II.

An Eloquent Speaker

Webster's eloquence as a speaker at public gatherings and in court established him as a great orator. Two of his best-known orations are the Plymouth speech (1820), commemorating the bicentennial of the landing of the Pilgrims and the Bunker Hill speech (1825), marking the 50th anniversary of the famous American Revolution battle.

Webster was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Boston in 1822 and to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts in 1827. He had opposed legislation for a protective tariff in 1816 and did so again in 1824. Under the influence of expanding New England industrial interests, however, Webster abandoned his free-trade position. He supported the tariff of 1828 and become a protector of northern industrial interests on other issues as well.

In 1830 his eminence as an orator reached its culmination in his reply to the speech of Robert Young Hayne, senator from South Carolina, on the nature of the Union and the states' right of nullification. Webster successfully combated the theory of nullification and ably vindicated the nationalist view of the Union. In the controversy over the renewal of the charter of the United States Bank, Webster advocated renewal and opposed the financial policy of President Andrew Jackson in general. Many of the principles of sound finance developed in his speeches at this time were later incorporated in the Federal Reserve System.