Daniel Webster

Daniel Webster (1782-1852) was one of the most influential United States Senators in history. He also served as Secretary of State for Presidents William Henry Harrison, John Tyler and Millard Fillmore, and his statue stands in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall.

An attorney by profession, Daniel Webster was an opponent of the slave trade and of secession. He declared in response to South Carolina's threats of nullification, "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!" Webster also negotiated the Webster-Ashburton Treaty to fix the country's northeast boundary.

In a speech to the New York Historical Society shortly before he died, Webster stated:

"If we and our posterity ... live always in the fear of God and shall respect His Commandments ... we may have the highest hopes of the future fortunes of our country .... But if we ... neglect religious instruction and authority; violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity."