In a note dated June 23, 1851, U.S. secretary of state Daniel Webster recommends Paul Jennings for employment. Jennings was a former slave who served James Madison and his wife, Dolley Madison.
PRIMARY DOCUMENT
Author: Daniel Webster
PRIMARY DOCUMENT
“To the New York Committee for the Celebration of the Birthday of Washington” by Daniel Webster (February 20, 1851)
In this letter, dated February 20, 1851, Secretary of State Daniel Webster declines a New York group’s invitation to join them in celebrating George Washington‘s birthday. He uses the letter to accuse of treason those Boston abolitionists who helped in the escape five days earlier of the fugitive slave Shadrach Minkins.
PRIMARY DOCUMENT
“A Proclamation by the President of the United States” (February 18, 1851)
In “A Proclamation by the President of the United States,” dated February 18, 1851, President Millard Fillmore and Secretary of State Daniel Webster condemn the escape from federal custody of Shadrach Minkins, a slave from Norfolk who had escaped to Boston, Massachusetts, the previous year.
