Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1885 — A Defeat for Webster. [ARTICLE]

A Defeat for Webster.

Daniel Webster continued to pass his winters at Washington after he left the Department of State, attending to his large practice before the Supreme Court. He had been coldly received on his return to Massachusetts, after having been the recognized premier of John Tyler’s administration, and he spoke to a friend with some bitterness of some of the “solid men of Boston” as “sixty-day fellows, with their three days’ grace.” In his mind’s eye he doubtless saw some of them wondering whether certain promissory notes upon which they had put their names would be paid by him or by them. Nor would he admit that, because of the pecuniary aid given him, he was modestly to retire into the rear rank, and let a wealthy cotton-spinner stand foremost among the Whigs of Massachusetts. The most important case conducted by Mr. Webster was an action brought by the heirs of Stephen Girard, to recover his bequest for the establishment and maintenance of a college. Mr. Webster took the broad ground that the plan of education at the Girard College was- derogatory to the Christian religion, contrary to sound morals, and subversive of law. He spoke for three days, but he could not answer the arguments of Messrs. Binney and Sergeant, the ablest lawyers of Philadelphia, who defended the bequest and gained the suit. Mr. Justice Story, in delivering the opinion of the court, said that the case had been “argued with great learning and ability.”