Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-09-18
JUDGE TERRY's PETITION.

JUDGE TERRY's PETITION.
D. S. Terry's petition to the United
States Circuit Court for the revocation of
the order committing him to prison for
six months for contempt of Court has been
denied. The occasion of the commitment
TO Jail has been referred to, and the oflense
of which Terry was guilty fully detailed
in these columns.
The application of Judge Terry to be
released is almost as remarkable as the
riginal ofense. The petition he fled
embraced the usual disclaimer that he in
tended any contempt of Court In the
case of a layman such disclaimer would
have great weight and be accepted as an
evidence OF contrition. But in this case it
very properly counted for little, as Terry
is an old jurist, and was bound by the
ethics Of his profession to stricter account
ability than mere litigant at the bar of
Court. Moreover, Judge Terry attempted
ojustify himself by setting out in his pc
tition that he did not strike the United
States Marshal until the latter chad vio-
lently assaulted his (Terry's) wife" This
was the rock upon which Judge Terry's
petition went to wreck For it is the testi-
mony of all who were present that the
Court ordered the Marshal to remove the
wife from the Court room, and that
Terry heard the order made He knew
perfectly well that when the Marshal
approached Mrs. Terry he was do
ing his duty and obeying the order
of the Court, and was not assaulting
Mrs. Terry. The person of a wife who
is an offender is not so sacred that no one
must touch her but her husband Mrs.
Terry was grossly assailing a tribunal Of
the United States in language Of the most
bitter character and refusing to cease
her tongue-lashing, or be seated when
commanded, the Marshal approached to
remove her as ordered; she was then a
common offender as would have been an
unmarried woman under like circum-
stances, and her husband we'll knew that
he had no right to intercept the Marshal
and resist him in carrying out the order
Of the Court.
The decision of the Circuit Court de-
nying Judge Terry's petition declares
and no man knows this better than Judge
Terry-that the forcible resistance and
beating of United States Marshal while
executing the order of a Court of the
nation
''was the highest possible indignity to the Gov
eminent. When the flag of the country is fired
upon aud insulted, ii is not the injury to the
bunting, the linen or silk on which the stars
and stripes are stamped which startles and i'm
presses the country. 1t is the indignity and in
suit to the emblem of the nations majesty which
stirs every heart and makes every patriot eager
TO resent them. So the fOrcible resistance to
an officer of the United States in the execution
ofthe process, orders and judgments of their
Courts Is, in like manner, an indignity and in
suit to the power and authority of the Govern
ment which can neither be overlooked nor ex-
tenuated."
That is the whole case in nut shell.
Terry in assaulting the Marshal insulted
the Court representing the majesty of the
Government of the United States, and
outraged the people whose safeguard and
defense for life, property and liberty that
Court is. Judge Terry. as the Court says,
while asking for dispensation of mercy
manifests no apologetic spirit, for he ex-
presses no regret for his conduct, terms
the viturperative language used by his
wife as indiscreet," refers to his deadly
bowie knife as small sheath knife"
and actually defends his conduct in beat
ing the United States Marshal, by declar-
ing that his wife was unnecessarily as
saulted
The Court reviews with incisiveness all
the facts, points out that Judge Terry
came into Court armed and therein vio-
lated the law and committed an outrage
upon professional propriety and rendered
himself liable to be disbared 1t con-
cludes:
Therefore, considering the enormity of the
offenses committed ana the position the petit
toner once held in this State, which aggravates
them to degree not imputable to the gener-
ality of offenders, the Court. with proper re-
gard to its own dignity, the majesty of the law,
and the necessity of impressing upon all men
that forcible resistance to the lawful orders of
the Court of the United States will not go un-
punished, however high the offending parties,
cannot grant the prayer of the petitioner and
it is accordingly denied.
Terry viii have no sympathy from men
who believe that the perpetuity of free
institutions depends upon respect for and
enforcement of the laws by and upon the
people who make them, and above whom
there is no superior earthly authority
He and his wife committed offenses for
which the extension of mercy would be
more than an error-it would well-nigh
amount to an admission by the Court that
its order was indefensible, and the unparal-
elled contempt" of such a mild and
ordinary character as to merit but gentle
treatment. 1t certainly was not con-
sidered by the Court, but it is fact
the people do not forget, that Mrs Terry
not long before the disgraceful scene in
Court, assaulted one of its Judges in a
public car, and grossly abused him by
seizing the aged jurist by the hair and
with violence pulling it, while her hus-
band, according to her own statement, ex-
ercised no other restraint than to expostu-
late with her when she announced her in
tention to assault the aged man. Nor did
her husband have the sense of manly pro-
priety to express to the victim of the as
sault his humiliation at the scene and the
regret he ought to have felt.
Terry and his wife are well punished,
and their appeal for sympathy has in it
nothing whatever to inspire merciful re-
sponse. The Court, in refusing to remit
the severity of the sentence, has done the
right thing and taught offenders that who
ever they may be they must respect the
nations tribunals
A QUESTION OF PROTEST.
The brilliant evening dullness across the
L Al. -