The Origin of "Godlike Daniel"

On August 2, 1826, Daniel Webster delivered a eulogy on the lives and services of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson at Faneuil Hall in Boston. So magnificent was the speech that, upon its conclusion, tremendous cheers roared through the hall -- although "inappropriate indeed for the occasion," according to Webster's friend and fellow Dartmouth alumnus George Ticknor.

The eulogy also earned Webster the appellation "Godlike Daniel:"

Three days later, an obscure temperance journal in Boston [called the National Philanthropist] commented, "To say of this production that it was eloquent, would be too common an expression to apply to such a performance. It was profound -- it was sublime -- it was godlike."

Merrill D. Peterson, The Great Triumvirate: Webster, Clay, and Calhoun, at 111.