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Taft, William Howard

"Ethics in Service"


Let me give you another instance of the President's exercising a law
that Congress did not pass. Sarah Althea Hill thought she was married to
Senator Sharon, at least she said she thought so. Senator Sharon was a
rich man. She wished to share it. So she brought in the State courts of
California a suit for divorce and alimony against the senator and
exhibited a letter purporting to have been written by the senator
admitting the marriage. She got into a great deal of litigation and
employed as her lawyer Judge Terry. Senator Sharon then brought suit in
the United States Court in California to have this letter declared a
forgery and delivered up to him. Justice Field of the United States
Supreme Court heard the case on the circuit. Judge Terry, who had been
on the Supreme Court of California in its early days and had served on
the same court with Judge Stephen J. Field, was a noted duelist and was
known to have killed one man in a duel. Mr. Justice Field had been
appointed from the California court to be a Supreme Justice of the
United States by Mr.


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