ited, and grossly incompetent to discharge the duties
of his office." Unfortunately the statement was perfectly true. He
refused to obey the mandate of the Supreme Court, even talked of
setting that court at defiance, and went around saying that every one
who had signed an affidavit against him was a "perjured villain," and
that as to Goodwin, Mulford, and Field, he would "cut their ears
off." He frequented the gambling saloons, associated with disreputable
characters, and was addicted to habits of the most disgusting
intoxication. Besides being abusive in his language, he threatened
violence, and gave out that he intended to insult me publicly the
first time we met, and that, if I resented his conduct, he would shoot
me down on the spot. This being reported to me by various persons, I
went to San Francisco and consulted Judge Bennett as to what course
I ought to pursue. Judge Bennett asked if I were certain that he had
made such a threat. I replied I was. "Well," said the Judge, "I will
not give you any advice; but if it were my case, I think I should
get a shot-gun and stand on the street, and see that I had the first
shot." I replied that "I could not do that; that I would act only in
self-defence." He replied, "That would be acting in self-defence."
When I came to California, I came with all those notions, in respect
to acts of violence, which are instilled into New England youth; if a
man were rude, I would turn away from him. But I soon found that men
in California were likely to take very great liberties with a person
who acted in such a manner, and that the only way to get along was
to hold every man responsible, and resent every trespass upon
one's rights. Though I was not prepared to follow Judge Bennett's
suggestion, I did purchase a pair of revolvers and had a sack-coat
made with pockets in which the barrels could lie, and be discharged;
and I began to practice firing the pistols from the pockets. In time I
acquired considerable skill, and was able to hit a small object across
the street. An object so large as a man I could have hit without
difficulty. I had come to the conclusion that if I had to give up my
independence; if I had to avoid a man because I was afraid he would
attack me; if I had to cross the street every time I saw him coming,
life itself was not worth having.

Having determined neither to seek him nor to shun him, I asked a
friend to carry a message to him, and to make sure that it would rea