Francisco. It would have extended into the interior, and raged there in
bloodshed and devastation. The peaceful way out of the difficulty was
thought the better course, if it could be accomplished. The occasion was
extraordinary, and never contemplated - the exigency beyond immediate
solution. As James Dows, one of the coolest in judgment and wisest in
counsel of the Executive Committee, pertinently described the situation
in the pithy remark, "We started in to hunt cayotes, but we've got a
grizzly bear on our hands, and we don't know what to do with him." The
Executive Committee were not themselves masters of the situation. Behind
them, subject to them and ready to obey their commands on ordinary
occasions, were the 5,000 members of the Committee who carried arms, and
felt themselves superior to even the Executive Committee, if occasion
should happen to test the matter. Of their number nearly one-third were
of foreign nationality, and of these a considerable proportion did not
very well speak English - they were of revolutionary, if not
insurrectionary temper - and had participated in uprisings in their
native land against the government. Many of the native born members were
of similar disposition. It had been resolved by this element of the
Committee, that if Hopkins should die, Terry must hang; and the only
alternative of the Executive Committee would be to order the execution
or spirit him away, at the peril of their own lives. To hang a Justice
of the highest judicial tribunal of the State, was a very serious matter
to contemplate - a most hazardous extremity in any event. If spared from
the fury of their troops, by ordering the execution, their death was
certain at the hands of Judge Terry's avengers. In this quandary, the
Executive Committee were as anxious for a safe way out, without blood or
sacrifice, as any of the friends of Terry. Secretary of State Douglass
came to San Francisco. He persuaded ex-Senator Gwin to interpose on
Terry's behalf. Gwin dispatched Sam. J. Bridges, Appraiser-General, to
Mare Island, to request Commodore Farragut to meet him in San Francisco