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 By Richard Smith, who came to Concord in 1998 because of his love for the Concord Authors and Concord history. He can usually be seen around Concord doing Living History as Henry Thoreau, especially at Walden Pond.  Daniel Webster was a giant in his day. Simply put, he was one of the most famous Americans of the 19th Century and was one of the greatest statesmen the United States ever produced. Daniel Webster was a household name. He started his public life as a lawyer, was elected to Congress in 1813, became a Senator in 1827 and was named Secretary of State in 1840. As a major player on the political stage, Webster -- along with Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun -- shaped American politics and policy (for better and for worse) for nearly 40 years. Depending on your politics, you either adored or despised Daniel Webster. To his admirers he was "God-Like Daniel," and to his enemies he was "Black Dan".Webster was born on January 18, 1782 in Salisbury, New Hampshire, the son of a Revolutionary War veteran. Daniel idolized his father and throughout his life cherished a pair of silver buttons his father had taken off a dead Redcoat at the Battle of Bennington. Due to his father's influence, Webster grew up revering the American Republic and the ideals it represented. To Daniel Webster, the Constitution was a sacred document and the Union it represented was holy. He was a gifted orator during the " Golden Age" when great oratory was respected and admired. First as a lawyer and later as a politician, Webster excelled as a public speaker and by the 1830's no patriotic event would be complete without an appearance by God-like Daniel. Josiah Quincy called Webster "an electric force" and his oratory was a major influence on a young Ralph Waldo Emerson who wrote of Webster's voice, "It commands, it fills, it echoes," and "his tones were like those of a commander in battle."
The two men were not unknown to each other. Emerson's brother Edward studied law under Webster in the 1820's. As a lawyer, Webster appeared from time to time in Concord at the county court house so he knew the town well. Webster had even courted Henry Thoreau's Aunt Louisa, but nothing had come of the relationship. In Daniel Webster, Emerson saw the type of orator he wanted to be. But he saw Webster as something more than a great speaker: not only Webster's voice, but his words, had a tremendous impact on Emerson. In Emerson's 1838 Journal there are two lists, one called "Recent Intellectual Influences" and the other called "Recent Spiritual Influences." The usual names one would expect are listed: Channing, Alcott, Carlyle, Byron and Swedenborg. Tellingly, Daniel Webster is on both lists. While the others were men of thought and faith, Webster was their antithesis: a practical and modern man. To Emerson, Daniel Webster was REAL, a man of thought AND action.
This adulation would continue until 1850, the year that Webster openly supported the Compromise of 1850. Instantly he became the whipping boy for Northern abolitionists and he was seen as a traitor who was selling out his principles to southern interests. Even worse, Webster supported the new Fugitive Slave Law, hoping that it would calm sectional tensions between North and South. Webster saw himself "not as a Massachusetts man, not as a northern man, but as an American." He believed that the Compromise would end the debate over slavery once and for all, and if the return of fugitive slaves would help preserve the Union, Webster was all for it. Webster's support of the Compromise instantly lost him many of his adoring fans, among them Ralph Waldo Emerson. Theodore Parker compared Webster to Benedict Arnold and Emerson spoke openly of "Mr. Webster's treachery." In the spring of 1850 Webster defended the Compromise in a famous speech known as the "Seventh of March Speech" and his repeated use of the word "liberty" in the speech revolted Emerson: "Liberty! liberty! Pho! Let Mr. Webster for decency's sake shut his lips once and forever on this word. The word 'liberty' in the mouth of Mr. Webster sounds like the word 'love' in the mouth of a courtezan." The Fugitive Slave Law in particular angered Emerson, and he vowed that he would not obey it. He called it "the most detestable law that was ever enacted by a civilized state" and went on to say that Webster's fame "ends in this filthy law." Where once he considered Webster " a very good American," he now called the reviled senator "the head of the slavery party in this country." Emerson would spend the 1850's openly supporting the Anti-slavery cause, declaring time and time again that "we must put this raging fever of slavery out of the Constitution."
 
 
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By the mid-19th century, Ralph Waldo Emerson was almost as famous as Daniel Webster. If Webster shaped American politics, than it can be said that Emerson shaped American culture. By the 1840's Emerson himself was a huge draw on the Lyceum circuit. Both Emerson and Webster had a tremendous impact on the intellectual growth of America and how the ever-growing Republic saw itself and it's Manifest Destiny.
In August of 1843, Webster was again in Concord acting as a defense attorney for a bank president who was on trial for embezzlement. His appearance in Concord was a town sensation. Like many Concordians, Emerson attended the trial regularly and reported on Webster in his journal. "In speech he sometimes roars", he wrote, "and every word is like the blow of an axe...he has the power of contenance and the gravity of a Sachem. He is to be admired like an oak or an elephant."