as aware of the existence
in the United States of a well-organized, oath-bound band of
confederated public officials who are in league with the subjects of
foreign powers, and who conspire against the peace, prosperity, and
best interests of the United States, and who prey upon and plunder the
government of the United States and the city and county governments
thereof, and also upon private citizens, and who now are carrying into
practice gigantic schemes of plunder through fraud, usurpation, and
other villainy, in order to enrich themselves, bankrupt the nation,
and destroy our government, and that their power is so great that they
can and do obstruct the administration of public justice, corrupt its
fountains, and paralyze to some extent the sovereign powers of the
government of the United States and the people thereof." The Judiciary
Committee after having patiently listened to this rigmarole, absurd
and ludicrous as it was, unanimously reported that Hastings' memorial
should be laid upon the table and the committee discharged from any
further consideration of the subject. The House adopted the report,
and, so far as Congress was concerned, there the matter dropped. But
in the meanwhile it had been telegraphed all over the country
that articles of impeachment were pending against the judges, and
sensational newspaper articles appeared in different parts of the
country. Some expressed regret that the conduct of the judges had been
of a character to necessitate such proceedings. Others said it was
not to be wondered at that the judicial ermine should be soiled in a
country of such loose morals as California. Still others thought it no
more than proper to impeach a few of the judges, in order to teach the
remainder of them a salutary lesson. These articles were paraded in
large type and with the most sensational headings.

When the action of the House on the memorial was announced, Hastings
and Julian became furious. It then appeared that the only charge
which had made any impression upon the minds of the committee was
that relating to Moulin, the Frenchman. Three, indeed, of the members,
(Messrs. Voorhees, of Indiana, Potter, of New York, and Peters, of
Maine,) said it was a shame and disgrace that such ridiculous and
monstrous twaddle should be listened to for a moment; but a majority
considered it their duty, under the order of reference, to hear the
matter patiently. They had, therefore, allowed Hastings the widest