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Title: Daniel Webster: The Man and His Time by Robert Vincent Remini ISBN: 0-393-04552-8 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: October, 1997 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.71 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Black Dan and the Godlike Daniel
Comment: Occasionally, nature produces an individual with towering intellect and mesmerizing oratorical abilities, but haunted by deep and seemingly irrepressible moral flaws. Their lives are filled with a mix of remarkable achievement and profound disappointment; monumental success and disgrace both seem inevitable. The late twentieth century had Bill Clinton, and the early nineteenth had Daniel Webster.
Webster's story - like Clinton's - is at once inspiring and frustrating, laudable and detestable. There is certainly an element of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" in Daniel Webster, and the noted Jacksonian historian Robert Remini uses that split personality as the foundation in building this important biography of one of America's greatest and most unique statesman.
Webster's genius is undeniable. His many natural gifts, which even his bitterest enemies had to concede, earned him the highly flattering sobriquet "the Godlike Daniel." No private attorney has affected the course of American judicial history as much as Webster. With the ideologically sympathetic John Marshall presiding over the Supreme Court, he successfully argued nearly every landmark case of the early nineteenth century: Dartmouth College, Gibbons vs. Ogden , McCollough vs. Maryland. He also added his considerable talents to the defense of the Union, first during the South Carolina nullification crisis in the celebrated Hayne-Webster debates, and then in the twilight of his life as the debate over slavery mounted toward civil war he delivered an impassioned speech in defense of the Compromise of 1850. His many public addresses lauding the ideals and principles of the American republic - the Plymouth Oration, Bunker Hill Oration, commemoration of the lives of Jefferson and Adams - are legendary and were once memorized by schoolboys. When a Webster speech was anticipated in the Senate, the halls were jammed with attendees eager to hear history in the making. Indeed, as Stephen Benet notes in the classic The Devil and Daniel Webster: "You see, for a while, he [Webster] was the biggest man in the country. He never got to be President, but he was the biggest man."
But there was also a less admirable, more human side to Daniel Webster; an alter ego to the Godlike Daniel known derisively as "Black Dan." Addictions to alcohol and gambling were the duel crosses Webster had to bear through out life. These afflictions ensured Webster was chronically in debt despite a flourishing law practice. These debts eventually presented conflicts of interests and put him in compromising positions, which undermined his moral authority and ultimately cost him the White House.
It has been written that most great men are made by the events of their times, but a very select few would have been great regardless of time or place. Remini's splendid biography suggests that Daniel Webster is a strong candidate for the latter category.
Rating: 5
Summary: A must for those intersted in early American history
Comment: The unfortunate result of the growing power and focus on the executive branch is that historians tend to focus on presidents as prime movers for american political development. Remini's biography of Daniel Webster proves paradigm deeply flawed, particularly in the early years of our nations history.
Webster, though never achieving the presidency, deserves great credit for setting the tone of american government and the supremacy of congress that survived through the 19th century. Remini does a tremendous job exploring the early 19th century and the issues this second generation of american leaders faced.
Recent great interest in the revolutionary generation hopefully will not eclipse the study of those, like Webster, who came next and solidified the nacient insitutions that the founders created. If the founders were the fathers of our government, than men like Webster was that government's teacher in primary school.
A wonderful read, if you are really interested in the topic.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Continuation of American Conservatism
Comment: Daniel Webster was a more than worthy heir of the statesmen from the American Revolution. As a Federalist, Webster fought for commerical rights and the traditionalism of the Federalist Party. As a Whig, Webster fought for industry and the preservation of the Union. This book dives into the complexity of the great man. No modern conservative's collection would be complete without a book on the Nation's Greatest Orator, and this is that book.
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Title: Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union by Robert Vincent Remini ISBN: 0393310884 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: November, 1993 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: John C. Calhoun and the Price of Union: A Biography (Southern Biography) by John Niven ISBN: 0807118583 Publisher: Louisiana State University Press Pub. Date: July, 1993 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Life of Andrew Jackson by Robert V. Remini ISBN: 0060937351 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: John Marshall : Definer of a Nation by Jean Edward Smith ISBN: 080505510X Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: 15 March, 1998 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Andrew Jackson and the Bank War: A Study in the Growth of Presidential Power (Norton Essays in American History.) by Robert Vincent Remini ISBN: 0393097579 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: December, 1967 List Price(USD): $14.20 |
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