death was a necessity,
and, except here and there a friend of blunted moral
instincts, there will be found but few to mourn his
death or criticise the manner of his taking off. To say
that Marshal Neagle should have acted in any other manner than
he did means that he was to have left Justice Field in the
claws of a tiger, and at the mercy of an infuriated, angry
monster, who had never shown mercy or generosity to an enemy
in his power. * * *

Judge Field has survived the unhappy conflict which carried
Judge Terry to his grave. He is more highly honored now than
when this quarrel was thrust upon him; he has lost no friends;
he has made thousands of new ones who honor him for protecting
with his life the honor of the American bench, the dignity of
the American law, and the credit of the American name. In
the home where Judge Terry lived he went to the grave almost
unattended by the friends of his social surroundings, no
clergyman consenting to read the service at his burial. The
Supreme Court over which he had presided as chief justice
refused to adjourn in honor of his death, the press and public
opinion, for a wonder, in accord over the manner of his taking
off.

Indeed, the public opinion of the country, as shown by the press and
declarations of prominent individuals, was substantially one in its
approval of the action of the Government, the conduct of Neagle, and
the bearing of Justice Field.[2]

The _Daily Report_, a paper of influence in San Francisco at the time,
published the following article on "The Lesson of the Hour," from the
pen of an eminent lawyer of California, who was in no way connected
with the controversy which resulted in Judge Terry's death:

The universal acquiescence of public opinion in the
justifiable character of the act which terminated the life of
the late David S. Terry is to be accounted for by the peculiar
nature of the offense which he had committed. It was not for a
mere assault, though perpetrated under circumstances which
rendered it peculiarly reprehensible, that he met his death
without eliciting from the community one word of condemnation
for the slayer or of sympathy with the slain.

Mr. Justice Field is an officer of high rank in the most
important department of the Government of the United States,
namely, that which is charged with the administ