Webster also supported President Andrew Jackson's handling of the Nullification Crisis. However, Webster and Jackson were on opposite sides of the debate over the Second Bank of the United States. It was Webster, along with Henry Clay, who convinced then-Bank President Nicholas Biddle to apply for an early renewal of the Bank charter that ended up in Jackson's veto and the slow demise of the Bank. Webster also opposed Jackson's implementation of the "spoils system" and his harsh treatment of Native Americans; in particular, Webster opposed the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

One of Webster's long-sought-after goals was becoming President. He ran for the office in 1836, as part of the Whig Party's regional strategy to defeat incumbent Martin van Buren; the strategy did not work, and van Buren was re-elected. Webster again sought the nomination in 1840; this time, the Whigs picked only one candidate, William Henry Harrison, who won the election. Harrison named Webster to be Secretary of State.

When Harrison died just days after taking office, Vice-president John Tyler assumed the presidency. Webster did not agree with Tyler's actions at the time. Neither did the two men get along; Webster resigned as Secretary of State in 1843 and returned to the Senate two years later. One of his accomplishments while heading up the State Department was the negotiation of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, which eased tensions with Great Britain over the Maine-New Brunswick border. he also oversaw the writing of the first treaty between the U.S. and China.

Continuing in his quest for the presidency, Webster again sought the Whig nomination, in 1844 and in 1848. The Whig standard-bearers in those elections were Clay, who lost to James K. Polk in 1844, and Zachary Taylor, who won in 1848.

Webster had long opposed the spread of slavery that extended to opposition to the annexation of Texas and to war with Mexico. He supported Clay's Compromise of 1850, however, even though it included the Fugitive Slave Act that angered his constituent, because he thought the preservation of the Union of paramount importance. He reasserted his beliefs on the matter in a famous address known as the Seventh of March Speech. Also in 1850, President Millard Fillmore appointed Webster Secretary of State.

Webster's last hurrah in politics was one more attempt to win the Whig presidential nomination. The party in 1852 chose Mexican American-War hero Winfield Scott instead, and Webster refused to work to help get Scott elected. (Elected president in that year was Franklin Pierce.)

Webster died on Oct. 24, 1852. He is remembered for his oratory skills and for his legal acumen.

He had married Grace Fletcher in 1808, and they had five children, two of whom died before reaching adulthood. Grace herself died in 1828. Webster married Caroline LeRoy in 1829; she survived him. Webster and his first wife and children lived in Portsmouth until 1816, then moved to Boston. Webster and his second wife moved to a large estate in Marshfield, Mass., in 1831.

Some of Daniel Webster's famous sayings:

• "Every unpunished murder takes away something from the security of every man's life."
• "There is nothing so powerful as truth, and often nothing so strange."
• "Keep cool: anger is not an argument."
• "Let it be borne on the flag under which we rally in every exigency, that we have one country, one constitution, one destiny."
• "If all my possessions were taken from me with one exception, I would choose to keep the power of communication, for by it I would soon regain all the rest."
• "The proper function of a government is to make it easy for the people to do good, and difficult for them to do evil."
• "Falsehoods not only disagree with truths, but usually quarrel among themselves."