Editing Daniel Webster (section)

==Secretary of State in the Fillmore administration==
{{Further|Presidency of Millard Fillmore}}

===Compromise of 1850===
[[File:DanielWebster ca1847 Whipple 2403624668-crop.jpg|thumb|[[Daguerreotype]] photograph of Webster by [[John Adams Whipple]], {{C.|1847}}]]

Millard Fillmore ascended to the presidency upon Taylor's death. Shortly after taking office, Fillmore dismissed Taylor's Cabinet appointees, named Webster as his secretary of state,{{efn|Webster's service in the Fillmore administration made him the first individual to serve as secretary of state under three different presidents. [[James G. Blaine]] would later match Webster's feat of serving as secretary of state under three different presidents.}} and came out in favor of Clay's compromise.{{sfn|Remini|1997|pp=684–687}} Fillmore chose the remaining members of his Cabinet in consultation with Webster, and Webster became the unofficial leader in the Cabinet.{{sfn|Remini|1997|pp=689–690}} After Fillmore took office, Clay took a temporary leave from the Senate, but Democratic senator [[Stephen A. Douglas]] of Illinois took the lead in advocating for a compromise based largely on Clay's proposals.{{sfn|Smith|1988|pp=177–181}} On behalf of the president, Webster drafted a special message to Congress calling for an end to the crisis over the territories, and he used the power of patronage to woo potential supporters. Soon after the Fillmore administration delivered the special message, Congress passed Douglas's legislative package, which became known as the [[Compromise of 1850]].{{sfn|Remini|1997|pp=691–695}}

Due to a prosperous economy and various other trends, few Whigs pushed for a revival of the national bank and other long-standing party policies during the Fillmore administration, and the Compromise of 1850 became the central political issue.{{sfn|Holt|1999|pp=686–688, 738}} While Fillmore hoped to reconcile with anti-Compromise Northern Whigs, Webster sought to purge them from the party, and he frequently intervened to block the election or appointment of anti-Compromise Whigs.{{sfn|Holt|1999|pp=635–636}} In the North, the most controversial portion of the Compromise of 1850 was the [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1850]], and Webster became closely involved in enforcing the law.{{sfn|Remini|1997|pp=695–696}} Disputes over fugitive slaves were widely publicized North and South, inflaming passions and raising tensions in the aftermath of the Compromise of 1850. Many of the administration's prosecutions or attempts to return slaves ended badly for the government, as in the case of [[Shadrach Minkins]].{{sfn|Smith|1988|pp=208–213}} In Massachusetts, anti-slavery Whigs allied with Democrats and, in a major rebuke to Webster, elected Free Soil leader Charles Sumner to the Senate.{{sfn|Remini|1997|pp=706–707}}

===Opening of the New York & Erie Rail Road===
When the [[Erie Railroad|New York & Erie Rail Road]] was completed in May 1851, President Fillmore and several members of his cabinet, including Webster, made a special, two-day excursion run to open the railway. It is reported that Webster viewed the entire run from a rocking chair attached to a flatcar, with a steamer rug and jug of high-quality [[Medford, Massachusetts|Medford]] [[rum]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Stover|first=John F.|date=1995|title=History of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad|publisher=Purdue University Press|page=74|isbn=9781557530660}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Stover|first=John F.|date=1999|title=The Routledge Historical Atlas of the American Railroads|publisher=Psychology Press|page=70|isbn=9780415921404}}</ref> At stops, he would get down and speechify.

===Foreign affairs===

Fillmore appointed Webster not only for his national stature and pro-Compromise position, but also for his experience in foreign affairs, and Fillmore relied on Webster to guide his administration's foreign policy.{{sfn|Remini|1997|p=689}} In the aftermath of the failed [[Hungarian Revolution of 1848]], a diplomatic incident with the [[Austrian Empire]] arose over the Taylor administration's sympathetic actions towards the Hungarian rebels. Rather than backing down, the Fillmore administration secured the release of exiled Hungarian leader [[Lajos Kossuth]] from the [[Ottoman Empire]] and gave a banquet in Kossuth's honor.{{sfn|Remini|1997|pp=698–705}} In 1851, Webster wrote a book about Kossuth's life.<ref name="Webster/1851/Kossuth">{{cite book |last1=Webster |first1=Daniel |author1-link=Daniel Webster |title=Sketch of the Life of Louis Kossuth, Governor of Hungary: Together with the Declaration of Hungarian Independence; Kossuth's Address to the People of the United States; All His Great Speeches in England; and the Letter of Daniel Webster to Chevalier Hulsemann |date=1851 |publisher=[[Stringer & Townsend]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vDosAAAAYAAJ |language=en}}<!-- https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=ha008686900  https://archive.org/details/websterkossuthdi00piv  https://archive.org/details/sketchlifelouis00websgoog  https://books.google.com/books?id=fn2hy-U7KNoC   https://books.google.com/books?id=O8UEAAAAYAAJ --></ref> The administration was particularly active in Asia and the Pacific, especially with regard to [[Japan]], which [[Sakoku|prohibited nearly all foreign contact]]. In November 1852, the administration launched the [[Perry Expedition]] to force Japan to establish trade relations with the United States.{{sfn|Smith|1988|pp=96–98}} Perry was successful in his mission, as Japan agreed to open trade relations with the 1854 [[Convention of Kanagawa]].{{sfn|Remini|1997|p=713}} The Fillmore administration also reached trade agreements with [[Latin American]] countries,{{sfn|Remini|1997|p=722}} worked to counter British influence in [[Central America]]{{sfn|Remini|1997|pp=713–716}} and took measures to prevent [[Filibuster (military)|unauthorized military expeditions]] against [[Cuba]] and other Latin American countries.{{sfn|Remini|1997|pp=718–720}} An expedition to Cuba led by [[Narciso López]] precipitated a diplomatic crisis with [[Spain]], but Fillmore, Webster, and the Spanish government worked out a series of face-saving measures that prevented an outbreak of hostilities from occurring.{{sfn|Smith|1988|pp=227–229}}

===1852 election===
[[File:1852WhigPresidentialNomination1stBallot.png|upright=1.4|thumb|Webster (red) won the support of several delegates at the [[1852 Whig National Convention]]]]

Encouraged by Fillmore's professed lack of desire to pursue the Whig nomination in the [[1852 U.S. presidential election]], Webster launched another campaign for the presidency in 1851.{{sfn|Remini|1997|pp=724–725}} Fillmore was sympathetic to the ambitions of his secretary of state, but he was unwilling to completely rule out accepting the party's 1852 nomination, as he feared doing so would allow his rival, William Seward, to gain control of the party.{{sfn|Smith|1988|pp=239–244}} Another candidate emerged in the form of General Winfield Scott, who, like previously successful Whig presidential nominees William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor, had earned fame for his martial accomplishments. Scott had supported the Compromise of 1850, but his association with Seward made him unacceptable to Southern Whigs.{{sfn|Smith|1988|pp=239–244}} As Southerners retained a lingering distrust of Webster, they threw their backing behind Fillmore.{{sfn|Holt|1999|pp=681–682}} Thus, Scott emerged as the preferred candidate of most Northern Whigs, Fillmore became the main candidate of Southern Whigs, and Webster was only able to win backing from a handful of delegates, most of whom were from New England.{{sfn|Remini|1997|pp=735–736}}

On the first presidential ballot of the [[1852 Whig National Convention]], Fillmore received 133 of the necessary 147 votes, while Scott won 131 and Webster won 29.{{sfn|Smith|1988|pp=244–247}} Although both Webster and Fillmore were willing to withdraw in favor of the other, their respective delegates at the convention were unable to unite around one candidate, and Scott took the nomination on the 53rd ballot.{{sfn|Remini|1997|pp=736–739}} Webster was personally devastated by the defeat, and he refused to endorse Scott's candidacy.{{sfn|Remini|1997|pp=739–741, 755}} Webster allowed various third party groups to nominate him for president, although he did not openly condone these efforts.{{sfn|Gienapp|1988|pp=20–21}} Scott proved to be a poor candidate, and he suffered the worst defeat in Whig history, losing to Democratic nominee [[Franklin Pierce]].{{sfn|Holt|1999|pp=754–755}} Thousands of anti-Scott Whigs and members of the [[Nativism (politics)|nativist]] [[Know Nothing|Native American Party]] cast their vote for Webster.{{sfn|Gienapp|1988|pp=29–30}}