Defence of the Kennistons
April, 1817.
Mr. Webster had been elected to Congress from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1813, and his term expired in March, 1816. In August of that year (1816) he removed his family to Boston, and decided to devote himself exclusively to the profession of the law. He had won a high position both in law and politics in New Hampshire. The change of residence marks an era in the life of Mr. Webster. Mr. Lodge says that there is a tradition that the worthies of the Puritan city were disposed at first to treat the newcomer somewhat cavalierly, but that they soon learned that it was worse than useless to attempt such a course with a man whose magnificent physical and intellectual bearing won the admiration of all who met him.
He now began a career of great professional distinction, and took a place at the Boston bar even more conspicuous than his friends had anticipated-- that of an equal of the most famous of its members. His cases called him before the Massachusetts Supreme Court, the Circuit Court of the United States, and the United States Supreme Court. Among the first cases which came to him on his retirement from political life was the Goodridge Robbery Case, the argument in which was addressed to the jury at the term of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts held at Ipswich in April, 1817.
The singularly dramatic story of the prosecutor, the almost universal belief in the guilt of the accused, both by the public and by the members of the Essex bar, and the impossibility of accounting for the motive (self-robbery) assumed by the defence, make this exhibition of Mr. Webster's "acute, penetrating, and terrifying" power of cross- examination,--by which such a complicated and ingenious story was unravelled,--one of the most memorable in the history of the
Massachusetts bar. It is a model of close, simple, unadorned argument, adapted to the minds of the jurymen. In it there are no attempts to carry the jury off their feet by lofty appeals to their sense of justice, nor to cover the weak points in the case by fine oratory. The oft-repeated, "It is for the jury to determine," illustrates Mr. Webster's respect for the common sense of the jurymen before him and his reliance upon evidence to win the case. The following are the facts relating to the case:--Major Goodridge of Bangor, Maine, professed to have been robbed of a large sum of money at nine o'clock on the night of Dec. 19, 1816, while travelling on horseback, near the bridge between Exeter and Newburyport. In the encounter with the robbers he received a pistol wound in his left hand; he was then dragged from his horse into a field, beaten until insensible, and robbed. On recovering, he procured the assistance of several persons, and with a lantern returned to the place of the robbery and found his watch and some papers. The next day he went to Newburyport, and remained ill for several weeks, suffering from delirium caused by the shock. When he recovered he set about the discovery of the robbers. His story seemed so probable that he had the sympathy of all the country-folk. He at once charged with the crime Levi and Laban Kenniston, two poor men, who lived in an obscure part of the town of Newmarket, New Hampshire, and finding some of his money (which he had previously marked) in their cellar, he had them arrested, and held for trial. By and by a few of the people began to doubt the story of Goodridge; this led him to renewed efforts, and he arrested the toll gatherer, Mr. Pearson, in whose house, by the aid of a conjurer, he found some of his money. On examination by the magistrate, Pearson was discharged. It now became necessary to find some accomplice of the Kennistons, and he arrested one Taber of Boston, whom he had seen (he said) on his way up, and from whom he had obtained his information against the Kennistons. In Taber's house was found some of the money; he was accordingly bound over for trial with the Kennistons. As none of these men lived near the scene of the robbery, Mr. Jackman, who, soon after the robbery, had gone to New York, was arrested, his house searched, and some of the money found in the garret. The guilt of these men seemed so conclusive that no eminent member of the Essex bar would undertake their defence. A few of those who mistrusted Goodridge determined to send to Suffolk County for counsel.
Mr. Webster had been well known in New Hampshire, and his services were at once secured; without having time to examine any of the details of the case--as he had arrived at Ipswich on the night before the trial--he at once undertook the defence of the Kennistons and secured their acquittal. The indictment against Taber was nol prossed. Later, he defended Jackman and secured his acquittal. Mr. Pearson brought action against Goodridge for malicious prosecution, and was awarded $2000, but Goodridge took the poor debtor's oath and left the State.
Cf. Curtis's Life of Webster, Ch. VIII.; Everett's Memoir of Webster, in Vol. I. of Webster's Works.
The Dartmouth College Case
March, 1818.