37^ DANIEL WEBSTER 



conception of the sphere and duties of the federal 

 government; and one of the most potent factors in 

 that change was the decision of the Supreme Court in 

 this very case of Dartmouth College. The state court 

 at Exeter decided against the plaintiffs, and the deci- 

 sion would have been final had it not been for the 

 point which at first they had approached so gingerly, 

 but which now enabled them to carry up their case to 

 the Supreme Court of the United States. 



It now remained to be seen whether the federal 

 tribunal would admit the position of the plaintiffs, 

 or dismiss the case for want of jurisdiction. As the elder 

 counsel were unable to go to Washington, it fell to 

 Mr. Webster to conduct the case, which was tried in 

 March, 1818. He argued that the charter of Dart- 

 mouth College created a private corporation for ad- 

 ministering a charity; that in the administration of 

 such uses the trustees have a recognized right of 

 property ; that the grant of such a charter is a contract 

 between the sovereign power and the grantees, and 

 descends to their successors, and that therefore the 

 act of the New Hampshire legislature, in taking away 

 the government from one board of trustees and con- 

 ferring it upon another, was a violation of contract, 

 and as such an infringement of the federal Constitu- 

 tion. These legal points were argued by Mr. Web- 

 ster with masterful cogency, and reenforced by 

 illustrations and allusions well calculated to appeal 

 to the Federalist sympathies of Chief Justice Marshall. 

 For, besides the legal interpretation, there was an 

 important political side to the question which recom- 

 mended it to the earnest consideration of the great 

 judge, who, in building up a new system of federal 



