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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
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city government and a vigorous police preserved order and peace.
Gambling was suppressed or carried on only in secret. A theatre was
built and sustained. A lecture-room was opened and was always crowded
when the topics presented were of public interest. Substantial stores
of brick were put up in the business part of the city; and convenient
frame dwellings were constructed for residences in the outskirts,
surrounded with plats filled with trees and flowers. On all sides were
seen evidences of an industrious, prosperous, moral, and happy people,
possessing and enjoying the comforts, pleasures, and luxuries of life.
And they were as generous as they were prosperous. Their hearts and
their purses were open to all calls of charity. No one suffering
appealed to them in vain. No one in need was turned away from their
doors without having his necessities relieved. It is many years since
I was there, but I have never forgotten and I shall never forget the
noble and generous people that I found there in all the walks of life.

The Supreme Court of the State then consisted of three members, the
senior in commission being the Chief Justice. David S. Terry was the
Chief Justice and Peter H. Burnett was the Associate Justice. Both of
these gentlemen have had a conspicuous career in California, and of
both I have many interesting anecdotes which would well illustrate
their characters and which at some future day I may put upon paper.
They were both men of vigorous minds, of generous natures and of
positive wills; but in all other respects they differed as widely
as it was possible for two extremes. Mr. Terry had the virtues and
prejudices of men of the extreme South in those days. His contact and
larger experience since with men of the North have no doubt modified
many of those prejudices, and his own good sense must have led him to
alter some of his previous judgments. Probably his greatest regret is
his duel with Mr. Broderick, as such encounters, when they terminate
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