Joel Richard Paul’s latest book explores the impact of Daniel Webster, a man often considered one of the greatest orators of the 19th century, but also sheds light on American history along the way.

For example, 45 years before the South seceded from the union, the New England states contemplated such a move. Outraged over the loss of critical trade with England due to President James Madison's initiation of the War of 1812, New England representatives met in Hartford in 1815 to debate the measure. As it turned out, cooler heads prevailed, trade finally returned and order in the union was restored.

That’s just one of the insights Paul shares in “Indivisible: Daniel Webster and the Birth of American Nationalism,” a book about the New Hampshire lawyer who turned politician when he moved to Boston.

“Daniel Webster was willing ultimately to sacrifice his own political ambitions (he was a four-time candidate for president) in order to save the union,” Paul told Steve Tarter.

Webster’s support of the Compromise of 1850—where the west was declared slave-free in return for the northern states agreeing to enforce fugitive slave laws—cost him the backing of members of his own party in Massachusetts, a state that vehemently opposed slavery, said Paul. 

Even though Webster opposed slavery, himself, he made the point that the only way to eliminate it was as a union, a stance that Abraham Lincoln also took. “Lincoln and Webster were political allies. Webster shaped Lincoln’s thinking,” the author said.

Webster saw his speeches and writings published widely. For years after his death in 1852, schoolchildren were taught to recite excerpts from his speeches, said Paul, pointing out that Webster's stirring rhetoric convinced Americans to see themselves as a nation bound together by a government of laws, not parochial interests.