It is probable that Webster was one of the few lawyers and statesmen
that Mason respected. Mason's curt, sharp, "vitriolic" sarcasms on many
men who enjoyed a national reputation, and who were popularly considered
the lights of their time, still remain in the memories of his surviving
associates, as things which may be quoted in conversation, but which it
would be cruel to put into print. Of Webster, however, he never seems to
have spoken a contemptuous word. Indeed, Mason, though fourteen years
older than Webster, and fighting him at the Portsmouth bar with all the
formidable force of his logic and learning, was from the first his
cordial friend. That friendship, early established between strong
natures so opposite in character, was never disturbed by any collision
in the courts. In a letter written, I think, a few weeks after he had
made that "Reply to Hayne" which is conceded to be one of the great
masterpieces of eloquence in the recorded oratory of the world, Webster
wrote jocularly to Mason: "I have been written to, to go to New
Hampshire, to try a cause against you next August.... If it were an easy
and plain case on our side, I might be willing to go; but I have some of
your _pounding in my bones yet_, and I don't care about any more till
that wears out."
It may be said that Webster's argument in the celebrated "Dartmouth
College Case," before the Supreme Court of the United States, placed
him, at the age of thirty-six, in the foremost rank of the
constitutional lawyers of the country.
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