for the killing of the Honorable David C. Broderick, late United States senator from California, ends before it begins.
A record of Hardy's acts while on the bench, and at other times, would tend in no wise to raise the character of these proceedings in the eyes of good men. I give but one incident among many: While judge of the sixteenth judicial district in March 1861, he was indicted by the grand jury of San Francisco for murder, as being accessory before the fact to the killing of Samuel T. Newell. It was said that Horace Smith, brother-in-law of Hardy, visited the city the New Year's day previous, for the purpose of killing Newell. This adds but another case of ruffian justice to the long list which disgraces the record of the adherents of law-and-order.
Were I permitted but one word, one argument in favor of vigilance, I would point to such men as these. Behold them on the bench, behold them as politicians, as lawyers, as members of the commonwealth; behold their blood-stained hands, their ever-ready and bloody weapons, behold them in public and in private, at home and abroad, insulting the law and constitution, which so used to impress their sense of duty in vigilance times! behold them anyhow or anywhere, and they bespeak in stronger words than mine the necessity of vigilance committees in all places where such characters abound. As I love such men, so hate I law, justice, and morality.
Among the merry men of Shasta in 1859 a sham duel was arranged between Grove K. Godfrey, superintendent of common schools, and William B. Stoddart, trustee, the latter alone of the two principals being privy to it. The meeting was to take place at French gulch, the weapons, derringers, and the distance ten paces. The pistols were loaded with bullets of cork covered with tin foil, in the presence of the assemblage which consisted of about sixty per
