merely bowing acquaintances.  As I entered he looked up and said, “Why, Judge, you don’t look well, what is the matter?” I answered that I did not feel well, for I had not a friend in the world.  He replied, “What is it that worries you?” I then related to him everything that had happened, giving the particulars of the gross and violent assault upon my character, and stated that I was determined, at all hazards, to call Moore to account.  Mr. Broderick, without hesitation, said, “My dear Field, I will be your friend in this matter; go and write at once a note to Moore, and I will deliver it myself.”  I accordingly sat down at an adjoining desk and wrote him a note, the purport of which was that I required him either to make a public retraction of his insulting language in the Legislature, or to give me the satisfaction I had a right to demand.  Broderick approved of its terms and at once proceeded to deliver it.

When he called on Moore and presented it, the latter said he expected to be a candidate for Congress before the coming convention, and he could not accept a challenge because it would disqualify him under the constitution from holding the office.  But at the same time he observed that he was willing to meet me at any time and place; in other words, that he had no objection to a street fight.  Broderick replied that a street fight was not exactly the thing among gentlemen; but that if Moore would do no better, a street fight there should be; and thereupon named a time and place when and where I would be found the next morning.

Within an hour afterwards Moore changed his mind, and informed Mr. Broderick that Drury Baldwin, another member of the House, would act as his friend, and give a reply to my note the next morning.

In anticipation of a possible collision, Mr. Broderick took me out early the following morning to try my skill in the use of a pistol.  I tried a navy revolver and succeeded in hitting a knot on a tree, at a distance of thirty yards, three times out of five.  Broderick declared himself satisfied, and I then urged upon him the necessity of bringing the matter to a speedy issue.  In all this he concurred, and before the meeting of the House, called upon Baldwin for an answer to my note.  Baldwin replied that his principal had made up his mind to do nothing further in the matter.  “Then,” said Broderick, “as soon as the House meets, Judge Field will arise in his seat and refer to the attack on him and to the language of Moore, that he held himself responsible for what he said, and state that respect for the dignity of the House had prevented him from replying to the attack at the time in the terms it deserved; that he had since demanded satisfaction of Moore for his language, and that Moore had refused to respond, and will thereupon pronounce him a liar and a coward.”  “Then,” said Baldwin, “Judge Field will get shot in his seat.”  “In that case,” rejoined Broderick, “there will be others shot too.”  Mr. Broderick soon