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In 1840, Webster was named Secretary of State by President William Henry Harrison and it was in that capacity that he entertained Lord Alexander Ashburton at Marshfield and here they laid the groundwork for the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, which in 1842 set the boundary between Maine and Canada. As Secretary of State in 1852 Webster met with the British Minister Lord Compton, in Marshfield, to settle the dispute between the New England Fisheries and England; an action he spoke of at Cherry Hill when he delivered his last public speech.