That Mr. Montgomery allowed these
facts, which constitute the offense of an assault with a deadly
weapon, to go unchallenged, compels us to the charitable presumption
that he did not know the law.
A reading of the decisions on this subject would have taught him
that in order to constitute that offense it is not necessary that
the assailant should actually stab with his knife or shoot with his
pistol. The assault by Terry was commenced in the court-room, under
the eyes of the judges, and was a continuing act, ending only-with the
wrenching of the knife from his hands. It was all committed "in the
presence of the court," for the Supreme Court has decided in the Savin
case that "the jury-room and hallway were parts of the place in which
the court was required by law to hold its sessions, and that the
court, at least when in session, is present in every part of the place
set apart for its own use and for the use of its officers, jurors, and
witnesses, and that misbehavior in such a place is misbehavior in the
presence of the court. (See vol. 131, U.S. Reports, page 277, where
the case is reported.)
Mr. Montgomery was feckless enough to contradict the record when he
stated that Justice Field in his opinion in the revivor case "took
occasion to discuss at considerable length the question of the
genuineness of the aforesaid marriage document, maintaining very
strenuously that it was a forgery, and that this it was that so
aroused the indignation of Mrs.
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