tatement of the facts is the most graphic
and vivid of the many that have been written. Its vindication of
the constitutional right of the Federal Government to exist, and to
preserve itself alive in all its powers, and on every foot of its
territory, without leave of, or hindrance by, any other authority,
makes it one of the most important of all the utterances of that great
tribunal.

Its power is made the more apparent by the dissent, which rests rather
upon the assertion that Congress had not legislated in exact terms for
the case under consideration, than upon any denial of the power of
the Federal Government to protect its courts from violence. The
plausibility of this ground is dissipated by the citations in the
majority opinion of the California statute concerning sheriffs, and
of the federal statute concerning marshals, by which the latter are
invested with all the powers of the sheriffs in the States wherein
they reside, thus showing clearly that marshals possess the authority
to protect officers of the United States which sheriffs possess to
protect officers of the State against criminal assaults of every kind
and degree.

During the argument in the Neagle case, as well as in the public
discussions of the subject, much stress was laid by the friends of
Terry upon the power and duty of the State to afford full protection
to all persons within its borders, including the judges of the courts
of the United States. They could not see why it was necessary for the
Attorney-General of the United States to extend the arm of the
Federal Government. They held that the police powers of the State were
sufficient for all purposes, and that they were the sole lawful refuge
for all whose lives were in danger. But they did not explain why it
was that the State never did afford protection to Judges Field and
Sawyer, threatened as they notoriously were by two desperate persons.

The laws of the State made it the duty of every sheriff to preserve
the peace of the State, but the Terrys were permitted, undisturbed and
unchecked, to proclaim their intention to break the peace. If they
had announced their intention, for nearly a year, to assassinate
the judges of the Supreme Court of the State, would they have been
permitted to take their lives, before being made to feel the power of
the State? Would an organized banditti be permitted to unseat State
judges by violence, and only feel the strong halter of the law after
they had a