Webster, Daniel

A Whig political leader and diplomat of the nineteenth century. Webster is remembered for his speaking ability and for his service as a senator from Massachusetts through most of the 1830s and 1840s. Webster defended national unity in the Senate against advocates of states' rights such as John C. Calhoun. In one debate, he spoke the famous words, “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!” He opposed the Mexican War and the admission of Texas as a slave state but supported the Compromise of 1850, including the Fugitive Slave Act. A member of the Whig party, he ran for president three times but was never nominated.