who acted so fearlessly
when the Kansas question came up. I was accordingly beaten by two
votes.

For the moment I was furious, and hunted up the man who had held my
ten proxies, and had been seduced from my support. When I found him
in the room of the convention, I seized him and attempted to throw
him out of the window. I succeeded in getting half his body out, when
bystanders pulled me back and separated us. This was fortunate for
both of us; for just underneath the window there was a well or shaft
sunk fifty feet deep. The following morning I left Downieville,
returned to my office and loft at Marysville, and gave my attention to
the practice of the law. My business soon became very large; and, as
my expenses were moderate, within two years and a half I paid off all
my indebtedness, amounting with the accumulations of interest to
over thirty-eight thousand dollars. Part of this amount was paid by
a surrender of the property mortgaged, or a sale of that previously
assigned, but the greater part came from my earnings. I paid every
creditor but one in full; to each I gave his pound of flesh, I mean
his interest, at ten per cent. a month. I never asked one of them to
take less than the stipulated rate. The exceptional creditor was Mr.
Berry, a brother lawyer, who refused to receive more than five per
cent. a month on a note he held for $450. By this time I had become so
much interested in my profession as to have no inclination for office
of any kind. On several occasions I was requested by influential party
leaders to accept a nomination for the State Senate, but I refused.
I am inclined to think that I had for some time a more lucrative
practice than any lawyer in the State, outside of San Francisco. No
such fees, however, were paid in those days as have been common in
mining cases since the discovery of the silver mines of Nevada and the
organization of great corporations to develop them.

The Bar of Marysville during this period, and afterwards while I
remained in that city--which was until October, 1857--was a small,
but a very able body of men. Many of its members have since attained
distinction and held offices of honor and trust. Richard S. Mesick,
who settled there in 1851, became a State Senator, and after his
removal to Nevada, a District Judge of that State. He ranks now among
the ablest lawyers of the Coast. Charles H. Bryan, who settled there
the same year, was an eloquent speaker, and in his forensic c