The Devil and Daniel Webster
The Devil and Daniel Webster is an American short story written by Stephen Vincent Benét, originally published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1936. The following year it was published in book form.
The story tells of Jabez Stone, continually plagued with bad luck to the point where he exclaims that his misfortunes want to make a man "sell his soul to the Devil". The following day he is approached by a stranger, "Mr. Scratch", who makes him such a deal: seven years of prosperity in exchange for his soul.
At the end of the seven years, Stone and Scratch agree to a three-year extension, after which Scratch refuses to extend further; Stone hires the noted orator and lawyer Daniel Webster to take his case. Webster is unable to get Stone out of the deal as the contract is ironclad and Scratch will not compromise. Webster then tries to argue that an American citizen cannot be forced into the service of a foreign prince ("We fought England for that in '12 and we'll fight all hell for it again!"), in reply Scratch boasts that he is a citizen, having been at the worst events in American history, and comments that he has been in the country longer than Webster.
Webster then demands a jury trial; he has to agree to allow Scratch to select the judge and jury but demands that the members be American. Scratch then brings out an American "jury of the damned" (including notorious individuals such as Loyalists Walter Butler and Simon Girty, King Philip of the Wampanoag people, former Virginia colony Governor Thomas Dale, and Plymouth Pilgrim rival Thomas Morton; Benedict Arnold "out on other business"). The "judge" enters last – John Hathorne, the infamous and unrepentant executor of the Salem Witch Trials.
Recognizing that he was part of a show trial, Webster realized that the jury didn't want just Stone, they wanted Webster as well. Thus, he gives an oratory on good and simple things. He also admits the failings in American history, but also all the good that came out of it, "something "no demon that was ever foaled" could ever understand. The plan works, in a case of jury nullification the jury finds for Stone, and they and the judge disappear at dawn.
Webster then grabs Scratch's arm and twists it behind his back, making him promise never to bother Stone, his heirs and assigns, nor any New Hampshire man until doomsday. Scratch offers Webster a palm reading of his future: Scratch mentions that Webster will never become President of the United States, that his sons would die in the American Civil War, and that his final speech would turn many against him. Taking the news in stride, Webster only asks if the Union will prevail; Scratch replies that though a war will be fought over the issue, the Union would remain united. At that point, Webster kicks Scratch in the behind, causing him to fly out the door; it is said that the devil never came to New Hampshire again.
The story has been adapted into movies, plays, and radio broadcasts. It has been portrayed in various television episodes, at least two tracts written by Jack Chick borrow heavily from the story, and was even cited in a real court case.