PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF EARLY DAYS IN CALIFORNIA, WITH OTHER SKETCHES. Which is Added the Story of His Attempted Assassination by a Former Associate on the Supreme Bench of the State, by Hon. George C. Gorman. N.p.: Printed for a Few Friends, Not Published, 1893. Second Edition, containing an account of an assassination attempt on Justice Field by a former associate of his on the California Supreme Court, David S. Terry, who had killed United States Senator David C. Broderick during an infamous 1859 duel. The son of a Congregationalist minister, Stephen Johnson Field (1816-99) grew up in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, graduated from Williams College in 1837, and practiced law in New York City. Inspired by the reports that gold had been discovered in California, the future first chief justice of the California Supreme Court booked passage aboard the Crescent City on November 13, 1849 in New York and headed for the Golden State via the Isthmus of Panama. He arrived in San Francisco on December 28 with only $10 in his pocket. Field related, however, that he brought a load of chamois with him and sold each for an ounce of gold. After an interesting encounter with Jonathan D. Stevenson (he owed Field $400), he left January 12, 1850 for Sacramento and points beyond before arriving at Nye's Ranch, where he bought sixty-five lots in a new town called Yubaville (Marysville). Two weeks later, Field was sworn into office as first alcalde of the booming town. Included in his recollections is an interesting description of Sutter. From then on, his legal career blossomed, resulting in his appointment by Abraham Lincoln to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1863. Stubborn and vindictive, with a keen mind, Field was a formidable opponent, and his decisions defending private and business property rights came to dominate the Court. Though his aspirations to become Chief Justice went unfulfilled, he remains the second longest serving Associate Justice in American history. Inscribed by Justice Field to Charles C. Nott, Chief Justice of the United States Court of Claims, on a prefatory blank leaf. Original green cloth binding, with gilt titles. Small ink stamp and a small bookseller's label to the front pastedown. Some general minor edgewear to the boards; otherwise very good. Cowan, R.: Bibliography of California, p.209; Hall, K.: The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States, p.289-292; Howes, W.: U.S.IANA, #F117. $1,200