page_title: Daniel Webster
section_title: Compromise of 1850
hierarchical_section_title: Daniel Webster / Secretary of State in the Fillmore administration / Compromise of 1850
caption_attribution_description: English: Daguerreotype photograph of Daniel Webster by John Adams Whipple. Dimensions (in case): 12 × 9.5 cm (4.7 × 3.7 in). Original description by Boston Public Library: BPLDC no.: 07_05_000010 Call no.: Cab.G.3.21 Title: Daniel Webster Creator: Whipple, John Adams, 1822-1891; John A. Whipple Studio Date: 1847 (approximate) Publisher: [Boston]&#160;: [John A. Whipple Studio] Extent: 1 photograph&#160;: quarter plate daguerreotype&#160;; in case 12 x 9.5 cm. Genre: Daguerreotypes; Portraits Notes: Taken during the same sitting as image referenced in: Pfister, Facing the Light, no. 76A. Subjects: Webster, Daniel, 1782-1852 BPL Department: Rare Books Department
context_page_description: Daniel Webster was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and Millard Fillmore. As one of the most prominent American lawyers of the 19th century, he argued over 200 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court between 1814 and his death in 1852. During his life, he was a member of the Federalist Party, the National Republican Party, and the Whig Party.
  Born in New Hampshire in 1782, Webster established a successful legal practice in Portsmouth, New Hampshire after undergoing a legal apprenticeship. He emerged as a prominent opponent of the War of 1812 and won election to the United States House of Representatives, where he served as a leader of the Federalist Party. Webster left office after two terms and relocated to Boston, Massachusetts. He became a leading attorney before the Supreme Court of the United States, winning cases such as Dartmouth College v. Woodward, McCulloch v. Maryland, and Gibbons v. Ogden. Webster returned to the House in 1823 and became a key supporter of President John Quincy Adams.
context_section_description: Millard Fillmore ascended to the presidency upon Taylor's death. Shortly after taking office, Fillmore dismissed Taylor's Cabinet appointees, named Webster as his secretary of state, and came out in favor of Clay's compromise. Fillmore chose the remaining members of his Cabinet in consultation with Webster, and Webster became the unofficial leader in the Cabinet. After Fillmore took office, Clay took a temporary leave from the Senate, but Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois took the lead in advocating for a compromise based largely on Clay's proposals. On behalf of the president, Webster drafted a special message to Congress calling for an end to the crisis over the territories, and he used the power of patronage to woo potential supporters. Soon after the Fillmore administration delivered the special message, Congress passed Douglas's legislative package, which became known as the Compromise of 1850.
  Due to a prosperous economy and various other trends, few Whigs pushed for a revival of the national bank and other long-standing party policies during the Fillmore administration, and the Compromise of 1850 became the central political issue. While Fillmore hoped to reconcile with anti-Compromise Northern Whigs, Webster sought to purge them from the party, and he frequently intervened to block the election or appointment of anti-Compromise Whigs. In the North, the most controversial portion of the Compromise of 1850 was the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, and Webster became closely involved in enforcing the law. Disputes over fugitive slaves were widely publicized North and South, inflaming passions and raising tensions in the aftermath of the Compromise of 1850. Many of the administration's prosecutions or attempts to return slaves ended badly for the government, as in the case of Shadrach Minkins. In Massachusetts, anti-slavery Whigs allied with Democrats and, in a major rebuke to Webster, elected Free Soil leader Charles Sumner to the Senate.
caption: Daniel Webster
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