Daniel Webster Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Daniel Webster
OCCUPATION: Lawyer, U.S. Representative, Government Official
BIRTH DATE: January 18, 1782
DEATH DATE: October 24, 1852
EDUCATION: Phillips Exeter Academy, Dartmouth College
PLACE OF BIRTH: Salisbury, New Hampshire
PLACE OF DEATH: Marshfield, Massachusetts

Best Known For

Daniel Webster was an American lawyer and Whig Part leader who served as a congressman and secretary of state.

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Daniel Webster

APA Style

Daniel Webster. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 10:17, May 24, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/daniel-webster-9526186.

Harvard Style

Daniel Webster. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/daniel-webster-9526186 [Accessed 24 May 2013].

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"Daniel Webster." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 24 2013, 10:17 http://www.biography.com/people/daniel-webster-9526186.

MHRA Style

"Daniel Webster," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/daniel-webster-9526186 [accessed May 24, 2013].

Chicago Style

"Daniel Webster," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/daniel-webster-9526186 (accessed May 24, 2013).

CBE/CSE Style

Daniel Webster [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 24] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/daniel-webster-9526186.

Bluebook Style

Daniel Webster, http://www.biography.com/people/daniel-webster-9526186 (last visited May 24, 2013).

AMA Style

Daniel Webster. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/daniel-webster-9526186. Accessed May 24, 2013.

Profile

Daniel Webster was born on January 18, 1782, in Salisbury, New Hampshire. After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1801, Webster became a successful lawyer in Boston. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1812, and later, in 1827, won a seat in the U.S. Senate. A leader of the Whig Party—a group that opposed President Andrew Jackson and the Democrats—Webster ran for the U.S. presidency in 1836. Four years later, in 1840, he was named secretary of state by President William Henry Harrison. When Harrison died in 1841 and John Tyler took over the presidecy, every Whig Party member of the presidential cabinet but Webster resigned from their post. In 1842, Webster successfully established the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, resolving a dispute between the United States and Great Britain regarding the Maine-Canada border. Webster returned to the position of secretary of state in 1850, when he was appointed by President Millard Fillmore. Among his actions under Fillmore, Webster oversaw the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act. He died in 1852 in Marshfield, Massachusetts.