d unharmed, while death palsied the murderous hand
that had sworn to take his life.

That act of Neagle's was no crime. It was a deed that any and
every American should feel proud of having done. It was an act
that should be applauded over the length and breadth of this
great land. It should not have consigned him for one minute to
prison walls. It should have lifted him high in the esteem of
all the American people. When criminals turn executioners, and
judges are the victims, we might as well close our courts
and hoist the red flag of anarchy over their silent halls and
darkened chambers.

The New York _Herald_, in its issue of August 19, 1889, said:

The sensation of the past week is a lesson in republicanism
and a eulogium on the majesty of the law.

It was not a personal controversy between Stephen J. Field
and David S. Terry. It was a conflict between law and
lawlessness--between a judicial officer who represented the
law and a man who sought to take it into his own hands. One
embodied the peaceful power of the nation, the will of the
people; the other defied that power and appealed to the
dagger.

Justice Field's whole course shows a conception of judicial
duty that lends grandeur to a republican judiciary. It is an
inspiring example to the citizens and especially to the judges
of the country. He was reminded of the danger of returning to
California while Judge Terry and his wife were at large. His
firm answer was that it was his duty to go and his would go.
He was then advised to arm himself for self-defense. His reply
embodies a nobility that should make it historic: "When it
comes to such a pass in this country that judges of the courts
find it necessary to go armed it will be time to close the
courts themselves."

This sentiment was not born of any insensibility to danger;
Justice Field fully realized the peril himself. But above all
feeling of personal concern arose a lofty sense of the duty
imposed upon a justice of the nation's highest court. The
officer is a representative of the law--a minister of peace.
He should show by his example that the law is supreme; that
all must bow to its authority; that all lawlessness must yield
to it. When judges who represent the law resort to violence
even in self-defense, the pistol instead of the court bec