One man to whom David Terry turned to for help with his trouble with the vigilance committee over his stabbing of Sterling Hopkins was E. B. Boutwell, Commander of the sloop-of-war John Adams now in San Francisco harbor. On June 21st Boutwell had asked the committee how long it would keep their prisoner, Dr. Ashe, also a navel officer arrested with Terry, asserting that his confinement would prevent Boutwell from getting to sea as soon as he proposed. The committee responded politely to the … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2012
Vigilantes try David Terry
November 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The turmoil over the arrest of Supreme Court justice David Terry delayed his trial and caused serious troubles for the Committee of Vigilance. James Daws, a prominent member of the committee with a brilliant but somewhat uncultivated intellect described the situation the vigilantes found themselves in by saying, “We started out to hunt coyotes but we’ve got a grizzly bear on our hands and we don’t know what to do with him.” But the committee was equal to the task and as soon as they made up … [Read more...]
Warrants for the Julia seizure
November 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The vigilance committee formulated an indictment of a sort against David Terry on Sunday evening that consisted of three main charges; first of resisting with violence officers of the committee while in the discharge of their duties; second, of committing an assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill Sterling Hopkins; and third of various breaches of the peace and attacks upon citizens. Under this last charge there were five specifications, one involved resistance to a writ of habeas … [Read more...]
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