Daniel Webster Book

Irving H. Bartlett's biography of Daniel Webster is solidly traditional, in the sense that it is a history of high politics. Bartlett stresses Webster's extraordinary personal ambition as the prime motivational force in Webster's decisions on foreign policy.

Using the political ambition explanation, Bartlett achieves an integrated portrait of Webster's career. Two examples demonstrate this approach. In encouraging American support for Greek independence in 1823, Webster was seeking to gain political capital by fostering the nationalism he had apparently stood in opposition to during the War of 1812. Webster's support for Hungarian nationalism in 1851 is explicable as yet another recourse to foreign policy pronouncement for domestic consumption. This time Webster was recovering from the unpopularity of the support he had given to the Fugitive Slave Law under the aegis of the Compromise of 1850. Bartlett proposes in like manner to explain most of the political actions of Webster as ultimately reducible to a lust for the presidency.

In Bartlett's defense it must be mentioned that he gives ample consideration to Webster's conservative ideology, which he portrays as rooted in a veneration for the Founders and the Constitution. Bartlett's Webster is frustrated in his ambition by an inability to graft democratic mannerisms to the republican ideals he cherishes. The ultimate tragedy of Bartlett's Daniel Webster is that he was a man born too late to be president. His account suffers from this reductionism.