This collection contains a large selection of congressional material related to Daniel Webster's political career as a U.S. senator (1827-41, 1845-50), member of the House of Representatives (1813-17, 1823-27), and secretary of state (1825-29). Search this collection by date and publication to find materials related to Clay.

Shortly after being elected governor of New Hampshire in 1816, William Plumer (1759-1850), a former United States senator, sought to transform the administration of the state's Dartmouth College by wresting control from a self-perpetuating board of Federalist trustees and replacing them with elected officials. To accomplish their goal, the governor and his Republican allies in the state legislature enacted statues revising the college's royal charter, which had been granted in 1769. The college trustees contested the state's action by bringing suit and carrying the case forward to the United States Supreme Court. Daniel Webster (1782-1852) argued the college's case and during his climactic concluding remarks uttered his famous plea for the school, stating, "It is, Sir, as I have said, a small college. And yet there are those who love it!"

Daniel Webster (1782-1852), United States senator from Massachusetts, rose on 7 March 1850 to support a complex series of statutes introduced by Henry Clay (1777-1852) of Kentucky that came to be known as "The Compromise of 1850." This "Seventh of March" speech, which Webster preferred to call his "Constitution and the Union" speech, contained the famous opening lines, "I wish to speak to-day, not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American, and a member of the Senate of the United States." These lines are reflected in Webster's notes for the exordium (or beginning) of his speech.