398 DANIEL WEBSTER 



He had also a passion for country life, for all the sights 

 and sounds of the farm, for the raising of fine animals, 

 as well as for hunting and fishing. The earlier years 

 of Mr. Webster's residence at Marshfield, and of his 

 service in the United States Senate, witnessed some 

 serious events in his domestic life. Death removed 

 his wife, January 21, 1828, and his brother Ezekiel, 

 April 10, 1829. In December, 1829, he married Miss 

 Caroline Le Roy, daughter of a wealthy merchant in 

 New York. Immediately after this second marriage 

 came the " Reply to Hayne." The beginning of a 

 new era in his private life coincided with the begin- 

 ning of a new era in his career as a statesman. After 

 1830 Mr. Webster was recognized as one of the great- 

 est powers in the nation, and it seemed natural that 

 the presidency should be offered to such a man. His 

 talents, however, were not those of a party leader. 

 He was always too independent. The earliest elec- 

 tion at which he could have been a candidate for the 

 presidency was that of 1832, and then there could be 

 no doubt that Mr. Clay represented much more com- 

 pletely than Mr. Webster the doctrines of paternal 

 government opposed by President Jackson. In the 

 helter-skelter scramble of 1836 the legislature of Mas- 

 sachusetts nominated Mr. Webster, and he received 

 the electoral vote of that state alone. The newly 

 formed Whig party was inclined to withhold its true 

 leaders and put forward a western soldier, General 

 Harrison, in the hope of turning to their own uses 

 the same kind of unreflecting popular enthusiasm 

 which had carried General Jackson to the White 

 House. In this policy, aided by the commercial dis- 

 , tress which began in 1837, they succeeded in 1840. 



