REMINISCENCES OF DANIEL WEBSTER. 291
case. And here he gave us 'a very instructive lesson as to the importance of a lawyer so interweaving himself into the feelings, sympathy, and interests of his clients as to make their case his own. 1 )aranouth was his Alma Mater, and as such he loved her. He felt that she had ])een greatly wronged, and that, sooner or later, all the institutions of the land, endowed by private charity, were to feel the effects of that wrong. She was poor, and, therefore, enlitled to his sympathy. And yet he was embarrassed by the fact that lis naiive state, which had so highly honored him, was the author of the wrong. He was still
FURTHER EMBARRASSED
by the fact that the supreme court of his state, without any dissent, had in- dorsed it. Then he was yet further embarrassed by the fact that he had to encounter the greatest of American lawyers and orators, William Wirt. He had secured, as associate counsel, an eminent lawyer. Judge Joseph Hopkins, the author of "Hail Columbia," But Judge Hopkins could not feel as he felt. He depicted his feelings of anxiety all along his journey to Washington, tedious in those days. He described the uiean and dingy building in which the United States supreme court was then held, and his small and unsympathetic audience. There was uothing in his surroundings to enspirit him. He had to relv upon pure reason. He won his case, and this gave him those other noted cases by which his ultimate professional fame was built, and created a demand upon him to re-enter congress, which he supposed he had left for ever, to defend the great commercial interests of Massachusetts, which were then supposed to be in danger from adverse legislation. This was in 1818, when he was in his 37th year. The Dartmouth college case secured him all the legal practice he want- ed, and more than his political friends wished him to have. And, when he pleaded, as an excuse for devoting so much time to a profession which he loved, the inadequacy of his salary as congressman, they generously settled upon him a sum which would render his legal practice unnecessary. And, after this, some of these very men insisted that he should go into court and attend to cases of their own. It was noticed, during his remarks, that he had something to say to each one at the table, calling each by name, and generally respect- ing something that each had said. Of one he would ask, — How came I to be retained in the Girard will case ? How came I, so soon after removing to Massachusetts, to be sent to congress, where I had the opportunity to make those speeches to which reference has been made ?
HOW CAMF. I TO BE TREATED
as I was when in England? Did the English people care for my reply to Hayne, my orations at Bunker Hill or Plymouth Rock, or ray eulogy upon Adams or Jefferson ? Did either of these induce the Barings to give me ^500 for my opinion in the case of the bonds repudiated by the state of Mis- sissippi? Thus he went on, subordinating all other causes of his success to the Dartmouth College case. Here are his words to me :
"Wentworth, why did those eastern gentlemen, creditors of your state, wish to consult me before any one else, when they came to Washington ? I was not in congress. I did not visit its sessions. My duties as secretary of state re- quired all my time, and they knew it. Was it not to ascertain that, if they aid- ed you in obtaining your land grant, and advanced money to build your road, they could make a contract which subsequent legislation could not impair? It was the foundation laid by my reputation in the Dartmouth College case that brought them to me, and which resulted in securing you the most beneficent gratuity ever conferred upon any state. I am poor. I have done for Dart-
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