The suit was brought to break the will of Stephen Girard, and the question was whether the bequest to found a college could be construed to be a charitable devise.

On this question Mr.Webster had a weak case in point of law, but he readily detected a method by which he could go boldly outside the law, as he had done to a certain degree in the Dartmouth College case, and substitute for argument an eloquent and impassioned appeal to emotion and prejudice.

Girard was a free-thinker, and he provided in his will that no priest or minister of any denomination should be admitted to his college.

Assuming that this excluded all religious teaching, Mr.Webster then laid down the proposition that no bequest or gift could be charitable which excluded Christian teaching.

In other words, he contended that there was no charity except Christian charity, which, the poet assures us, is so rare.