With 737 pages of actual text in relatively small font this biography of Daniel Webster is the most detailed and complete account of Webster’s life on the market today. If Robert Remini were not a good writer, the potential for boredom would be immense. But Remini is not only a superb historian but an excellent writer. Paragraphs are smoothly structured and well-unified, chapter divisions are excellent, and transitions, especially important in a heavily detailed book, never fail to move the book forward in a smooth and readable fashion. The book is both a literary and historical success.
It is almost impossible for Americans in the 21st century to imagine the effect of a truly great orator. With everything filtered through television and the social media, being entranced by a three hour speech seems unbelievable. But that was the effect Webster had on an audience. It was a time when bodily movements, tone and inflection of voice, facial expressions and vocal volume control could mesmerize an audience, even Congress. Remini gives many extracts from Webster’s speeches and Webster himself was quick to publish his orations. Some of them still strike me as powerful but many of them seem to come from such a different time that on paper they read as exaggerated or artificial. Remini forces the reader to picture him or herself at a time when great orators like Webster and Henry Clay dominated politics. They were received with huge adulation by the masses of people. Maybe the closest thing today would be the effect of a movie or TV star coming to a small town.
As Remini notes many times and other reviewers have noted, Webster had two sides – the patriot and magnificent speaker who expressed for all Americans at the time the unity and destiny of the nation and the man who had no control over his impulses – money (especially money), political ambition and much of the time his appetites. Remini gives the reader many examples of Webster’s incredibly positive power as a speaker and debater as well as his often complete lack of empathy or concern over the results of some of his actions. Webster’s all-encompassing goal was preserving the Constitution and the Union with a strong central government. This produced both his very best and worst actions, from his brilliance in the Webster-Hayne debate and the Dartmouth College case before the Supreme Court to his support for the Compromise of 1850 including the Fugitive Slave Law.
Remini puts the reader into a time in American history that is often overlooked today. It’s the world of generals like Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor, the world of orators like Webster, Clay, and Calhoun (the “Triumvirate”), and the world where slavery began more and more to dominate the American consciousness. I highly recommend the book.
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Daniel Webster - Flaws and All
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 7, 2018
