Webster's life was lived at the very heart of American history for many decades. He was a central figure of pro-Constitutional and pro-national sentiments of his day. Especially in his Supreme Court arguments, he was central to American legal development. Other men, including some elected to the Presidency, were obviously more peripheral to our history.

He made mistakes, though. His failure to support Millard Fillmore at the 1852 Whig convention actually helped lead to war. Also, he had personal failings. He could be cool and aloof to persons who could have helped him. His drinking harmed him as much as did his outrageous finances.

I'm going to have to get his speeches (through inter-library loan) and read some of them. This book was a great introduction to them. Many of his greatest speeches and debates are quoted here.

His life may have as much import now as it did then. He is still relevant, in part, because of all the state's rights talk these days and the virtual threat of nullification that some states have advocated recently - mostly in defense of coal, oil, and other big industry. Calls for cutting back on "big government" only make sense if this other unspoken side of "effective national government" can be seen as its balance.

He was pro-manufactures and continued to be throughout his life. His (almost too) close ties to Northern business helped the growth of industry in the U.S. and, ironically, probably increased the North's readiness for war against the South (my idea) - while at the very same time (through the tariffs he supported) increased the South's grievances. He was a very early opponent of war which he deemed unconscionable. Had he been elected President, he was such a respected man that he may have been able to delay the war. (Though they say that about a lot of things.) Thankfully (in some sense), he never lived to see it - he died in 1853. He was certainly a precursor to Lincoln.

A wonderful, if slightly slow-going, book. One well worth reading and thinking about. (Since party juxtapositions were different in ante-bellum America, the book is a rather outside-the-box kind of political read.) ( )