bank-notes grew in plenty. Jackman was arrested and lodged in 'the Tombs,' while Goodridge returned to Boston, got a requisition from the governor, and had him brought in irons to Ipswich, where the supreme judicial court was then in session. The grand jury had risen, but he was examined before a ma gistrate, and ordered to recognize to appear at the next termwhich he did, and was discharged. An indictment had been found against the Kennistons and Taber; and the time of trial had arrived. Notwithstanding the doubts and suspicions, which had been excited by the conduct of Goodridge, yet the evidence against the Kennistons, Taber and Jackman was so overwhelming, that almost every one felt sure of their conviction. To such an extent did this opinion prevail, that no member of the Essex bar was willing to undertake their defense. Under these circumstances, two or three individuals, who had been early convinced that the major's stories were false from beginning to end, determined, the day before the trial, to send to Suffolk for counsel. Mr. Webster had just then removed to Boston from Portsmouth. His services were engaged; and, late in the night preceding the day of trial, he arrived at Ipswich, having had no opportunity to examine the witnesses, and but little time for consultation. The indictment against Taber was nol prossed, and the trial of the Kennistons was commenced. Mr. Webster, as senior counsel, conducted the defense with a degree of ability, boldness, tact and legal learning, which had rarely been witnessed in Essex county; and, notwithstanding the accumulated mass of evidence against the Kennistons, they were acquitted.

"At the next term of the supreme judicial court, Jackman was indicted and tried, but the jury did not agree, though the Hon. William Prescott had been employed to assist the prosecuting officer. Jackman was again tried at the next term of the court, and this time defended by Mr. Webster, and ao quitted.

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"The criminal prosecutions growing out of this affair being thus ended, Mr. Pearson commenced an action against Good ridge for malicious prosecution, laying his damages at two thousand dollars, which sum the jury awarded him without leaving their seats. In this case, also, Mr. Webster was counsel for the plaintiff; and time had brought forth so many new facts, and the evidence was so clear and overwhelming against Goodridge, that the public became satisfied that he was his own robber! He was surrendered by his bail, committed to jail, took the poor debtors' oath, and soon after left the commonwealth, and has not resided here since. The public rarely stop to consider how much they are indebted to men like Webster for laying bare the villainy of such a deep-laid and diabolical plot. But for him, there is no doubt the Kennistons and Jackman would have been convicted of highway robbery, though innocent.”

It was undeniably Mr. Webster's custom, in every trial which he conducted, to make every preparation essential to the case; but they who imagine that, without such preparation, he was no more than an ordinary man, as if he had no great readiness of speech, should read his argument in this prosecution. Without a day's opportunity for study, with only a few hours' reading of the notes of the junior counsel, he stood up before the jury and made such a defense of his clients, as none but a Pitt, or a Fox, or a Burke could have made, with or without preparation. When he sat down, he had convinced the judg ment and moved the sympathies of every man that heard him speak; and in every one's estimation, court, lawyers, spectators, he had given them the exact truth, and made an effort worthy of being remembered for a generation. It was remembered; and it may continue to be read and admired, in the rough notes taken of it at the moment by another hand, and revised by himself, as long as legal abilities and forensic eloquence shall engage the attention of mankind.

There was one topic in the argument of Mr. Webster, which, 12

VOL. I.

H*

judged from the hasty report already mentioned, must have wrought up the advocate to his highest pitch of eloquence. The witnesses had spoken of the appearance of the prisoners when apprehended; and the counsel for the prosecution had dwelt on that appearance as conclusive evidence of their guilt. Having followed out all the direct evidence in the case, and shown the absolute futility of the whole, he then addressed himself to this poor attempt to bring testimony against his cli ents out of their behavior when arrested, and set forth a principle which neither justice nor charity should ever overlook: "The witnesses on the part of the prosecution," says the advocate, "have testified that the defendants, when arrested, manifested great agitation and alarm. Paleness overspread their faces, and drops of sweat stood on their temples. This satis fied the witnesses of the defendants' guilt; and they now state the circumstances as being indubitable proof. This argument manifests, in those who use it, an equal want of sense and sen sibility. It is precisely fitted to the feelings of a bum-bailiff. In a court of justice it deserves nothing but contempt. Is there nothing that can agitate the frame, or excite the blood, but the consciousness of guilt? If the defendants were innocent, would they not feel indignation at this unjust accusation? If they saw an attempt to produce false evidence against them, would they not be angry? And, seeing the production of such evidence, might they not feel fear and alarm? And have indignation, and anger, and terror, no power to affect the human countenance, or the human frame? Miserable, miserable, indeed, is the reasoning which would infer any man's guilt from his agitation when he found himself accused of a heinous offense; when he saw evidence which he might know to be false and fraudulent brought against him; when his house was filled, from garret to cellar, by those whom he might esteem as false witnesses; and when he himself, instead of being at liberty to observe their conduct and watch their motions, was a prisoner

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in close custody in his own house, with the fists of a catchpoll clenched upon his throat." But it is impossible now, from any thing that remains, to give a just idea of the eloquence of that hour and place. It has gone, with nearly all the forensic eloquence of him, who never had his superior in our courts, never to be recalled, perhaps never to be surpassed..

On the 10th day of March, 1818, Mr. Webster made his first appearance before the supreme court of the United States at Washington; and it is remarkable, that the cause which `brought him there was that of the trustees of Dartmouth College, his Alma Mater, against William H. Woodward, who represented in the suit the state of New Hampshire, Mr. Webster's native state. The nature of the case, and the leading circumstances connected with it, have been given with great clearness by Mr. Webster: "The charter of 1769," says he, in the opening of his argument, "created and established a corporation to consist of twelve persons, and no more, to be called the "Trustees of Dartmouth College.' The preamble to the charter recites, that it is granted on the application and request of Rev. Eleazer Wheelock; that Dr. Wheelock, about the year 1754, established a charity school, at his own expense, and on his own estate and plantation; that for several years, through the assistance of well-disposed persons in America, granted at his solicitation, he had clothed, maintained and educated a number of native Indians, and employed them afterwards as missionaries and schoolmasters among the savage tribes; that, hisdesign promising to be useful, he had constituted the Rev. Mr. Whitaker to be his attorney, with power to solicit contributions in England, for the further extension and carrrying on of nis undertaking; that he had requested the Earl of Dartmouth, Baron Smith, Mr. Thornton, and other gentlemen, to receive such sums as might be contributed, in England, towards supporting his school, and to be trustees thereof, for his charity, which these persons had agreed to do; that thereupon Dr.

reasons,

Wheelock had executed to them a deed of trust, in pursuance of such agreement between him and them, and, for divers good had referred it to those persons to determine the place in which the school should be finally established. And, to enable them to form a proper decision on this subject, had laid before them the several offers which had been made to him by the several governments in America, in order to induce him to settle and establish his school within the limits of such governments for their own emolument, and the increase of learning in their respective places, as well as for the furtherance of his general original design. And, inasmuch as a number of the proprietors of land in New Hampshire, animated by the example of the governor himself and others, and in consideration that, without any impediment to its original design, the school might be enlarged and improved, to promote learning among the English, and to supply ministers to the people of that province, had promised large tracts of land, provided the school should be established in that province, the persons before mentioned, having weighed the reasons in favor of the several places proposed, had given the preference to this province, and to these offers. That Dr. Wheelock therefore represented the necessity of a legal incorporation, and proposed that certain gentlemen in America, whom he had already named and appointed in his will to be trustees of his charity after his decease, should compose the corporation. Upon this recital, and in consideration of the laudable original design of Dr. Wheelock, and willing that the best means of education be established in New Hampshire, for the benefit of the province, the king granted the charter, by the advice of his provincial council.

"The substance of the facts thus recited is, that Dr. Wheelock had founded a charity, on funds owned and procured by himself; that he was at that time the sole dispenser and sole administrator, as well as legal owner, of these funds; that he had made his will, devising this property in trust, to continue