Daniel Webster (Figure 1) was a prominent lawyer and politician in the antebellum period. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing both New Hampshire (1813-1817) and Massachusetts (1823-1827). He also represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate from 1827 to 1841 and again from 1845 to 1850. He also served as Secretary of State from 1841 to 1843 and again from 1850 to 1852 and would die while in that office. All told, he spent near 40 of his 70 years alive serving in one capacity or another in the U.S. government.
He also was a famous lawyer, arguing more than 200 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court during his career. It was his fame as a lawyer that led Stephen Vincent Benet to write a short story in 1936 titled, "The Devil and Daniel Webster," in which a fictionalized Webster defends a farmer who sold his soul to the devil. Spoiler alert: Webster prevails, and the farmer's contract to sell his soul to the devil is torn up.
Figure 1 - Daniel Webster, 1782-1852. Source: Wikipedia.
As member of Congress, Webster had the privilege of sending mail free of charge under the "free frank" system. This practice dates back to 18th century Great Britain when members of Parliament were granted this right, and it is a benefit that members of the U.S. Congress continue to have. The folded letter shown in Figure 2 is one such letter sent by Webster on September 12, 1840, when he was a U.S. Senator.
Figure 2 - Free Frank Folded Letter Sent by Daniel Webster
The front of the cover contains Webster's signature with his free frank - a red manuscript "F" - and a red circular date stamp from Boston. The date in the handstamp is not clear, but we know it is September 12, 1840, from the manuscript date at the top of the letter (Figure 3).
Figure 3 - Letter from Daniel Webster to Alfred Grinville "A.G." Benson of New York.
The letter, as best as I can make out, reads as follows:
Boston Sept. 12th 1840.
A.G. Benson, Esq.
My dear Sir,
I was obliged unexpectedly to be on the Common at eight o’clock Thursday morning & I missed seeing you at the United States Hotel, I suppose.
I shall see you at New York and we will conclude our preliminary arrangements, at all events, & wait the movement of the ? ?.
I have to get away from here next week some time – am only waiting to raise the wind (?).
Truly your’s
Dan’l Webster
Webster was writing to Alfred G. Benson, a resident of New York City. Benson was a former business associate of Webster's close friend Charles March, which is probably how Webster and Benson became acquainted.
What arrangements Webster was referring to are unknown, but they may have had to do with Benson seeking a government contract to facilitate the settlement of Oregon and California. I suspect this might be the case based on a document (see below) that Benson submitted to the U.S. Congress in 1855 in which he writes, "In 1841, I engaged extensively in the Oregon and California business to facilitate the trade and commerce, and especially the colonization of those regions; under a contract made on the part of the Government of the United States by the advice of Mr. Webster." According to Benson, the government failed to hold up its end of that contract, so it is remarkable that Benson would turn again to Webster for assistance in 1852 on another matter: the exploitation of guano from islands off the western coast of South America.
Benson, who was born in Maine in 1804 and moved to New York when he was 22 to engage in the shipping business, was among the first to discover the adaptation of guano - aka "seabird poop" - to the purposes of fertilization, and he began to import it in large quantities from the islands off the western coast of South America. With its high concentrations of nitrogen, phosphate and potassium, guano was pivotal for the development of input-intensive farming in the 19th century and would remain a valuable farm commodity until the early 1900s when the Haber-Bosch process was invented for extracting nitrogen from the atmosphere.
In the late 1840s and early 1850s, Benson was associated with the Lobos Island Foundation. The Lobos Islands were two guano-rich islands off the coast of Peru that Benson believed were not claimed by any government. Benson was determined to take possession of these islands in the name of U.S. government and enlisted the help of Webster to make that a reality. In a letter to Benson's business partner, Captain James. C. Jewett, Webster intimates that Benson may be correct that the islands are unclaimed, and Webster commits to send a letter to the Secretary of the Navy suggesting "that a vessel of war be ordered to repair to the Lobos Islands, for the purpose of protecting from molestation any of our citizens who may wish to take guano from them."
As it turns out, Webster was badly mistaken. Peru did have a legitimate claim to the islands, and Benson's excursion almost resulted in a war between the United States and Peru. Peru treated Benson and his work crews as invaders and promptly evicted them from the islands. Notwithstanding Webster's commitment that the U.S. government would stand by him, Benson was left holding the bag by himself.
Benson took a significant financial hit from Webster's error, and on January 8, 1855, he submitted a 28-page document titled, "Memorial of Alfred G. Benson to the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States" seeking compensation for his losses. Benson's claim worked its way through the Senate's Committee of Claims and resulted in a massive 284-page report released on February 18, 1857. That report supported passage of Senate Bill Number 606 that provided Benson a measure of compensation.
The Lobos Island's fiasco, however, did not dissuade Benson from continuing to seek wealth through the exploitation of guano on Pacific islands. Several years later, Benson and other investors located guano deposits on other islands, which proved to be valuable though not as lucrative as the Lobos Islands would have been. Benson no doubt was encouraged in his new endeavors by the passage of the Guano Islands Act of 1856 that enabled citizens to take possession of unclaimed islands containing guano deposits in the name of the United States, and it empowered the president to use the military to protect such interests. That law, in effect, codified Webster's commitment, but the U.S. government was extremely careful to ensure that any islands seized were, in fact, unclaimed by any other jurisdiction. (That law remains on the books to this day and was last used in 1997.) Benson passed away in 1878, with the New York Times April 20, 1878, obituary stating that the "deceased merchant was public spirited, and in a modest way took part in several enterprises of value to New York and Brooklyn."
In August 1852, just two months before he passed away, Webster wrote to a friend, "All my concerns in this Department have never given me so much disturbance, as this Lobos business." It's puzzling why Webster chose to question Peru's jurisdiction of the Lobos Islands and how he came to that conclusion. Reasons put forth range from that he was duped by Benson and Captain Jewett to accusations that he was in collusion with Benson and Jewett in a "get rich quick scheme." The most plausible reason, however, may be health related. When Webster responded to Captain Jewett's letter (which Benson likely penned) on June 5, 1852, Webster was suffering from a severe head trauma that he suffered in a carriage accident on May 8, 1852. He was also suffering from cirrhosis of the liver and would pass away on October 24, 1852, a little more than four months after he replied to Jewett/Benson.
The Lobos Islands episode did not reflect well on Webster, but in the greater scheme of things, it was a minor blemish on a sterling career. He served his country for 40 years, and he is regarded as a talented attorney, orator and politician. It’s no wonder that he has been honored on multiple U.S. postage stamps in the 19th and 20th centuries.
For more on the Lobos Islands episode, see the following resources:
"Untaught Diplomacy: Daniel Webster and the Lobos Island Controversy," Kenneth E. Shewmaker, Diplomatic History, Vol. 1, No. 4, Fall 1977.
"Memorial of Alfred G. Benson to the Senate and house of Representatives of the United States," January 8, 1855.
"In the Senate of the United States. February 18, 1857. -- Ordered to be printed. Mr. Wade made the following report. (To accompany Bill S. No. 606.) The Committee of Claims, to whom were referred the memorial of Alfred G. Benson."
Senate Bill 606, 34th Congress, 3rd Session, "A Bill for the Relief of Alfred G. Benson."
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