Select Speeches of Daniel Webster | Page 7

he set out from Bangor. The
jury will judge whether this extraordinary care of his money, and this
formal arming of himself to defend it, are not circumstances of a very
suspicious character.
He stated that he did not travel in the night; that he would not so much
expose himself to robbers. He said that, when he came near Alfred, he
did not go into the village, but stopped a few miles short, because night
was coming on, and he would not trust himself and his money out at
night. He represents himself to have observed this rule constantly and
invariably until he got to Exeter. Yet, when the time came for the
robbery, he was found out at night. He left Exeter about sunset,
intending to go to Newburyport, fifteen miles distant, that evening.
When he is asked how this should happen, he says he had no fear of
robbers after he left the District of Maine. He thought himself quite safe
when he arrived at Exeter. Yet he told the jury, that at Exeter he
thought it necessary to load his pistol afresh. He asked for a private
room at the inn. He told the persons in attendance that he wished such a
room for the purpose of changing his clothes. He charged them not to
suffer him to be interrupted. But he now testifies that his object was not
to change his dress, but to put new loading into his pistols. What sort of
a story is this?
He says he now felt himself out of all danger from robbers, and was
therefore willing to travel at night. At the same time, he thought
himself in very great danger from robbers, and therefore took the

utmost pains to keep his pistols well loaded and in good order. To
account for the pains he took about loading his pistols at Exeter, he
says it was his invariable practice, every day after he left Bangor, to
discharge and load again one or both of his pistols; that he never
missed doing this; that he avoided doing it at the inns, lest he should
create suspicion, but that he did it, while alone, on the road, every day.
How far this is probable the jury will judge. It will be observed that he
gave up his habits of caution as he approached the place of the robbery.
He then loaded his pistols at the tavern, where persons might and did
see him; and he then also travelled in the night. He passed the bridge
over Merrimack River a few minutes before nine o'clock. He was now
at a part of his progress where he was within the observation of other
witnesses, and something could be known of him besides what he told
of himself. Immediately after him passed the two persons with their
wagons, Shaw and Keyser. Close upon them followed the mail-coach.
Now, these wagons and the mail must have passed within three rods, at
most, of Goodridge, at the very time of the robbery. They must have
been very near the spot, the very moment of the attack; and if he was
under the robbers' hands as long as he represents, or if they staid on the
spot long enough to do half what he says they did, they must have been
there when the wagons and the stage passed. At any rate, it is next to
impossible, by any computation of time, to put these carriages so far
from the spot, that the drivers should not have heard the cry of murder,
which he says he raised, or the report of the two pistols, which he says
were discharged. In three quarters of an hour, or an hour, he returned,
and repassed the bridge.
The jury will next naturally look to the appearances exhibited on the
field after the robbery. The portmanteau was there. The witnesses say,
that the straps which fastened it to the saddle had been neither cut nor
broken. They were carefully unbuckled. This was very considerate for
robbers. It had been opened, and its contents were scattered about the
field. The pocket-book, too, had been opened, and many papers it
contained found on the ground. Nothing valuable was lost but money.
The robbers did not think it well to go off at once with the portmanteau
and the pocket- book. The place was so secure, so remote, so
unfrequented; they were so far from the highway, at least one full rod;
there were so few persons passing, probably not more than four or five

then in the road, within hearing of the pistols and the cries of
Goodridge; there being, too, not above five or six dwelling-houses, full
of people, within the hearing of the report of a pistol; these
circumstances were all so