Justice Field,
is a part of the judicial and notorious public history of the
country.
"It was, under the circumstances, and upon the sole affidavit
produced, especially after the coroner's inquest, so far as
Mr. Justice Field is concerned, a shameless proceeding, and,
as intimated by the Governor of the Commonwealth, if it had
been further persevered in, would have been a lasting disgrace
to the State.
"While a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States,
like every other citizen, is amenable to the laws, he is not
likely to commit so grave an offense as murder, and should he
be so unfortunate as to be unavoidably involved in any way in
a homicide, he could not afford to escape, if it were in his
power to do so; and when the act is so publicly performed
by another, as in this instance, and is observed by so many
witnesses, the officers of the law should certainly have taken
some little pains to ascertain the facts before proceeding
to arrest so distinguished a dignitary, and to attempt to
incarcerate him in prisons with felons, or to put him in a
position to be further disgraced, and perhaps assaulted by one
so violent as to be publicly reported, not only then but on
numerous previous occasions, to have threatened his life.
"We are extremely gratified to find that, through the action
of the chief magistrate, and the attorney-general, a higher
officer of the law, we shall be spared the necessity of
further inquiring as to the extent of the remedy afforded the
distinguished petitioner, by the Constitution and laws of the
United States, or of enforcing such remedies as exist, and
that the stigma cast upon the State of California by this
hasty and, to call it by no harsher term, ill-advised arrest
will not be intensified by further prosecution.
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