Professional Character particularly in Reference to Constitutional Law.--The Dartmouth College Case argued at Washington in 1818.--Mr. Ticknor's Description of that Argument.--The Case of Gibbons and Ogden in 1824.--Mr. Justice Wayne's Allusion to that Case in 1847.--The Case of Ogden and Saunders in 1827.--The Case of the Proprietors of the Charles River Bridge.--The Alabama Bank Case.--The Case relative to the Boundary between Massachusetts and Rhode Island.--The Girard Will Case.--The Case of the Constitution of Rhode Island.--General Remarks on Mr. Webster's Practice in the Supreme Court of the United States.--Practice in the State Courts.--The Case of Goodridge,--and the Case of Knapp. With Mr. Webster's removal to Boston commenced a period of five or six years' retirement from active political life, during which time, with a single exception which will be hereafter alluded to, he filled no public office, and devoted himself exclusively to the duties of his profession. It was accordingly within this period that his reputation as a lawyer was fixed and established. The promise of his youth, and the expectations of those who had known him as a student, were more than fulfilled. He took a position as a counsellor and an advocate, above which no one has ever risen in the country. A large share of the best business of New England passed into his hands; and the veterans of the Boston bar admitted him to an entire equality of standing, repute, and influence. Besides the reputation which he acquired in the ordinary routine of practice, Mr. Webster, shortly after his removal to Boston, took the lead in establishing what might almost be called a new school of constitutional law. It fell to his lot to perform a prominent part in unfolding a most important class of constitutional doctrines, which, either because occasion had not drawn them forth, or the jurists of a former period had failed to deduce and apply them, had not yet grown into a system. It was reserved for Mr. Webster to distinguish himself before most, if not all, of his contemporaries, in this branch of his profession. It may be mentioned as a somewhat curious coincidence, that the case in which he made his first great effort in this direction arose in his native State, and concerned the College in which he had been educated.