AND THE SENTIMENT OF UNION 377 



jurisprudence in accordance with the spirit of Eng- 

 lish precedents, was often to some extent obliged to 

 make law as well as declare it. Should the legislative 

 action of a state upon its own citizens be final, so that 

 there should be no secure shelter for vested rights 

 against the unchecked caprice of a mere majority 

 swayed by some momentary impulse ; or was the 

 authority of the federal government competent to 

 insure that the state, in dealing with individuals or 

 with private corporations, should recognize certain 

 fundamental principles of law as sacred and unassail- 

 able ? The latter alternative was, of course, the one 

 for which our federal Constitution was designed to 

 provide, but incalculable consequences depended upon 

 the extent of jurisdiction which, in accordance with 

 that instrument, might be claimed by the federal courts. 

 Here was a question that touched the master chord 

 in the natures alike of the mighty advocate and of 

 the mighty judge, and as the one spoke and the other 

 listened, it must have been, indeed, a memorable 

 scene. Mr. Webster possessed in the highest degree 

 the art of so presenting a case that the mere statement 

 seemed equivalent to demonstration ; and never perhaps 

 did he exhibit that art in greater perfection or use it to 

 better purpose than in this argument, in which the 

 political aspect of the case was plainly seen and felt, 

 but never allowed to intrude upon the foreground, 

 where the purely legal considerations were mustered. 

 The concluding sentences have often been remarked 

 as bold and consummate in their art, in suddenly 

 abandoning argument and appealing to emotion. But 

 the art in it was doubtless that best kind of art that 

 nature makes. Mr. Webster was a man of intense 



