Webster, Daniel 1782-1852. US politician and
orator, born in New Hampshire. He sat in the
House of Representatives from 1813 and in the
Senate from 1827, at first as a Federalist
and later as a Whig. He was secretary of
state 1841-43 and 1850-52, and negotiated the
Ashburton Treaty in 1842, which fixed the
Maine-Canada boundary. His celebrated
`seventh of March' speech in the Senate in
1850 helped secure a compromise on the
slavery issue.