Seacoast History Blog #49
June 3, 2009

The other day, while lecturing in Brentwood, I must have mentioned that I was working on a book about the War of 1812. In my talk, I also referenced the Daniel Webster House in Portsmouth. After the talk, during the cake and conversation period, Albert Edward Belanger, introduced himself. Assembling all those random details like a man-made molecule, he said – “Did you know that Daniel Webster kicked off his political career by giving a speech about the War of 1812 right here in Brentwood?” I did not know that. So when I went home, I looked it up. (Continued below)

Rockingham Memorial Launches Webster Career 

Webster’s speech, known as the “Rockingham Memorial” was supposed to be delivered at the Brentwood Meetinghouse that still stands today. It was a peace rally in protest of the recently declared war against Great Britain. Federalists like Webster were deeply opposed to the war declared by James Madison who was much under the influence of a band of young Republican “War Hawks” including Henry Clay of Kentucky. Clay and Webster would spent much of their lives running for president without success.

MORE on Webster in NH Seacoast 

Yankee New Hampshire was a Federalist stronghold. Most New Englanders, especially those along the coast, feared that Mr. Madison’s War would cripple the shipping industry much as Thomas Jefferson’s embargo had done in 1805. It did. Portsmouth, where Webster was then living with his new wife, would never be the same.

So many people showed up for Webster’s anti-war rally, about 2,000, that the event had to be held in a nearby field on August 5, 1812. Webster, an up and coming Portsmouth attorney, was already involved in city politics. But this fiery protest speech put him on the short list for nomination as a Congressman from NH. Webster got the nod, won the election on the Peace ticket, and just as Albert Belanger said, the rest is history. Belanger is secretary of the Brentwood Historical Society and there is a roadside plaque about the Rockingham Memorial right nearby. All I can say in my defense is that it was dark and I didn’t see the sign.

I managed to squeeze the Webster story into the first chapter of the book I’m working on, due out in 2011. By contrast, the next paragraph tells of the Baltimore Riot that occurred a few weeks earlier. In that incident, anti-war protesters were killed when a mob favoring the War of 1812 stormed a newspaper office and then a jail where a group of Federalists were under protective custody. Most people in Baltimore hated the British at this time, a fact not missed by the British who, soon after burning the capital at Washington, attempted to blast Fort McHenry and the Baltimoreans back to the Stone Age. As you probably know, they didn’t succeed. A lawyer named Francis Scott Key happened to be on a ship nearby and wrote a poem about the bombs bursting in air and a giant star-spangled flag that was hoisted above the fort as the 25-hour bombardment concluded.

I love the way all this seemingly random stuff comes together. If you’re open to the past, it creeps in everywhere. Daniel Webster sent a copy of the Rockingham Memorial speech (Brentwood is in Rockingham County, named after Lord Rockingham who, by the way, was British) to President Madison. It was a pretty bold action since, embedded within the speech, is Webster’s suggestion that, perhaps, the New England states should secede from the Union. In a time of war, that kind of talk could be considered treason. Or, it could get you elected, couldn’t it Mr. Obama?

What the plaque by the former Congregational Church does not mention, is that Webster later changed his mind about the war. Like many Yankees, he came to accept the fact that the War of 1812 – a war that lasted until 1815 --  while it did cripple coastal trade, also expanded the national economy and paved the way for an orgy of American expansion. A year after his speech, Webster’s house in Portsmouth burned in the devastating downtown fire, destroying his precious library. He stayed around for another couple of years, but found greener political pastures down in Massachusetts.

Thanks for the head’s up, Albert. This little nugget almost went right by me.

Copyright © 2009 by J. Dennis Robinson. All rights reserved.