Editing Daniel Webster (section)

===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}}