sympathy of the Chief Justice to an eager and even
passionate support. Mr. Webster knew the chord
to strike, and he touched it with a master hand.
This was the “something left out,” of
which we know the general drift, and we can easily
imagine the effect. In the midst of all the legal
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, whom he
thoroughly 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 was made upon her. He
showed the citadel of learning threatened with unholy
invasion and falling helplessly into the hands of
Jacobins and freethinkers. As the tide of his
resistless and solemn eloquence, mingled with his masterly
argument, flowed on, we can imagine how the great 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 manhood, at the head of his court,
the last stronghold of Federalism, the last bulwark
of sound government, he had faced the power of the
triumphant Democrats. Once more it was Marshall
against 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.
Jacobinism was raising its sacrilegious hand against
the temples of learning, against the friends of order
and good government. The joy of battle must have
glowed once more in the old man’s breast as he
grasped 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,
embodying 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 imperious will. But Mr.
Webster did a good deal of effective work after the
arguments were all finished, and no account of the
case would be complete without a glance at the famous
peroration with which he concluded his speech and in
which he boldly flung aside all vestige of legal reasoning,
and spoke directly to the passions and emotions of
his hearers.
When he had finished his argument he stood silent
for some moments, until every eye was fixed upon him,
then, addressing the Chief Justice, he said:—