Part 2 (2/2)

The case was heard on March 10, 1818, and was opened by Mr Webster He had studied the arguorous hostile opinion of the New Hau mind of Mr Mason and fortified and extended by the ae Smith To the work of his e more than one not very i and retentive uments of Smith and Mason were in his hands It is only just to say that Mr Webster tells all this hiues, whose arguether,” and of which he adds that he could only be the reciter The faculty of obtaining and using the valuable work of other h and co in Mr Webster But in that bright period of early ment of all and more than all the intellectual aid he received from others He truly and properly awarded to Mason and Sal points and theories set forth on their side, and er and reciter of other ement and recitation meant! There were, perhaps, no lawyers better fitted than Mason and Suacity could suggest

But when Mr Webster burst upon the court and the nation with this great appeal, it was certain that there was no uments and facts, who could state the eloquence

The legal part of the argument was printed in Farrar's report and also in Wheaton's, after it had been carefully revised by Mr Webster with the argual and constitutional discussion shows plainly enough Mr Webster's easy and fir, effective, and lucid statement; but it is in its very nature dry, cold, and lawyer-like It gives no conception of the glowing vehemence of the delivery, or of those omitted portions of the speech which dealt with matters outside the domain of law, and which were introduced by Mr Webster with such telling and important results He spoke for five hours, but in the printed report his speech occupies only three pages more than that of Mr Mason in the court below

Both were slow speakers, and thus there is a great difference in ti every allowance for the peroration which we have froal and historical illustration hich Mr Webster a was left out,” Mr Webster says, and that so which must have occupied in its delivery nearly an hour was the eneralshi+p by which Mr Webster achieved victory, and which holly apart froement had already been displayed in the treatment of the cases made up for the Circuit Courts, and in the elaborate and irrelevant legal discussion which Mr Webster introduced before the Supreher stage, where it was destined to win victory, and exhibited in a high degree tact and knowledge of men Mr Webster was fully aware that he could rely, in any aspect of the case, upon the syton He was equally certain of the unyielding opposition of Duvall and Todd; the other three judges, Johnson, Livingston, and Story, were known to be adverse to the college, but were possible converts The first point was to increase the syer and even passionate support Mr Webster knew the chord to strike, and he touched it with aleft out,” of which we know the general drift, and we can easily ial and constitutional arguments, relevant and irrelevant, even in the pathetic appeal which he used so well in behalf of his Alma Mater, Mr Webster boldly and yet skilfully introduced the political view of the case So delicately did he do it that an attentive listener did not realize that he was straying from the field of ”mere reason” into that of political passion Here no man could equal him or help him, for here his eloquence had full scope, and on this he relied to arouse Marshall, whohly understood In occasional sentences he pictured his beloved college under the wise rule of Federalists and of the Church He depicted the party assault that wasthreatened with unholy invasion and falling helplessly into the hands of Jacobins and freethinkers As the tide of his resistless and soleureat Chief Justice roused like an old war-horse at the sound of the trumpet The words of the speaker carried him back to the early years of the century, when, in the full flush of hold of Federalisovernment, he had faced the power of the triuainst Jefferson,--the judge against the President Then he had preserved the ark of the Constitution Then he had seen the angry waves of popular feeling breaking vainly at his feet Now, in his old age, the conflict was revived

Jacobinisainst the teovernlowed once rasped anew his weapons and prepared with all the force of his indomitable will to raise yet another constitutional barrier across the path of his ancient enemies

We cannot but feel that Mr Webster's lost passages, e this political appeal, did the work, and that the result was settled when the political passions of the Chief Justice were fairly aroused Marshall would probably have brought about the decision by the sole force of his iood deal of effective work after the arguments were all finished, and no account of the case would be colance at the famous peroration hich he concluded his speech and in which he boldly flung aside all vestige of legal reasoning, and spoke directly to the passions and eument he stood silent for somethe Chief Justice, he said:--

This, sir, is my case It is the case not merely of that hue in our land

”Sir, you may destroy this little institution; it is weak; it is in your hands! I know it is one of the lesser lights in the literary horizon of our country You h your work! You hts of science which for more than a century have thrown their radiance over our land It is, sir, as I have said, a se And yet there are those who love it”

Here his feelings mastered him; his eyes filled with tears, his lips quivered, his voice was choked In broken words of tenderness he spoke of his attache, and his tones seemed filled with the memories of home and boyhood; of early affections and youthful privations and struggles

”The court room,” says Mr Goodrich, to e this description, ”during these two or three minutes presented an extraordinary spectacle Chief Justice Marshall, with his tall and gaunt figure bent over as if to catch the slightest whisper, the deep furrows of his cheek expanded with emotion and his eyes suffused with tears; Mr Justice Washi+ngton, at his side, with his small and emaciated frame, and countenance ,--leaning forith an eager, troubled look; and the re, as it were, to a single point, while the audience belorapping themselves round in closer folds beneath the bench, to catch each look and every movement of the speaker's face

”Mr Webster had now recovered his co his keen eye on the Chief Justice, said in that deep tone hich he sometimes thrilled the heart of an audience:--

”'Sir, I know not how others e before him), 'but for myself, when I see my Alma Mater surrounded, like Caesar in the senate-house, by those who are reiterating stab after stab, I would not, for this right hand, have her turn to me, and say, _Et tu quoque, mi fili! And thou too, enuine Apart froe, he had the true oratorical tehest sense unless he feels intensely, for the moment at least, the truth and force of every word he utters To move others deeply he must be deeply moved himself Yet at the same time Mr

Webster's peroration, and, indeed, his whole speech, was a model of consummate art Great lawyer as he undoubtedly was, he felt on this occasion that he could not rely on legal arguo beyond the line of propriety, without indulging in a declaal points and in a freer air, where he could use his keenest and strongest weapons, appeal to the court not as lawyers but as men subject to passion, emotion, and prejudice This he did boldly, delicately, successfully, and thus he won his case

The replies of the opposing counsel were poor enough after such a speech

Holmes's declamation sounded rather cheap, and Mr Wirt, thrown off his balance by Mr Webster's exposure of his ignorance, did but slight justice to hiuments were closed, and the next day, after a conference, the Chief Justice announced that the court could agree on nothing and that the cause must be continued for a year, until the next teres five to two against the college, and that the task of bringing the, however, he was powerfully aided by the counsel and all the friends of the college The old board of trustees had already paid ely Federalist, and, under the pressure of as made a party question, they had espoused ware Letters and essays had appeared, and pauments of the counsel at Exeter This as pushed with increased eagerness after the arguton, and the object noas to create about the three doubtful judges an at theston, and Story were all men ould have started at the barest suspicion of outside influence even in the uht of or attempted This made the task of the trustees very delicate and difficult in developing a public senti aware of it The printed arguments of Mason, Ses, but not to all All documents of a similar character found their way to the sa Federalists were aroused everywhere, so that the judges land man, a Democrat by circumstances, a Federalist by nature, there was but little difficulty A thorough review of the case, joined with Mr Webster's argue his first iston and Johnson was not so easy, for they were out of New England, and it was necessary to go a long way round to get at theal upholder of Federalism in New York was Chancellor Kent His first iainst the college, but after much effort on the part of the trustees and their able allies, Kent was converted, partly through his reason, partly through his Federalisreat influence on opinion caston, ed like a quiet, decorous political can The press and the party were everywhere actively interested At first, and in the early summer of 1818, before Kent was converted, matters looked badly for the trustees Mr Webster knew the complexion of the court, and hoped little from the point raised in Trustees vs Woodward Still, no one despaired, and the as kept up until, in September, President Brorote to Mr Webster in reference to the argument:--

”It has already been, or shortly will be, read by all the _coland and New York; and so far as it has gone it has united thee, in one broad and iland and New York _are gained_ Will not this be sufficient for our present purposes? If not, I should recoe I prevailingly think, however, that the current of opinion froly towards the South that we may safely trust to its force alone to accoyman writes of public opinion as if the object was to elect a President All this effort, however, ell applied, as was found when the court caether at the next term In the interval the State had become sensible of the defects of their counsel, and had retained Mr

Pinkney, who stood at that time at the head of the bar of the United States He had all the qualifications of a great lawyer, except perhaps that of robustness He was keen, strong, and learned; diligent in preparation, he was ready and fluent in action, a good debater, and h order of eloquence He was a most formidable adversary, and one whom Mr Webster, then just at the outset of his career, had probably no desire to meet in such a doubtful case as this[1] Even here, however, misfortune seemed to pursue the State, for Mr Pinkney was on bad terms with Mr Wirt, and acted alone He did all that was possible; prepared himself elaborately in the law and history of the case, and then went into court ready to ument

Marshall, however, was also quite prepared Turning his ”blind ear,” as some one said, to Pinkney, he announced, as soon as he took his seat, that the judges had co the vacation He then read one of his great opinions, in which he held that the college charter was a contract within theof the Constitution, and that the acts of the New Haislature impaired this contract, and were therefore void

To this decision four judges assented in silence, although Story and Washi+ngton subsequently wrote out opinions Judge Todd was absent, through illness, and Judge Duvall dissented The ie in the hands of the victorious Federalists In the precedent which it established, however, it had ht within the scope of the Constitution of the United States every charter granted by a State, limited the action of the States in a nty, and extended the jurisdiction of the highest federal court ment ever rendered by them From the day when it was announced to the present tie case has continued to exert an enormous influence, and has been constantly sustained and attacked in litigation of the greatest importance

[Footnote 1: Mr Peter Harvey, in his _Reard to Webster and Pinkney, which places the forht of a common and odious bully, an attitude as alien to Mr Webster's character as can well be conceived The story is undoubtedly either wholly fictitious or so grossly exaggerated as to be practically false On the page preceding the account of this incident, Mr Harvey e from Randolph, whereas in Webster's own letter, published by Mr Curtis, there is express reference to a note of challenge received from Randolph This is a fair example of these _Reminiscences_ A ine There is not a statement in it which can be safely accepted, unless supported by other evidence It puts its subject throughout in thehas ever been written about Webster so well calculated to injure and belittle hi and devoted Boswell It is the reflection of a great man upon the mirror of a very smalldied, Mr Webster ment be entered _nunc pro tunc_ Pinkney and Wirt objected on the ground that the other causes on the docket contained additional facts, and that no final judgment should be entered until these causes had been heard The court, however, granted Mr Webster's motion Mr Pinkney then tried to avail hiard to the special verdict, that any new and ed Mr Webster pereainst Woodward, and obliged Mr Pinkney to consent that the other causes should be remanded, without instructions, to the Circuit Court, where they were heard by Judge Story, who rendered a decree _nisi_ for the college This closed the case, and such were the last displays of Mr Webster's dexterous and vigorous e causes”

The popular opinion of this case seee Sument, which he forced upon the acceptance of the court by the power of his close and logical reasoning, and thus established an interpretation of the Constitution of vast estion of the constitutional point, not a very reinated, as has been said, with a layarded by Mr Webster as a forlorn hope, and was very briefly discussed by him before the Supreme Court He knew, of course, that if the case were to be decided against Woodward, it could only be on the constitutional point, but he evidently thought that the court would not take the view of it which was favorable to the college

The Dartreat achievehtly praised on rounds Mr Webster uments mainly prepared by Mason and Sal li the faes of his oratory In what eneralshi+p and the ereat tact and to be versed in the knowledge of men, qualities not usually attributed to him because their exercise involved an an to his indolent and royal teht and force for victory

Mr Webster no doubt iuments at the bar than he did upon this occasion, but the Dartal talents so nearly at their best, and in such unusual variety, that it is a fit point at which to pause in order to consider souments and his position and abilities as a lawyer For this purpose it is quite sufficient to confine ourselves to the cases uments preserved in the collection of Mr Webster's speeches