Daniel Webster

     A lawyer, senator, Secretary of State, and defender of the Union, Daniel Webster was all of these. Robert Allen expounds to us his life in the book entitled Daniel Webster: Defender of the Union.


     Daniel was sickly as a child and grew up on a farm with an older brother, younger sister, and parents. Daniel was very smart; at five he could read and had a grand memory. His parents owned an inn as well as a farm. Daniel would often read the Bible aloud on the inn porch for any that cared to listen. Many people loved to listen to Daniel read the Bible. He had read the small library that his town had over and over and knew most of the books by heart.

     When Daniel became of age, his father sent him to an academy. It was very hard for him the first few months because no one had taught him everything he needed to know. He studied hard and progressed well. There was one thing however, that he could not bring himself to do. That was to give a speech. He had always enjoyed speaking in front of people when he was younger, but he was afraid to speak in front of his class. He overcame this fear later on in his life. When he had done one year at the academy, that was all that his family could afford at the time, so he began to teach. After a while they had enough money to have him tutored for college.

     After he had been prepared well enough to go to college, he was sent to one. He excelled in oration. When he graduated he wanted to be a lawyer. He studied under a lawyer and then took the bar examination. He set up a law office and started practicing. He made good money doing it. He was elected to congress by his state and so went to serve them in Washington DC. When his term was done he was elected again. When this term was done he was elected to the senate. He defended the Union a few times. He was also nominated to be a candidate for the office of President of the USA. Later he was asked to be Secretary of State and he accepted. A while later he resigned from the senate and as Secretary of State. He lived from 1782-1852. During his life he saved the USA from war and ruin a few times. One such time was in 1833 when the southern states were ready to fight the other states because they did not want a certain tariff. Daniel made a few speeches on the subject and made peace.

     This book was very interesting. I would have never known how important Daniel Webster was without this book. We need more books like this one so that we can learn about other great men of the past.