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Personal Reminiscences of Early Days in California with Other Sketches; To Which Is Added the Story of His Attempted Assassination by a Former Associate on the Supreme Bench of the State by Stephen Johnson Field;George Congdon Gorham
page 48 of 410 (11%)
[3] See Exhibit F, in Appendix.

[4] See Exhibit G, in Appendix.




RUNNING FOR THE LEGISLATURE.


One morning about this time I unexpectedly found myself in the
newspapers, nominated by my friends as a candidate for the lower house
of the Legislature. Who the friends were that named me I did not
know; but the nomination opened a new field and suggested new ideas. I
immediately accepted the candidacy. Judge Turner had threatened, among
other things, to drive me into the Yuba River. I now turned upon him,
and gave out that my object in wishing to go to the Legislature was to
reform the judiciary, and, among other things, to remove him from the
district. I canvassed the county thoroughly and was not backward in
portraying him in his true colors. He and his associates spared no
efforts to defeat me. Their great reliance consisted in creating the
belief that I was an abolitionist. If that character could have been
fastened upon me it would have been fatal to my hopes, for it was a
term of great reproach. Yuba County then comprised the present county
of that name, and also what are now Nevada and Sierra Counties. It
was over a hundred miles in length and about fifty in width, and had
a population of twenty-five thousand people, being the most populous
mining region in the State. I visited nearly every precinct and spoke
whenever I could get an audience. An incident of the canvass may not
be uninteresting. I went to the town of Nevada a little more than a
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