As to what occurred under our
immediate observation, its statements do not accord with the
facts as we saw them; as to what occurred at the further end
of the room and in the corridor, its statements are directly
opposed to the concurring accounts of the officers of the
court and parties present, whose position was such as to
preclude error in their observations. According to the sworn
statement of the marshal, which accords with our own
observations, so far from having struck or assaulted Terry, he
had not even laid his hands upon him when the violent blow in
the face was received. And it is clearly beyond controversy
that Terry never voluntarily surrendered his bowie-knife, and
that it was wrenched from him only after a violent struggle.
"We can only account for his misstatement of facts as they
were seen by several witnesses, by supposing that he was in
such a rage at the time that he lost command of himself, and
does not well remember what he then did, or what he then said.
Some judgment as to the weight this statement should receive,
independently of the incontrovertible facts at variance with
it, may be formed from his speaking of the deadly bowie-knife
he drew as 'a small sheath-knife,' and of the shameless
language and conduct of his wife as 'her acts of
indiscretion.
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