I've become interested in learning more about Daniel Webster. I've been trying to get to the bottom of this attitude since I decided I would express it, but I have a prejudice that the best thinkers and writers are not politicians. It's really nothing against politicians per se, just a belief that the best thinkers are not practitioners, and that too much is probably made of politicians, some of our most public figures. I assume most of those who are writers first and foremost also assume politicians are second raters, but what has struck me is that great writers both of Webster's time and today seem to show almost unrivaled admiration of him. He belongs in the pantheon for them. Webster also intrigues me because too many of us start with the presidents when we think of the greatest Americans. It's fun to have people that I champion whose only shortcoming was that they weren't president. In their day, I think Henry Clay and Webster were on the list of greatest Americans and are now rated lower by amateur historians, if they are rated at all. So that's really cool that you are from the same town as Webster. Pending my greater knowledge of him, you shoud be proud.
Of course, I could look these things up, but I thought Webster was faulted by historians for not being more forceful against slavery. Wasn't he a Whig? The juxtaposition of William Lloyd Garrison and Webster thus caught me by surprise, until I realized that it wasn't as if Garrison was with Webster at his deathbed, or that everything in his paper would represent his point of view. I know Garrison evinced a religiosity that would probably seem quaint to us, so I did see find unity in Webster's single-minded focus on his soul in his last moments and Garrison's philosophy....Maybe Webster was more anti-slavery than I realize. Maybe he was more towards the anti-slavery side than Clay.
In trying to get to the bottom of my fascination with a great thinker being in government, to me that is like the breakthrough of Bill James working for the Red Sox. It's the way I've thought things should be. I used to think that it was just the path to power that the great intellects didn't have. I found similar fascination in reading about John Stuart Mill's stint as an MP towards the end of his life, and his inability to connect with other politicians and the people (by his own account).
I've become interested in learning more about Daniel Webster. I've been trying to get to the bottom of this attitude since I decided I would express it, but I have a prejudice that the best thinkers and writers are not politicians. It's really nothing against politicians per se, just a belief that the best thinkers are not practitioners, and that too much is probably made of politicians, some of our most public figures. I assume most of those who are writers first and foremost also assume politicians are second raters, but what has struck me is that great writers both of Webster's time and today seem to show almost unrivaled admiration of him. He belongs in the pantheon for them. Webster also intrigues me because too many of us start with the presidents when we think of the greatest Americans. It's fun to have people that I champion whose only shortcoming was that they weren't president. In their day, I think Henry Clay and Webster were on the list of greatest Americans and are now rated lower by amateur historians, if they are rated at all. So that's really cool that you are from the same town as Webster. Pending my greater knowledge of him, you shoud be proud.
Of course, I could look these things up, but I thought Webster was faulted by historians for not being more forceful against slavery. Wasn't he a Whig? The juxtaposition of William Lloyd Garrison and Webster thus caught me by surprise, until I realized that it wasn't as if Garrison was with Webster at his deathbed, or that everything in his paper would represent his point of view. I know Garrison evinced a religiosity that would probably seem quaint to us, so I did see find unity in Webster's single-minded focus on his soul in his last moments and Garrison's philosophy....Maybe Webster was more anti-slavery than I realize. Maybe he was more towards the anti-slavery side than Clay.
In trying to get to the bottom of my fascination with a great thinker being in government, to me that is like the breakthrough of Bill James working for the Red Sox. It's the way I've thought things should be. I used to think that it was just the path to power that the great intellects didn't have. I found similar fascination in reading about John Stuart Mill's stint as an MP towards the end of his life, and his inability to connect with other politicians and the people (by his own account).
So much said in 5-7-5. Nicely done.