In interviews later in life, Josiah Hawes always maintained that Webster posed for this portrait before delivering his Revere House speech. The date repeated in the literature is April 22, 1850. The actual date of the speech was April 22, 1851. Webster had been denied the use of Faneuil Hall for a meeting, so the enraged Secratery of State spoke from his hotel balcony at the Revere House, not far from the Southworth & Hawes studio. The famous speech defended Webster's compromise position on the Fugitive Slave Law , and included the famous line "Union, union, union-Now and forever!"
