Part 14 (2/2)

The Hon Haaveaccount of an interview he had with Colonel Burr in Albany not long before his death Notwithstanding his advanced age, broken health, and ruined fortunes, he deeply ientle, and co presence such as he had rarely seen

The one object of his love was his daughter, the beautiful Theodosia

Her devotion to her father increased with his accu misfortunes

The shi+p in which she sailed from her home in Charleston, South Carolina, to meet him in New York, never reached its destination

In all history, there are few pictures ray-haired, friendless man, with faded cloak drawn closely about hi alone by the seaside, anxiously awaiting the cohter whose requie chanted by the waves

One of the ton was Joseph C

McKibben, a forress frohly familiar with the history of California from its cession to the United States at the close of the Mexican War

He had been an active participant insoon after the admission of the State into the Union

”Men, except in bad novels, are not all good, or all evil”

Colonel McKibben was the second of David C Broderick in his duel with Judge Terry At the time of the duel, Broderick was a Senator of the United States, and Terry the Chief Justice of California The challenge given by Terry was promptly accepted

As will be remembered, in the encounter which immediately followed, Terry escaped unhurt and Broderick was killed

I recall vividly the description givene Their demeanor upon the field, as in deadly attitude they confronted each other a few paces apart, was that of absolute fearlessness ”Each had set his life upon a cast, and was ready to stand the hazard of the die”

Rarely have truer words been uttered than those of the gifted Baker over the dead body of Broderick:

”The code of honor is a delusion and a snare; it palters with the hope of true courage, and binds it at the feet of crafty and cruel skill It surrounds its victirace of the procession, but leaves hi on the altar It substitutes cold and deliberate preparedness for courage and manly impulse, and arms the one to disarm the other It makes the mere trick of the weapon superior to the noblest cause and the truest courage Its pretence of equality is a lie; it is equal in all the form, it is unjust in all the substance The habitude of ar, the frontier life, the border war, the sectional custootiations can neutralize, and which no courage can overcome

Code of honor! It is a prostitution of the name, is an evasion of the substance, and is a shi+eld blazoned with the nanity ofof the eventful career of Judge Terry, which occurred within the last decade, will be readily recalled

I his assault upon Justice Field at the railway station in Lathrop, California, he was slain by a deputy United States marshal The wife of Terry was at his side, and the scene that followed beggars description

The nailance Committee” of early San Francisco days The co men of the ”law-and-order” elehtly occurrence, and gamblers and criminals in many instances were the incuanization mentioned became an imperative necessity for the protection of life and property The work of the committee constitutes one of the bloodiest chapters of early Californian history

Nearly a third of a century ago, Colonel Thornton, a prominent lawyer of San Francisco, related tothe tiilance Co lawyer, recently located in San Francisco, was arrested for stabbing a well-known citizen as at the tiilance Committee The name of the laas David S Terry, at a later day Chief Justice of the State The dread tribunal was presided over by one of the eous and best known citizens of the Pacific coast

At a later day, his name was presented by his State to the National Convention of his party for noht before the Vigilance Committee, the de erect and perfectly self-possessed, he listened to the oed with atte a step nearer the coanized to convict,” and in a tone that at once challenged the respect of all, Terry replied, ”If your Honor please, I recognize the jurisdiction of this court, and am ready for trial” He then clearly established the fact that his assault was in self-defence, and after a masterly speech, delivered with as much self-possession as if a life other than his own trembled in the balance, was duly acquitted

Another California hom I was personally acquainted, was Willia passed the allotted three score and ten when I first met him at the home of the late Senator Sharon

Few men have known so eventful a career He had been the private secretary of Andrew Jackson He kneell the publicincidents of the stormy period of the latter years of Jackson's Presidency In his early ress from Alabama At the close of the Mexican War he removed to California, and upon the admission of that State he and John C Fre a ride with hiht a duel in early California days He was then a Senator, and his antagonist the Hon J W McCorkle, a ned by their respective seconds appeared the day following, to the effect that after the exchange of three ineffectual shots between the Hon William M Gwin and the Hon J W McCorkle, the friends of the respective parties, having discovered that _their principals were fighting under a misapprehension of facts,_ mutually explained to their respective principals how the misapprehension had arisen As a result, Senator Gwin promptly denied the cause of provocation and Mr McCorkle withdrew his offensive language uttered at the race-course, and expressed regret at having used it

To a lay times of peace” it would appear the more reasonable course to have avoided ”a misapprehension of facts”

before even three ineffectual shots