Free History Studies: Daniel Webster

Daniel Webster was an American statesman known for his skills as an orator.

Read current chapter online:

Suggestions

Map the following (you’ll find mapping resources below):
- New Hampshire
- Salisbury, New Hampshire where Webster was born.
Make a “Pros and Cons” list showing the advantages and disadvantages of sending Ezekiel to college. (See the compare/contrast resources in the helps below.)
The “greatest speech” referred to in the story was Webster’s “Second Reply to Hayne.” Read about “The Most Famous Senate Speech” as it is called by the United States Senate.
Read more about Daniel Webster’s brother Ezekiel, including a reference to the quote given at the end of the story.
Older students can enjoy the original story of “Webster and the Poor Woman” as told in Reminiscences and Anecdotes of Daniel Webster.
Narrate the story of “Webster and the Poor Woman.”
More about Daniel Webster from the Book of Knowledge:

Now we come to a man who was great as both orator and thinker. Daniel Webster was born on a small farm in New Hampshire in 1782, the same year that his great opponent John C. Calhoun was born in South Carolina. He was a delicate child, so eager to learn that his father, a soldier of the Revolution, determined to send him to college. In 1797 he entered Dartmouth College, then a small, struggling institution, and was graduated four years later.
Like so many young men of the time, Webster taught school, but he also studied law, and in 1805 began to practice in a little village near his home. Soon he removed to Portsmouth, then a flourishing town, and in 1812 was elected to the United States House of Representatives, and was re-elected. During his second term he decided to move to Boston, where there were greater opportunities for a lawyer…. Soon after he removed to Boston the people began to speak of sending him to Congress from Massachusetts; in 1822 he was again elected to the House of Representatives, and remained until he was elected to the Senate, in 1827. From that time until his death he was a member of the Senate or else Secretary of State nearly all the time.
[There was a] dissatisfaction of South Carolina over the tariff laws. One of the Senators for South Carolina, Robert Y. Hayne, made a speech in which he said that New England had always been unfair to the South and the West, and that the Union might be broken up if those sections were not better treated. He said also that the Union was simply an agreement between the states and that any state had a right to leave the Union or to refuse to obey unjust laws.
Senator Webster replied in a speech four hours long, in which he defended New England and declared that the Union could not be dissolved. His speech closed with the words: “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.” This famous speech, “The Reply to Hayne,” every schoolboy knows.
“Some American Statesmen,” The Book of Knowledge

Further Investigation

Daniel Webster
Biography from the History Channel.

The Farmer of Marshfield
Interesting biography from the Daniel Webster Estate and Heritage Center.

Webster Timeline
At Dartmouth.

Daniel Webster Birthplace
Short brochure from New Hampshire Parks and Recreation that describes his home and home life.

Activities

New Hampshire Map/Quiz Printout
At EnchantedLearning.com.

Interactive Map Maker {Free}
Make your own maps.

Activity: Compare & Contrast
Resources for listing the advantages and disadvantages of Ezekiel going to college.

Trading Card Creator
Interactive at ReadWriteThink.org that can be used as an interesting way to summarize what is learned about Daniel Webster.

Books

“The Story of Daniel Webster”
Biography by James Baldwin featured in Four Great Americans.

“Daniel Webster”
Chapter from 100 Stories From Our Own History by Lawton B. Evans that relates anecdotes about Daniel and Ezekiel among others.

“Daniel Webster”
A chapter from Builders of Our Country by Gertrude van Duyn Southworth.

Unit Studies & Lesson Plans

Vote for Me! Developing, Writing, and Evaluating Persuasive Speeches
Daniel Webster was a renowned orator. This lesson plan at ReadWriteThink.org aimed at primary-grade students is a start on developing speaking skills.