Lawyer And Senator

Studious Youth.

Daniel Webster was born in 1782 in New Hampshire. His father, Ebenezer, was uneducated but had risen to distinction in the militia during the American Revolution and hoped to give Daniel the education he never received. Webster was a sickly youth who avoided farm labor and devoted himself to studying. He attended several local schools and at fourteen went to Phillips Exeter Academy, then returned home and was educated by a private teacher until 1797 when he enrolled at Dartmouth College. He graduated near the top of his class and began studying law. He was admitted to the bar in Boston in 1805 and returned to Portsmouth in 1807. He married Grace Fletcher in May 1808 and spent the next decade creating a profitable legal practice.

Supreme Court.

Webster was elected to two terms in Congress starting in 1812, as a Federalist opponent of the war...