Editing Noah Webster (section)

==Federalist editor==
[[File:Portrait of Rebecca Greenleaf Webster by Jared Bradley Flagg.jpg|thumb|Webster's wife, Rebecca Greenleaf Webster]]
Noah Webster married Rebecca Greenleaf (1766–1847) on October 26, 1789, in [[New Haven, Connecticut]]. They had eight children:
* Emily Schotten (1790–1861), who married [[William W. Ellsworth]] and was named by Webster as an executor of his will.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uIRCsrMwhroC&q=%22william+w.+ellsworth%22+noah+webster+williams&pg=PA256 |title=Noah Webster and the American Dictionary, David Micklethwait, McFarland, 2005 |date= January 21, 2005|access-date=December 9, 2011|isbn=9780786421572 |last1=Micklethwait |first1=David |publisher=McFarland }}</ref> Emily, their daughter, later married Rev. Abner Jackson, who became president of both [[Trinity College Dublin|Trinity College]] in Hartford and [[Hobart College, Tasmania|Hobart College]] in [[Geneva, New York]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/genealogygreenl00greegoog |page=[https://archive.org/details/genealogygreenl00greegoog/page/n265 221] |quote=william greenleaf webster ellsworth. |title=Genealogy of the Greenleaf family |publisher=F. Wood |year=1896 |access-date=December 9, 2011}}</ref>
* Frances Julianna (1793–1869), married [[Chauncey Allen Goodrich]]
* Harriet (1797–1844), who married [[William Chauncey Fowler]]
* Mary (1799–1819) m. Horatio Southgate (1781–1864), son of Dr. Robert and Mary King Southgate
* William Greenleaf (1801–1869)
* Eliza Steele (1803–1888) m. Rev. Henry Jones (1801–1878)
* Henry Bradford (1806–1807)
* Louisa Greenleaf (1808–1874)

Webster joined the elite in [[Hartford, Connecticut]], but did not have substantial financial resources. In 1793, [[Alexander Hamilton]] lent him $1,500 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US|value=1500|start_year=1793}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}) to move to [[New York City]] to edit the leading [[Federalist Party]] newspaper. In December, he founded New York's first daily newspaper ''American Minerva'', later renamed the ''[[Commercial Advertiser]]'', which he edited for four years, writing the equivalent of 20 volumes of articles and editorials. He also published the semi-weekly publication ''The Herald, A Gazette for the country'', later known as the ''[[New-York Spectator]]''.

As a Federalist spokesman, Webster defended the administrations of [[George Washington]] and [[John Adams]], especially their policy of neutrality between Britain and France, and he especially criticized the excesses of the [[French Revolution]] and its [[Reign of Terror]]. When French ambassador [[Edmond-Charles Genêt|Citizen Genêt]] set up a network of pro-Jacobin "[[Democratic-Republican Societies]]" that entered American politics and attacked President Washington, he condemned them. He later defended [[Jay's Treaty]] between the United States and Britain. As a result, he was repeatedly denounced by the [[Democratic-Republican Party|Jeffersonian Republicans]] as "a pusillanimous, half-begotten, self-dubbed patriot", "an incurable lunatic", and "a deceitful newsmonger ... Pedagogue and Quack."<ref>Ellis 199.</ref>

For decades, he was one of the most prolific authors in the new nation, publishing textbooks, political essays, a report on infectious diseases, and newspaper articles for his Federalist party. 

In 1799 Webster wrote two massive volumes on the causes of "epidemics and pestilential diseases". Medical historians have considered him as "America's first epidemiologist".<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://academic.oup.com/jhmas/article-abstract/XX/2/97/847566?redirectedFrom=fulltext | doi=10.1093/jhmas/XX.2.97 | title=Noah Webster—Historical Epidemiologist | date=1965 | last1=Rosen | first1=George | journal=Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences | volume=XX | issue=2 | pages=97–114 | pmid=14323774 | url-access=subscription }}</ref> He was so prolific that a modern bibliography of his works spans 655 pages.<ref>{{cite web|title=A Bibliography of the Writings of Noah Webster|url=https://archive.org/details/biwr00skee/page/n9/mode/2up|publisher=New York Public Library|access-date=January 21, 2025}}</ref> He moved back to New Haven in 1798 and was elected as a Federalist to the [[Connecticut House of Representatives]] in 1800 and 1802–1807.

Webster was elected a fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1799.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter W|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterW.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=August 7, 2014}}</ref> He moved to [[Amherst, Massachusetts]] in 1812, where he helped to found [[Amherst College]]. In 1822, his family moved back to New Haven, where Webster was awarded an honorary degree from Yale the following year. In 1827, Webster was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1827&year-max=1827&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-04-07|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>