WEBSTER, DANIEL

   American statesman and orator, born at New Hampshire; bred to the bar, and practised in the provincial courts; by-and-by went to Boston, which was ever after his home; entered Congress in 1813, where, by his commanding presence and his animated oratory, he soon made his mark; was secretary for foreign affairs under President Harrison, and negotiated the Ashburton Treaty in settlement of the "boundary-line" question between England and the States; was much admired by Emerson, and was, when he visited England, commended by him to the regard of Carlyle as a man to "hear speak," as "with a cause he could strike a stroke like a smith"; Carlyle did not take to him; he was too political for his taste, though he recognised in him a "man - never have seen," he wrote Emerson, "so much silent Berserkir-rage in any other man" (1782-1852).