ONLY ONE OPINION.

    Marshal Neagle Could Not Stand Idly By.

The killing of Judge Terry of California is a homicide that will occasion no regret wherever the story of his stormy and wicked life is known.  At the same time, the circumstances that surrounded it will be deeply lamented.  This violent man, more than once a murderer, met his death while in the act of assaulting Justice Field of the Supreme Court of the United States.  Had he not been killed when he was, Judge Field would probably have been another of his victims.  Terry had declared his purpose of killing the Justice, and this was their first meeting since his release from deserved imprisonment.

In regard to the act of United States Marshal Neagle, there can be only one opinion.  He could not stand idly by and see a judge of the Suprene Court murdered before his eyes.  The contumely that Terry sought to put upon the Judge was only the insult that was to go before premeditated murder.  The case has no moral except the certainty that a violent life will end in a violent death.

The Philadelphia Inquirer of the same date says as follows: 

    A PREMEDITATED INSULT.

    Followed Quickly by a Deserved Retribution.

Ex-Judge Terry’s violent death was a fitting termination to a stormy life, and the incidents of his last encounter were characteristic of the man and his methods.  He was one of the few lingering representatives of the old-time population of California.  He was prominent there when society was organizing itself, and succeeded in holding on to life and position when many a better man succumbed to the rude justice of the period.  Most of his early associates died with their boots on, a generation ago.  Terry lived, assailed on all sides, despised by the better element and opposed by the law, in trouble often, but never punished as he deserved.  His last act was to offer a gross, premeditated insult to the venerable Justice Field, and the retribution he had long defied followed it quickly.  California will have little reason to mourn his loss.

The Cleveland Leader, in its issue of August 18th, speaks of the conduct of Neagle as follows: 

    THE KILLING OF TERRY.

We have already expressed the opinion in these columns that the killing of David S. Terry by Deputy Marshal Neagle at Lathrop, California, Wednesday, was entirely justifiable.  In that opinion it is a pleasure to note that the press of the country concur almost unanimously.  The judgment of eminent members of the legal profession, as published in our telegraph columns and elsewhere, support and bear out that view of the case.  The full account of the trouble makes the necessity of some such action on the part of the deputy marshal clear.  The judgment of the country is that Neagle only did his duty in defending the person of Justice Field, and in that judgment the California jury will doubtless concur when the case is brought before it.

The Argonaut, a leading paper of San Francisco, not a political, but a literary paper, and edited with great ability, in its issue of August 26, 1889, used the following language: