Ethics in ServiceTaft, William H. (William Howard)
Philosophy
Ethics in Service
Taft, William H. (William Howard)
Legal ethics; Presidents -- United States; United States -- Politics and government
Let me give you another instance of the President's exercising a law
that Congress did not pass. Sarah Althea Hill thought she was married to
Senator Sharon, at least she said she thought so. Senator Sharon was a
rich man. She wished to share it. So she brought in the State courts of
California a suit for divorce and alimony against the senator and
exhibited a letter purporting to have been written by the senator
admitting the marriage. She got into a great deal of litigation and
employed as her lawyer Judge Terry. Senator Sharon then brought suit in
the United States Court in California to have this letter declared a
forgery and delivered up to him. Justice Field of the United States
Supreme Court heard the case on the circuit. Judge Terry, who had been
on the Supreme Court of California in its early days and had served on
the same court with Judge Stephen J. Field, was a noted duelist and was
known to have killed one man in a duel. Mr. Justice Field had been
appointed from the California court to be a Supreme Justice of the
United States by Mr. Lincoln during the war. Pending the litigation,
Senator Sharon died and soon thereafter the association of Miss Hill and
Judge Terry as client and counsel developed into a warmer relation and
they became man and wife. She was a very violent woman, as Judge Terry
was a violent man, and made threatening demonstrations in court when
Justice Field gave the judgment against her. Justice Field sentenced
Mrs. Terry to thirty days' imprisonment for contempt because in her fury
she insulted the Court and attempted to commit violence upon the Judge.
The bitterness of feeling between the Terrys and Justice Field was
really heightened by the old association between Judge Terry and Justice
Field as judicial colleagues. The Terrys frequently declared their
intention, when occasion offered, to kill Judge Field. Word of this came
to the Attorney-General, then W. H. H. Miller, in Mr. Harrison's
administration. He notified the United States Marshal to direct a
deputy to follow Justice Field in his Circuit work and protect him
against any threatened attack.
As Justice Field was proceeding north from Los Angeles to San Francisco
to hold court there, he got out for breakfast at Fresno. Unfortunately
the Terrys reached the same station on another train at the same time.
Justice Field and Neagle, the deputy marshal, got out of the train, went
into the restaurant and sat down. When Judge and Mrs. Terry came in and
Mrs. Terry saw Justice Field, she ran out to the car to get a revolver
she had left in her satchel by an oversight. In the meantime Judge Terry
went up to Justice Field, denounced him and struck him from behind.
Thereupon Neagle arose, saying, "I am an officer, keep off," but Judge
Terry continued to assault Justice Field. Neagle said he thought Judge
Terry reached for a knife. At any rate, Neagle shot, and Terry fell dead
at the feet of Justice Field.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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