SLAYING OF BRODERICK.

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the chivalry were triumphant. On the following day Terry resigned his seat on the supreme bench, which he had occupied for four years, to violate the constitution and laws he expounded, and was sworn to obey, by challenging to mortal combat Broderick, United States senator. The provocation was the utterance of an unfriendly sentiment three months before, under the exasperation of injurious remarks by Terry in open convention. To remove all the objections made to fighting Perley, a social equal, and a day after the close of the campaign, were selected.

It is true that Broderick, or that any man, could have declined a duel on legal and moral grounds. But to have done so would have subjected Broderick to the sneers of his enemies, and to the contempt of some of his political friends, who were anxious that he should show an unterrified front to the foe. They had great confidence in his skill with the pistol, this being a part of his education acquired after coming to California, in order to place himself on a social level with the duelling southrons; and he himself is said to have replied to one who feared for him, "Never fear; I can shoot twice to Terry once."

But he was not a duellist at heart, and moreover did not wish to kill Terry. If he had that kind of enmity against any man, it was toward Gwin. Therefore he hesitated about his reply to the challenge, which made his officious seconds only the more eager to have him fight. Said the Bulletin: "It appeared to be a common belief among those who recognize the code, that he had to fight them all. Perhaps not in detail, perhaps not one after another, but when he presented his breast to the pistol of Terry, it would seem that he braved the whole concentrated hate of those who felt aggrieved by his attacks. Few believed that if he had escaped that issue he would have been left unmolested by others. Such appear to have been his own

64 "Terry had been defeated in the nominations in convention, and had but a few weeks to serve, therefore his sacrifice was immaterial to him.

dying convictions; and although he was conscious of the feeling of his adversaries, he seems to have succumbed under the belief at last that, in his own person, either by Terry or some one else, he was to be made a sacrifice." What wonder that he hesitated about his answer.

However, destiny and the duel were allowed to have their way. A meeting was arranged to take place in San Mateo county, ten miles from San Francisco. Broderick's seconds were Ex-congressman McKibben and David D. Colton, of Siskiyou county. Terry's were Calhoun Benham and Thomas Hayes. The first meeting on the 12th was interrupted by the officers of the law; but on the following morning the parties again met and proceeded to the final act. Every care was apparently taken to place the combatants on an equality, except as to choice of position, which was Broderick's, as were also the terms. His seconds had stipulated that there should be no more firing after the giving of the word "one-two." Two circumstances were against Broderick. First, he was ill and weak, and consequently nervous; second, his pistol was quicker on the trigger than Terry's. When the word was given, before it reached a level, it was discharged, and the ball struck the earth in a direct line with, but some distance from, his antagonist, who stood cool and firm-so cool that he noted exactly where his ball struck his adversary's breast. In a moment more Broderick sank to the ground, mortally wounded, and Terry went to breakfast with his friends. The vic

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65 It was said that Broderick was nervous, but all his actions, his compressed lips, and rigid muscles showed that his nervousness was not the result of fear, but of intense resolution. Terry, meanwhile, stood erect, without a wink or a motion, like a man who made human slaughter a profession. As the seconds stepped back and Colton gave the word, the principals raised their pistols, which they held pointed to the ground. On the rise, Broderick's weapon went off, the ball striking the ground a few feet short of his opponent. The next instant, Terry, who had fully raised his weapon, discharged it and exclaimed: 'The shot is not mortal, I have struck two inches to the right.' Broderick suddenly turned a few inches, and was seen to brace himself for a moment, then gradually lowered himself down to a reclining position on the ground, and then fell over at full length. He did not speak a word during this time. While Broderick thus fell, still clasping his pistol, Terry stood

tim was conveyed to the house of Leonidas Haskell, at Black Point, where after lingering three days, he expired on the 16th, having said but little after the first few hours, and that little chiefly the incoherent mutterings of a semi-consciousness. Among his broken sentences were these: "When I was struck, I tried to stand firm, but the blow blinded me and I could not," to Colonel Baker. To others he said: "They killed me because I was opposed to the extension of slavery, and a corrupt administration." How soon the significance of these words became apparent!

What a strange thing is the public stupid and stolid, or wild with unreasoning rage! For months it had been known that Broderick would have to fight one or more duels. All the world looked on as at a play; wondering, hissing, applauding, but waiting excitedly for the catastrophe. When it came, had the heavens fallen the on-lookers could not have been more surprised apparently. What, Broderick killed! Oh, infamous! Show us the scoundrel who has defied the laws; who has murdered the purest man among us. Let him be punished! So the sheep bleated, leaving the destroyer with the mark of Cain upon his brow to go free. Everything connected with the murdered senator seemed a surprise. No sooner was Broderick The faults of his career

dead than he was a lion.

with arms folded till his seconds advanced, and with them he left the field unharmed. Broderick regretted the physical condition which had made him seem to falter. S. F. Bulletin, Sept. 19, 20, 1859. Now mark the impotence and baseness of the law in the hands of this great high-priest of the law. Terry was arrested, and admitted to bail in the sum of $10,000. The trial was put off, and in June 1860 he applied for a change of venue, on the ground that he could not have a fair and impartial trial in S. F., because of his course during the active existence of the vigilance committee. The change of venue was granted by Judge Hager, to Marin county. On the day set for trial, the witnesses, being becalmed on the bay, and not arriving promptly, the prosecuting attorney moved a nolle prosequi, and the farce was ended. Tuthill, Hist. Cal., 567-8.

66 Said the Alta of Sept. 24, 1859: The chase is done. The quarry is laid low, and the dogs have gone to kennel. David C. Broderick is no more! He was the hunted lion, and they who have forced him into the quarrel which made a sacrifice of his life were the hungry pack of jackals that now, from the dark corners to which they have retired, are contemplating their foul deed of murder. There is enough in this melancholy affair to call for the bitterest condemnation that the tongue can utter or the heart can feel.

were seen to be the results of his origin, his early orphanage, and his youthful associations; but the man himself stood revealed as one whom God had endowed with personal incorruptibility, a grave, earnest, honest, brave man, who in the midst of unparalleled corruption in his own party, kept his hands clean and his record straight. By his tragic death his errors were expiated, and all at once California recognized the truth that in the balance of power held by her "brave young senator" against the encroachments of slavery had lain her safety. By the hand of that power he lay dead, and Broderick in his grave was There is enough to justify us in heaping maledictions upon the authors and aiders in this foul tragedy, but we will forbear.' The Bulletin of Sept. 16th said: 'Not for many years has the popular heart been so thoroughly moved as it was this morning when it became generally known that Mr Broderick had breathed his last. Since the early days of Cal. Mr Broderick has played a prominent part in her politics. His name was familiar to all. Rugged and positive as his character undoubtedly was, he possessed no half-way friends or foes. With the former he was almost worshipped; with the latter he was undoubtedly feared as well as hated-but at the same time respected. His friends and followers are stricken down by the blow that felled their leader and champion to the earth; while many of those who were his enemies while living, shocked by his untimely cutting off, express sincere sorrow and deep regret at his death. Thousands of others, who heretofore have not taken part for or against him, now see only his murdered and bleeding form, recall only his haughty contempt of danger, and mourn his loss as a public calamity of the heaviest import.' Baker, at his obsequies, said: 'Fellow-citizens, the man that lies before you was your senator. From the moment of his election, his character has been maligned, his motives attacked, his courage impeached, his patriotism assailed. It has been a system tending to but one end, and that end is here. And what was his crime? Review his history; consider his public acts; weigh his private character; and before the grave encloses him forever, judge between him and his enemies. As a man to be judged in his private character, who was his superior? It was his boast that and amid the general license of a new country, it was a proud boast-that his most scrutinizing enemy could fix no single act of immorality upon him. Temperate, decorous, self-restrained, he passed through all the excitements of California unstained. No man could charge him with broken faith or violated trust. Of habits simple and inexpensive, he had no lust of gain. He overreached no man, he withheld from no man his just dues. Never, never, in the history of the state, has there been a citizen who has borne public relations more stainlessly in all these respects than he.' After speaking of his public life, the eulogist concluded: 'Of his last hours I have no heart to speak. He was the last of his race. There was no kindred hand to smooth his couch, or wipe the death-damps from his brow; but around that dying bed, strong men, the friends of early manhood, the devoted adherents of later life, bowed in irrepressible grief, and like the patriarchs of old, lifted up their voices and wept.' S. F. Alta, Sept. 21, 1859. For comments on Broderick's death, see S. F. Bulletin, Sept. 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 1859, and March 8, 1860; Saxon's Five Years, etc., 15-18; S. F. News; N. Y. Sunday Times, in Yreka Union, Feb. 10, 1866; Parkinson, Pen Por. tracts, 52; Cal. Jour. Sen., 1861, 826-7.

THE DEAD CHAMPION AVENGED.

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more a king than ever he could have hoped to be in life. His great, solemn, burning, aspiring soul went marching on as did John Brown's in December following, to a victory greater than even he had ever conceived; for the party which had warred on him so relentlessly, as the representative of freedom, was dead and damned in California forever and forever!

Wilson Flint, who had been opposed to him in politics, but who had his confidence, said: "He came back here to be a republican in 1860, because there was no other way to break down the pro-slavery party and save the union. He told me that it was not in the power of Mr Douglas, or all the democrats of the north, to resist the insidious tyranny of the federal administration under Mr Buchanan. If the democratic party succeeds to power this time, the union is gone. There is no resource but to defeat that party— to break it up. It has performed its mission; it must go to history.'

The pro-slavery party, with its lynx eyes, saw this conviction in Broderick. They dreaded his organizing power, and so doomed him, as they doomed many another man afterward. Said Terry, in that speech which roused the resentment of Broderick, speaking of the anti-Lecompton party in California: "A miserable remnant of a faction, sailing under false colors, trying to obtain votes under false pretences. They have no distinction they are entitled to; they are the followers of one man, the personal chattels of a single individual, whom they are ashamed of. They belong, heart and soul, body and breeches, to David C. Broderick. They are yet ashamed to acknowledge their master, and are calling themselves, forsooth, Douglas democrats.... Perhaps I am mistaken in denying their right to claim Douglas as their leader. Perhaps they do sail under the flag of Douglas, but it is the banner of the black Douglas, whose name is Frederick, not Stephen." These utterances show conclusively the