West Hartford Lecture To Explore Noah Webster's Revolutionary Role

WEST HARTFORD, CT — A public lecture on Thursday, March 12, at the Noah Webster House & West Hartford Historical Society will examine the political life of lexicographer and writer Noah Webster and his role in the early partisan struggles of the United States.

The program, titled “Noah Webster: Partisan Federalist (1792–1843),” begins at 6:30 p.m. on March 12 at the 227 S. Main St. historical site.

It is part of local programming leading up to the national United States Semiquincentennial.

Tickets are available at this link.

Historian and educator Craig Hotchkiss will present the lecture, which focuses on Webster’s political activity after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution and the emergence of early political parties.

According to program organizers, Webster celebrated the 1789 inauguration of George Washington and initially planned to leave political advocacy behind and return to Connecticut to practice law and start a family. At the time, Webster was 31.

But the nation’s new constitutional government quickly became the center of intense political conflict.

Leaders who helped shape the Constitution worried that competing political “factions,” or “parties,” would vie for control of national policy and appeal to “popular” support, potentially creating instability similar to events unfolding during the French Revolution.

Those concerns materialized by the presidency of John Adams in 1797, as divisions sharpened between the Federalists and the emerging Democratic-Republican Party led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

While Webster worked on educational projects, including his influential dictionary, he also remained active in political debates supporting the Federalist Party, particularly as it lost influence outside urban centers in the Northeast.

The lecture will also examine the bitter 1800 United States presidential election, widely considered the country’s first peaceful transfer of power between political parties when Jefferson defeated Adams.

Despite that milestone, concerns about national unity persisted during Webster’s lifetime. Webster died in 1843, worried the American experiment might not endure, according to the program description.

Hotchkiss, who joined the Noah Webster House as an education consultant, developed the lecture as part of a series tied to the America250 anniversary on July 4.

He previously taught U.S. history at South Windsor High School for 33 years, including Advanced Placement courses, and served nearly a decade as the school’s history department chair.

After retiring from teaching, Hotchkiss became education manager at the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, where he led public programs and teacher workshops across the Northeast. He also taught a graduate-level course in museum education at Trinity College.

The program is co-hosted by the West Hartford Historical Society, West Hartford 250, and the town historian. Support is provided by Eversource Energy and the Rotary Club of West Hartford.

For more information and to purchase lecture tickets, click on this link.