In his early days, Eleazer Wheelock, the founder of Dartmouth College, had had much religious controversy with Dr. Bellamy of Connecticut, who was like himself a graduate of Yale.  Wheelock was a Presbyterian and a liberal, Bellamy a Congregationalist and strictly orthodox.  The charter of Dartmouth was free from any kind of religious discrimination.  By his will the elder Wheelock provided in such a way that his son succeeded him in the presidency of the college.  In 1793 Judge Niles, a pupil of Bellamy, became a trustee of the college, and he and John Wheelock represented the opposite views which they respectively inherited from tutor and father.  They were formed for mutual hostility, and the contest began some twelve years before it reached the public.  The trustees and the president were then all Federalists, and there would seem to have been no differences of either a political or a religious nature.  The trouble arose from the resistance of a minority of the trustees to what they termed the “family dynasty.”  Wheelock, however, maintained his ascendency until 1809, when his enemies obtained a majority in the board of trustees, and thereafter admitted no friend of the president to the government, and used every effort to subdue the dominant dynasty.

In New Hampshire, at that period, the Federalists were the ruling party, and the Congregationalists formed the state church.  The people were, in practice, taxed to support Congregational churches, and the clergy of that denomination were exempted from taxation.  All the Congregational ministers were stanch Federalists and most of their parishioners were of the same party.  The college, the only seat of learning in the State, was one of the Federalist and Congregational strongholds.

After several years of fruitless and bitter conflict, the Wheelock party, in 1815, brought their grievances before the public in an elaborate pamphlet.  This led to a rejoinder and a war of pamphlets ensued, which was soon transferred to the newspapers, and created a great sensation and a profound interest.  Wheelock now contemplated legal proceedings.  Mr. Plumer was in ill health, Judge Smith and Mr. Mason were allied with the trustees, and the president therefore went to Mr. Webster, consulted him professionally, paid him, and obtained a promise of his future services.  About the time of this consultation, Wheelock sent a memorial to the Legislature, charging the trustees with misapplication of the funds, and various breaches of trust, religious intolerance, and a violation of the charter in their attacks upon the presidential office, and prayed for a committee of investigation.  The trustees met him boldly and offered a sturdy resistance, denying all the charges, especially that of religious intolerance; but the committee was voted by a large majority.  On August 5th, Wheelock, as soon as he learned that the committee was to have a hearing, wrote to Mr. Webster, reminding him of their consultation,