In tracing the labors of Mr. Webster during three years spent in the lower House, no allusion has been made to the purely political side of his career at this time, nor to his relations with the public men of the day.  The period was important, generally speaking, because it showed the first signs of the development of new parties, and to Mr. Webster in particular, because it brought him gradually toward the political and party position which he was to occupy during the rest of his life.  When he took his seat in Congress, in the autumn of 1823, the intrigues for the presidential succession were at their height.  Mr. Webster was then strongly inclined to Mr. Calhoun, as was suspected at the time of that gentleman’s visit to Boston.  He soon became convinced, however, that Mr. Calhoun’s chances of success were slight, and his good opinion of the distinguished South Carolinian seems also to have declined.  It was out of the question for a man of Mr. Webster’s temperament and habits of thought, to think for a moment of supporting Jackson, a candidate on the ground of military glory and unreflecting popular enthusiasm.  Mr. Adams, as the representative of New England, and as a conservative and trained statesman, was the natural and proper candidate to receive the aid of Mr. Webster.  But here party feelings and traditions stepped in.  The Federalists of New England had hated Mr. Adams with the peculiar bitterness which always grows out of domestic quarrels, whether in public or private life; and although the old strife had sunk a little out of sight, it had never been healed.  The Federalist leaders in Massachusetts still disliked and distrusted Mr. Adams with an intensity none the less real because it was concealed.  In the nature of things Mr. Webster now occupied a position of political independence; but he had been a steady party man when his party was in existence, and he was still a party man so far as the old Federalist feelings retained vitality and force.  He had, moreover, but a slight personal acquaintance with Mr. Adams and no very cordial feeling toward him.  This disposed of three presidential candidates.  The fourth was Mr. Clay, and it is not very clear why Mr. Webster refused an alliance in this quarter.  Mr. Clay had treated him with consideration, they were personal friends, their opinions were not dissimilar and were becoming constantly more alike.  Possibly there was an instinctive feeling of rivalry on this very account.  At all events, Mr. Webster would not support Clay.  Only one candidate remained:  Mr. Crawford, the representative of all that was extreme among the Republicans, and, in a party sense, most odious to the Federalists.  But it was a time when personal factions flourished rankly in the absence of broad differences of principle.  Mr. Crawford was bidding furiously for support in every and any quarter, and to Mr. Crawford, accordingly, Mr. Webster began to look as a possible leader for himself and his friends.  Just how far Mr. Webster