The following brief letter was penned by Daniel Webster (1782-1852)—the great American statesman and Senator from Massachusetts—in early February 1841. While officially still a senator at the time, Daniel had already been offered the first cabinet post as Secretary of State in the newly elected Whig administration of William Henry Harrison. He accepted the post at a critical time as the tensions between the United States and England had grown to a feverish pitch over the disputed boundary between the two countries in the rapidly developing Oregon Territory. Webster’s appointment had an immediate calming effect on the American population but he knew the matter could not be resolved without lengthy diplomatic negotiations. In fact it would take another five years before the Oregon Treaty set the border at the 49th parallel.

Abbot Lawrence was among the most important merchants, industrialists, and philanthropists of his day. He is credited as the founder of New England’s influential textile industry. In the later 1830s, Lawrence served as a Member of the US House of Representatives from Massachusetts where he had been a prominent leader of the Whigs and was particularly supportive of Henry Clay and his fight for internal improvements. He decided not to run for another term for Congress, citing poor health, but he remained active and influential in his party and weighed in on important issues such as the Oregon Boundary question.

In this letter, Lawrence appears to have written an article on the Boundary question that Webster must have endorsed as he supported Mr. Cogswell’s proposal to distribute the article more widely.

After President Harrison’s death and during the Tyler Administration while Webster continued as Secretary of State, a feud developed between Webster and Lawrence that would probably cost Webster the Presidential nomination of 1844.

I can’t be certain of the identity of Cogswell—the recipient of this letter, but I assume he was either an editor or possibly a state politician in Massachusetts.

Transcription

Washington
February 3, 1841

Dear Sir,

I think the distribution of Mr. Lawrence’s article, in the way proposed by you, would be very useful. I fear a good deal of trouble yet on this Boundary question.

Yours truly, — Daniel Webster

Mr. Cogswell