Manuscripts of Senators John C. Calhoun's and Daniel Webster's speeches from the Compromise of 1850 debate.

Over several days in January 1830, Senators Robert Hayne (1791–1839) of South Carolina and Daniel Webster (1782–1852) exchanged salvos about the sovereignty of the national government and states’ rights. Hayne interpreted the Constitution as little more than a treaty between sovereign states, which had the right to withdraw from the Union. Webster disagreed, and in his second speech, painted a dramatic picture of what would happen if the Union fell apart. He ended by praising “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!”

A finding aid for the Daniel Webster papers collection in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division. Lawyer, statesman, and diplomat; United States representative from New Hampshire and United States senator from Massachusetts. Correspondence, memoranda, notes and drafts for speeches, legal papers, invitations, printed matter, newspaper clippings, and other papers, chiefly dating from 1824 to 1852. Topics include Webster's law practices and cases heard before the United States Supreme Court, the Bank of the United States, diplomacy, national and state politics, slavery, and the Compromise of 1850.

Search PPOC using the subject heading "Webster, Daniel,--1782-1852" to find digital images related to Webster such as prints, photographs, and political cartoons. Search all text fields in PPOC using the name "Daniel Webster" to locate additional images.

In his landmark Dartmouth College v. Woodward decision (1819), Chief Justice John Marshall (1755-1835) supported the inviolability of the charter as a contract and ruled that the college, under the charter, was a private and not a public entity. As such, the school was protected from the state's regulatory power through the contract clause of the United States Constitution. "It is, Sir, as I have said, a small college. And yet there are those who love it!" With these words, Daniel Webster concluded his successful defense of the inviolability of the royal charter of Dartmouth College, which was originally obtained on December 13, 1769.

The acquisition of territory following the U.S. victory in the Mexican War revived concerns about the balance of free and slave states in the Union. On March 7, 1850, Senator Daniel Webster delivered his famous “Seventh of March” speech urging sectional compromise on the issue of slavery. Advising abolition-minded Northerners to forgo antislavery measures, he simultaneously cautioned Southerners that disunion inevitably would lead to war.

An article on Daniel Webster published in the Library's Wise Guide. From 2002 to 2011, the Wise Guide to loc.gov highlighted new, interesting or undiscovered treasures from the vast online resources of the Library of Congress via short, fun stories filled with fascinating facts.

The Compromise of 1850 consists of five laws passed in September of 1850 that dealt with the issue of slavery and territorial expansion. In 1849 California requested permission to enter the Union as a free state, potentially upsetting the balance between the free and slave states in the U.S. Senate. Senator Henry Clay introduced a series of resolutions on January 29, 1850, in an attempt to seek a compromise and avert a crisis between North and South.

The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of material associated with the presidential election of 1836, including manuscripts, broadsides, political cartoons, and government documents.