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solicitations of numerous warm and admiring friends, nad prevailed on him to make Boston the place of his future residence; and he had moved to that city, and opened an office, at the termination of the first session of the fourteenth congress. It was here, during the succeeding seven years, that Mr. Webster rose to that eminence as a lawyer, which he ever afterwards maintained. "The promise of his youth," says Mr. Everett, "and the expectations of those who had known him as a student, were more than fulfilled. He took a position as a counselor and an advocate, above which no one has ever risen in the country. A large share of the best business of New England poured into his hands; and the veterans of the Boston bar admitted him to an entire equality of standing, repute, and influence."

His position, however, was not gained without an effort. With his residence in Boston, Mr. Webster began a more thorough course of reading, as a lawyer, and particularly as a constitutional lawyer, than he had ever before undertaken. His short career in congress had shown him, probably, more than all his former experience, the peculiar nature of his genius. He saw, that, while he could stand equal to his first competitors in the ordinary departments of his profession, he was more than their equal in his fitness for those general questions, coming directly under the constitutions of the states, and the constitution of the Union, which require the best exercise of the best faculties of the human mind. His mind ran in that direc tion. He was always looking to the foundation of every subject; and he delighted to lay down his work, his argument, his business, on the bottom of established truths, or everlasting principles. There is no doubt, that, in the intricacies of common practice, such as every lawyer meets with in every court, Mr. Webster had, then and always, his equals if not superiors. In this department, it is probable that Jeremiah Mason, Jere miah Smith, Franklin Dexter, and several others in New En

gland, were nearly a match for him in his best days; but not one of them could stand before him, when he rose to trace a cause to its ultimate grounds, or deduce it from the secret elements of human nature. Farther south, there were Emmett, and Wirt, and Pinckney, who, as advocates merely, on an oc'casion not entirely of the first magnitude, but such as a great deal of technical learning, an exquisite tact, and a finished and fine elocution could easily cope with, could venture to meet Mr. Webster even before the supreme court at Washington; but, as will be soon seen, when a cause involving fundamental axioms, and reasoning ab origine, and a thorough mastery of the structure of society was to be undertaken, the technicalities, and legal artifices, and racy eloquence of those gentlemen, cap tivating as they were to a crowd of uninitiated spectators, were nothing in the way of Mr. Webster. He scarcely seemed to notice them. He would walk directly up to the main points of his case, seize them with a mighty grasp, and hold them, as a lion holds his prey, in perfect defiance of the rattling small arms of his assailants. In this field, in fact, he was always entirely at home, and more than the equal of any man of his age, or of his country, with the single exception, perhaps, of Alexander Hamilton.

The first cause of public importance, which Mr. Webster undertook after his removal to Boston, was the celebrated defense of the Kennistons against Goodridge, who had charged them with highway robbery. So few of Mr. Webster's legal arguments have been reported, and the case now mentioned furnishes so characteristic a view of his peculiar talents, that the careful reader will not fail to peruse with pleasure, doubtless, quite a full and satisfactory account of it, which was writ ten out, at the time, by Stephen W. Marston, Esq., of New buryport, who was associated with Mr. Webster in the trial: "Major Goodridge," says the writer," was a young man of good education, and respectable connections, of fine personal appear

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His place

ance, gentlemanly deportment, and good character. of business was Bangor, Maine, and, at the time of the alleged robbery, he was on his way to Boston, traveling in a one-horse sleigh, alone, with a considerable sum of money. Before leav ing home he procured a pair of pistols, which he discharged and loaded daily, as he said, in some unfrequented piece of woods, for he did not wish it to be known that he was armed. He said, moreover, that he took the precaution to put a private mark upon every piece of money in his possession, so as to be able to identify it if he should be robbed. His somewhat singular reason for these preliminary measures was, that he had heard of a robbery in Maine, not long before.

"When he arrived at Exeter, New Hampshire, he procured nine balls, and then, for the first time, made no secret of hav ing pistols. At this place he left his sleigh, obtained a saddle, and started for Newburyport on horseback, late in the afternoon of the 19th of December, [1817] passing the Essex Merrimack bridge a few minutes before nine o'clock. On the brow of the hill, a short distance from the bridge, is the place of the robbery, in full view of several houses, on a great thoroughfare, where people are constantly passing, and where the mail coach and two wagons were known to have passed within a few minutes of the time of the alleged robbery.

"The major's story was as follows: Three men suddenly appeared before him, one of whom seized the bridle of the horse, presented a pistol, and demanded his money. The major, pretending to be getting his money, seized a pistol from his portmanteau with his right hand, grasped the ruffian at the horse's head with his left, and both discharged their pistols at the same instant, the ball of his adversary passing through the major's hand. The three robbers then pulled him from his horse, dragged him over the frozen ground, and over the fence, beating him till he was senseless, and robbed him of about seventeen hundred dollars in gold and paper money, and left him

with his gold watch and all his papers in the field. Recover ing in about half an hour, he went back to the bridge; passed several houses without calling, and, at the toll-house, accused the first person he met with, a female, of robbing him; and so continued charging various people about him with the robbery. After some time a lantern was procured, and himself with others started for the place of the robbery, where were found his watch, papers, penknife and other articles. He represented to them that the robbers had bruised his head, stamped upon his breast, and stabbed him in several places. Physicians were called; and he appeared to be insane. The next day he went to Newburyport, and was confined to his bed for several weeks. A reward of three hundred dollars, soon increased by voluntary subscriptions to one thousand, was offered for the detection of the robbers and the recovery of the money. As soon as the major was able to leave his bed, he went to Danvers, consulted his friends there; and the result of his deliberations and inquiries was the arrest of the Kennistons, who were found in an obscure part of the town of New Market, New Hampshire, their place of residence. In their house the major found some pieces of his marked gold, deposited under a pork barrel in the cellar. He also found there a ten-dollar note, which he identified as his own.

"This was proof indeed of the facts of the robbery, which seemed for a time effectually fastened on the Kennistons. But one circumstance after another came to light, in regard to the transaction, until some people felt doubts creeping over their minds as to the truthfulness of the major's story. These were few in number, it is true; but such an intimation, coming from any respectable source, was enough to startle the major and his friends from their apathy, and incite them to renewed ef forts to probe this dark and mysterious transaction to its depths. The result was to search the house of Mr. Pearson, the toll-gatherer at the bridge; but here nothing was found.

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They then procured the services of an old conjuror of Danvers, Swimmington by name, and, under his direction, with witchhazel and metallic rods, renewed their search upon Mr. Pear son's premises, this time discovering the major's gold and paper wrappers. Mr. Pearson was arrested, carried to Newburyport, examined before two magistrates, and discharged at once. This operation proved most unpropitious to the major's plans. So great was the indignation of Mr. Pearson's friends, for he was a respectable man, that they lost all control over themselves, and, after the examination, detaching the horses from the sleigh, they drew him home themselves.

"It now became more necessary than ever, that some one should be found, who might be connected with the Kennistons in the robbery; for the circumstances in relation to these men were such, that the public could not believe that they had received a portion of the spoil. The next step, therefore, was to arrest one Taber of Boston, who had formerly lived in Port land, and whom Goodridge said he had seen at Alfred on his way up, and from whom he pretended to have obtained information in regard to the Kennistons. In Taber's house were found a number of the marked wrappers, which the major had put round his gold before leaving home. Taber was likewise brought to Newburyport, examined, and bound over for trial with the Kennistons.

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'Notwithstanding all this accumulation of evidence, the public were not satisfied. It seemed to be necessary that somebody living near the bridge should be connected with the trans action; and Mr. Joseph Jackman was fastened upon as that unfortunate man, he having left Newbury for New York very soon after the alleged robbery. Thither Goodridge immediately proceeded, found Jackman, who was living then with his brother, searched the house, and in the garret, among some old rubbish, found a large number of his marked wrappers! The major's touck was magical, and underneath his fingers gold and