These things Mr. Westmoreland
stated he stood prepared to prove, and he invoked the interposition of
the Legislature to protect the people of the Eighth Judicial District
who were suffering from the deportment and conduct of this officer. The
resolution was passed. Finding that articles of impeachment would
be presented against him, Turner resigned his office. After this his
habits of drinking became worse, and he was sent to the Asylum for
Inebriates, where he died.
In thinking over my difficulties with Turner at this distant day,
there is nothing in my conduct which I in the least regret. Had I
acted differently; had I yielded one inch, I should have lost my
self-respect and been for life an abject slave. There was undoubtedly
an unnecessary severity of language in two or three passages of my
answers to his attacks; and some portion of my answer in court to his
order to show cause why I should not be re-expelled from the bar might
better have been omitted. I have since learned that one is never so
strong as when he is calm, and never writes so forcibly as when he
uses the simplest language. My justification in these particulars, if
they require any, must be found in the savage ferocity with which I
was assailed, the brutal language applied to my character and conduct,
and the constant threats made of personal violence. Malignity and
hate, with threats of assassination, followed me like a shadow for
months.
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