Review of Daniel Webster and the Unfinished Constitution by Peter Charles Hoffer
Document Type
Book Review
Publication Date
Winter 2022
ISSN
1530-9169
Publisher
The MIT Press
Language
en-US
Abstract
Hoffer’s latest book provides a kind of constitutional biography of Daniel Webster, a prominent American politician of the first half of the nineteenth century, famed for his oratory. Hoffer focuses on Webster’s role as a leader of the Supreme Court bar, arguing that Webster’s legal advocacy generated a coherent and influential constitutional jurisprudence. He suggests, in effect, that Webster was often the brains behind Chief Justice John Marshall’s campaign to establish a Federalist interpretation of the Constitution, one that could constrain the movements for radical democracy and states’ rights from the 1810s to the 1830s.
Recommended Citation
Gerald F. Leonard,
Review of Daniel Webster and the Unfinished Constitution by Peter Charles Hoffer
,
in
52
Journal of Interdisciplinary History
452
(2022).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/2791
