days after this, was a declaration of intention
to resist its authority.

The conduct of the pair in the Circuit Court on the 3d of September
must have had some object. They may have thought to break up the
session of the court for that day, and to so intimidate the judges
that they would not carry out their purpose of rendering the
decision; or they may have hoped that, if rendered, it would be
allowed to slumber without any attempt to enforce it; or even that a
rehearing might be granted, and a favorable decision forced from
the court. It takes a brave man on the bench to stand firmly for his
convictions in the face of such tactics as were adopted by the Terrys.
The scene was expected also to have its effect upon the minds of the
judges of the Supreme Court of the State, who then were yet to pass
finally upon Sullivan's judgment on the appeal from the order denying
a new trial.

But the Terrys had not looked sufficiently at the possible consequence
of their actions. They had thus far gone unresisted. As District
Attorney Carey wrote to the Attorney-General:

"They were unable to appreciate that an officer should perform
his official duty when that duty in any way requires that his
efforts be directed against them."

When, therefore, Justice Field directed the removal of Mrs. Terry from
the court, and when her doughty defendant and champion, confident of
being able to defeat the order, found himself vanquished in the
encounter, disarmed, arrested, and finally imprisoned, his rage
was boundless. He had found a tribunal which cared nothing for his
threats, and was able to overcome his violence. A court that would put
him in the Alameda jail for six months for resisting its order would
enforce all its decrees with equal certainty.

From the time of the Terrys' incarceration in the Alameda county jail
their threats against Justice Field became a matter of such notoriety
that the drift of discussion was not so much whether they would murder
the Justice, as to when and under what circumstances they would be
likely to do so.

There is little doubt that Terry made many threats for the express
purpose of having them reach the knowledge of Judge Field at
Washington, in the hope and belief that they would deter him from
going to California. He probably thought that the Judge would prefer
to avoid a violent conflict, and that if his absence could be assured
it might result in allowing the decree of the United