Personal reminiscences of early days in California, with other sketches — Context and Discussion

The Alcalde System and Frontier Law

Field's first elected office was Alcalde of Marysville, a position inherited from Mexican governance that combined executive, judicial, and legislative powers. The excerpts show how this office operated in a legal vacuum: California had not yet been admitted to the Union, and the governor's authority to remove officials was uncertain. Field's narrative includes the oath of office and a petition from citizens demanding Judge Turner's suspension, revealing how communities used informal pressure to check judicial overreach. The Alcalde system allowed Field to dispense rough justice, but it also created conflicts with formally appointed judges like Turner, who resented the Alcalde's independent authority.

The Turner Controversy: A Judicial War

The core of the excerpts is the escalating conflict between Field and Judge Turner. Turner expelled Field and other lawyers from the bar for testifying in a habeas corpus hearing, then ordered Field's arrest. When County Judge Haun released Field on a writ of habeas corpus, Turner fined and imprisoned Haun, sending the sheriff to seize him from the bench of the Court of Sessions. The petition from Marysville citizens lists seven specific grievances, including Turner's refusal to hear counsel and his arbitrary imprisonment of lawyers. Field's narrative frames these events as a defense of the rule of law against a tyrant, but the record shows both sides using the same coercive tools—contempt powers, arrest warrants, and political appeals.

Voice and Structure: A Lawyer's Memoir

Field's narrative is structured like a legal argument, with exhibits, testimony, and a chronological sequence of grievances. The prose is precise and unadorned, focusing on facts and documents rather than personal reflection. The excerpts include the full text of petitions and court orders, suggesting Field wanted to let the record speak for itself. The tone is defensive but not self-pitying; Field presents himself as a champion of due process against a corrupt judge. The inclusion of Gorham's account of the assassination attempt adds a later layer of drama, but the core memoir remains a lawyer's brief, not a literary autobiography. Readers should expect a detailed, document-heavy account of legal battles rather than a sweeping personal story.

Field's memoir offers a ground-level view of how law was made and contested in a place where institutions were still being built. Readers interested in the practical workings of frontier justice, the role of the Alcalde, or the personal rivalries that shaped California's early courts will find this a rich primary source. The narrative rewards careful attention to the documents and testimony Field includes, as they reveal the strategies and assumptions of a legal mind at work.

Holding this memoir, I thought of my grandfather’s courtroom stories, the raw authority of a single judge shaping a frontier town. That same ache for justice, framed differently, surfaced later in The College, the Market, and the Court or, Woman's relation to education, labor and law — Story, Setting & Ideas, where the law’s weight falls on quieter lives, asking what order truly protects.