Within a few years, he was earning enough to enable him to take a life partner, the beautiful and accomplished Grace Fletcher, the daughter of a minister. She made a delightful home for him and their children. [Sidenote: =Elected to Congress=] [Sidenote: =Favors a naval war=] Webster was gaining name and fame as a lawyer, but the approach of the War of 1812 drew him into politics. He was elected to Congress, and took his seat in 1813. Henry Clay was Speaker of the House of Representatives. Webster's most important speech was in favor of a war carried on by the navy: "If the war must be continued, go to the ocean. There the united wishes and exertions of the nation will go with you. Even our party divisions cease at the water's edge." [Illustration: SCENE OF THE FOURTH OF JULY ORATION _Daniel Webster asserting the dignity of patriotism at Dartmouth, July 4, 1800_] [Sidenote: =Webster's appearance=] [Sidenote: =His battle with Hayne=] After the war, Webster left Congress for a number of years. He was now a great man. When he entered a room, by his mere look and presence he drew all eyes toward him, and all conversation hushed. In size, he looked larger and broader than he really was. His forehead was broad and massive. It towered above his large, dark, deep-set eyes. His hair was black and glossy as a raven's wing. He looked thus in 1830 in the Senate, when he made his famous speech in reply to Senator Hayne of South Carolina. [Illustration: SCENE IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE _Daniel Webster defending the Federal Constitution against Hayne's idea of nullification_] [Sidenote: =Denies the right of nullification=] [Sidenote: ="Liberty and Union, one and inseparable"=] =154. The Greatest Statesman of his Time.= Hayne had spoken against a protective tariff and in favor of nullification. Webster felt called upon to reply. He denied the right of a state to nullify a law of Congress, and said that nullification was another name for secession. He closed his great speech with these words: "When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union ... but may I see our flag with not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured ... but everywhere spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land ... that sentiment, dear to every American heart--Liberty _and_ Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!" [Illustration: DANIEL WEBSTER _From a daguerreotype taken in 1850 by J. J. Hawes of Boston_] This speech made Daniel Webster immortal. It did more; it fired the heart of every lover of his country. [Sidenote: =Opposes Clay's Compromise Tariff=]