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Daniel Webster

Daniel Webster has long been considered the greatest speaker in American politics. Between 1800 and the Civil War, he was a paramount force in affairs of the nation.

As a young Massachusetts lawyer, Webster won cases and called attention to himself for his persuasive reasoning and elegant oratory. Eventually, he entered politics and won election as a Representative to Congress and later as Senator.

Webster was an unsuccessful candidate for President in 1836. Nevertheless, he was appointed Secretary of State three times by three different Presidents. He was serving under President Millard Fillmore when he died in 1850 at the age of 68.

In 1830, during one of the nation’s first confrontations over states’ rights vs. the Federal power, the passionate defender of the South and slavery, John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, argued that a state could nullify any Federal law.

Daniel Webster took the floor of the Senate Chambers and gave a clear, emphatic and eloquent response to Calhoun. Speaking to the issue that would eventually be settled only by Civil War, Webster declared, “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!”

By 1850, the issue of slavery divided North and South. The question of whether slavery should be permitted to expand into new states reached a crisis with the addition of Texas and Southwest Territories taken in the war with Mexico.

With the country on the brink of secession and Civil War, both sides turned to the highly esteemed Daniel Webster to save the Union. Again the master orator rose in the Senate and addressed his colleagues. One observer said, “His words flowed as the Mississippi rolls from its fountains.” When he finished, the Senate burst into cheers and applause. The Compromise of 1850 passed, postponing the Civil War for a decade.

The era in which Webster was a dominant figure in American life and politics, 1800-1850, has been called the “Golden Age of Gambling” by historians. From the taverns of the East to the riverboats of the Mississippi and west to the gold fields of California, gambling was part of the American experience.

One famous poker game reported by a journalist at the time was a heads-to-head contest between the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, Montjoy Bailey, and North Carolina Senator Montford Stokes. The two men started playing on Thursday afternoon after the Senate adjourned until Monday. The contest continued non-stop through the weekend with only brief time-outs for naps. At 10am Monday, the Sergeantat- Arms moved to adjourn the game as his official duties required his presence in the Senate. Stuck, Senator Stokes, blew-up. He declared that had he known the game was going to be “prematurely brokenup… he would not have sat down to play with him.”

Mark Twain, the most celebrated of American writers, first gained fame when he rewrote a gambling tale heard among California gold seekers. Called “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”, it was a story about a contest in which one of the frogs named “Daniel Webster” was filled with lead shot so it had no chance of winning.

An icon of the age, Daniel Webster was a well known poker player in his time. Another American legend, five-time Presidential candidate Kentucky Senator Henry Clay, a notorious gambler, was Webster’s friend, political ally and favorite poker opponent. They played high limit Draw and it wasn’t uncommon for the pots to reach thousands of dollars.

On one occasion, Webster and Clay were heads-up in a poker game. Both bet and raised the other until there was over $2,000 in the pot. When it ended, Webster thought he had lost as he embarrassingly showed only a pair of deuces. Clay, however, had only Acehigh!

Another gentleman who often played poker with Webster and Clay was Ohio Congressman Robert C. Schenck. During the 1870s, as Ambassador to Great Britain, Schenck wrote a book on poker and taught QueenVictoria and the Royal Family to play the game. In the years before the Civil War, Washington D.C. was the poker capital of America. Edward Pendleton operated The Palace of Fortune, for many years the most famous and luxurious gambling house in the city. Mrs. Pendleton, one of the reigning beauties of in Washington, was adored (and maybe more) by President James Buchanan.

Webster and Clay were among the leading Congressmen, Supreme Court Judges, and high-ranking military officers who frequented The Palace, popularly called the “Hall of the Bleeding Heart”. Faro was the dominant game in the casino, but there were private rooms for Poker, Whist and Brag.

Pendleton made certain there were always plenty of beautiful women available for his gentlemen guests at The Palace. They were called “lobbyists”.

Historian Herbert Asbury writes that, “The honesty of the deal depended upon the importance of the player politically….” Another historian concluded, “Scores of Senators and Representatives… squandered their salaries” and some “their private fortunes” bucking the tiger at The Palace of Fortune.

Many high government officials were deeply in debt to Palace of Fortune owner Edward Pendleton. When he died in 1858, his pallbearers were Congressmen and the President attended his funeral.

Daniel Webster was one of the foremost political leaders in pre-Civil War America. Through his influence and oratory he held the country together when it threatened to split asunder. Whether at politics or poker, he became an American legend.

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