 , when American forces clashed with Mexico over western lands.
After the war he worked to remove slavery from the newly acquired territories which resulted in the Wilmot Proviso. Although Northern businessmen agreed, the average citizen was outraged over Webster's speech of March in defense of the new Fugitive Slave Law, a law that provided for the return of escaped slaves.
Webster again became secretary of state in July , in Millard Fillmore's Cabinet. In he lost his last hope for the presidency when the Whigs passed over him in favor of General Winfield Scott — , a former Democrat. Deeply outraged, he refused to support the party candidate. He died just before the election on October 24, Baxter, Maurice G. One and Inseparable: Daniel Webster and the Union. Lodge, Henry Cabot.
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