When the flag of the country is fired upon and insulted, it is not the injury to the bunting, the linen, or silk on which the stars and stripes are stamped which startles and arouses the country.  It is the indignity and insult to the emblem of the nation’s 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 of the process, orders, and judgments of their courts is in like manner an indignity and insult to the power and authority of the Government which can neither be overlooked nor extenuated.”

After reviewing Terry’s statement, Justice Field said: 

“We have read this petition with great surprise at its omissions and misstatements.  As to what occurred under our immediate observation, its statements do not accord with the facts as we saw them; as to what occurred at the further end of the room and in the corridor, its statements are directly opposed to the concurring accounts of the officers of the court and parties present, whose position was such as to preclude error in their observations.  According to the sworn statement of the marshal, which accords with our own observations, so far from having struck or assaulted Terry, he had not even laid his hands upon him when the violent blow in the face was received.  And it is clearly beyond controversy that Terry never voluntarily surrendered his bowie-knife, and that it was wrenched from him only after a violent struggle.

“We can only account for his misstatement of facts as they were seen by several witnesses, by supposing that he was in such a rage at the time that he lost command of himself, and does not well remember what he then did, or what he then said.  Some judgment as to the weight this statement should receive, independently of the incontrovertible facts at variance with it, may be formed from his speaking of the deadly bowie-knife he drew as ‘a small sheath-knife,’ and of the shameless language and conduct of his wife as ’her acts of indiscretion.’

“No one can believe that he thrust his hand under his vest where his bowie-knife was carried without intending to draw it.  To believe that he placed his right hand there for any other purpose—­such as to rest it after the violent fatigue of the blow in the marshal’s face or to smooth down his ruffled linen—­would be childish credulity.

“But even his own statement admits the assaulting of the marshal, who was endeavoring to enforce the order of the court, and his subsequently drawing a knife to force his way into the room where the marshal had removed his wife.  Yet he offers no apology for his conduct; expresses no regret for what he did, and makes no reference to his violent and vituperative language against the judges and officers of the court, while under arrest, which is detailed in the affidavits filed.”

In refusing to grant the petition the court said: