sued out of the justice's court of
Stockton township, State of California, county of San Joaquin,
and by the endorsement made upon said warrant. Copy of said
warrant and endorsement is annexed hereto, and made a part of
this return. Nevertheless, I have the body of the said Stephen
J. Field before the honorable court, as I am in the said writ
commanded.

"August 16, 1889.
"THOMAS CUNNINGHAM,
"_Sheriff, San Joaquin Co., California_."

In order to give the petitioner time to traverse the return if he
thought it expedient to do so, and to give him and the State time to
produce witnesses, the further hearing upon the return was adjourned
until the following Thursday morning, the 22d, and the petitioner was
released on his recognizance with a bond fixed at $5,000.

On the same day a petition on the part of Neagle was presented to
Judge Sawyer asking that a writ of _habeas corpus_ issue in his behalf
to Sheriff Cunningham. The petition was granted at once, and served
upon the sheriff immediately after the service of the writ issued on
behalf of Justice Field. Early on the morning of Saturday, August 17,
Neagle was brought from Stockton by the sheriff at 4:30 A.M. District
Attorney White and Mrs. Terry's lawyer, Maguire, were duly notified of
this movement and were passengers on the same train. At 10:30 Sheriff
Cunningham appeared in the Circuit Court with Neagle to respond to
the writ. He returned that he held Neagle in custody, under a warrant
issued by a justice of the peace of that county, a copy of which he
produced; and also a copy of the affidavit of Sarah Althea Terry
upon which the warrant was issued. A traverse to that return was then
filed, presenting various grounds why the petitioner should not be
held, the most important of which were that an officer of the United
States, specially charged with a particular duty, that of protecting
one of the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
whilst engaged in the performance of his duty, could not, for an act
constituting the very performance of that duty, be taken from the
further discharge of his duty and imprisoned by the State authorities,
and that when an officer of the United States in the discharge of his
duties is charged with an offense consisting in the performance of
those duties, and is sought to be arrested, and taken from the further
performance of them, he can be brought before the tribunals of the
nation o