The Public "I": PASSION AND OTHER SINS; PART TWO

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

PASSION AND OTHER SINS; PART TWO

“He only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason.”

Cicero

I think producing the “new” will was a serious overreach on Althea’s part, because the rich tend to carry a grudge when you try and fail to steal too much money. Senator William Sharon’s adopted son from his second marriage, Frederick Newlander, continued to fight Althea's "divorce" in the California courts, delaying and obfuscating, But Frederick also launched a new front in Federal court - which he had access to because the Sharon estate was spread out over two states, Nevada and California.

Frederick's lawyers argued in Federal Probate Court that the new will which Althea had produced was a forgery, as were the “fraudulent” marriage contracts. And in Federal Court, it was Althea’s lawyer, David Terry who delayed and obfuscated. It did no good. A pair of probate judges appointed a Special Master who was take testimony and examine evidence. That meant Frederick's lawyers could force Althea to testify under oath. And this led to Althea’s downfall - not for what was said in court, but for how she reacted to what was said by others.

The lady was under a lot of pressure. And Althea (above) never respond well to pressure, worse as her instability advanced into her thirties. She had always been carrying a grudge, and the more the lawyers told her "no", the heavier that grudge became. Eventually she also began to carry a pistol in her hand bag.

And she began to loudly denounce witnesses who offended her - in open court. Where it all went down on the record. She shouted at one man, “I will shoot him yet; that very man sitting there!” When the court appointed examiner asked her to be still, she drew her gun. “They shall not slander me!" she shouted. "I can hit a four-bit piece nine times out of ten.” While pointing her pistol at one of the opposition lawyers, she assured him, “I will not shoot you just now, unless you would like to be shot and think you deserve it.”

A federal marshal disarmed the lady. But the incident made it into the 1,723 page report the master who declared the will and the marriage contracts were all forgeries. The judges went further, enjoining Althea from claiming otherwise, and ordered her to hand over the documents to Frederick Newlander, now again, a legal heir to Senator Sharon's massive estate.

“If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.”

Ben Franklin

But the judges went even further, lecturing Althea in open court, contending that “…property and position are in themselves some certain guaranty of truth in their possessor…”, and that “A woman who voluntarily submits to live with a millionaire for hire ought not…be allowed to punish her paramour for the immorality of which she was a part…” It is hard to find a more able defense of the Victorian ideal of the nobility of wealth and the original sin of women, than that argued by these two Federal judges. Misogynistic pompous jerks that they were. I'm not saying that Althea was justified in the way she expressed her anger with the courts, but I am saying that she might have been nuts, but maybe she wasn't entirely unjustified in what she did next.

But the problem was, as we all know, some men are drawn to crazy women. On 7 January, 1886, two weeks after this hypocritical lecture by the male court, Althea and her lawyer, David Terry (above), were married. He became the smitten Cupid to her Psyche. She played psycho to his old fool. On the face of it Althea came out ahead. She now had a defender who saw the courtroom as an extension of his happy home.

His reaction to the unbraiding she had received in court was as blunt as a knife fight; “They shall not brand my wife a strumpet.” He said this despite her having made her living as a strumpet for awhile. Judge Terry's legal strategy matched his temperament. Terry decided to simply ignore the federal court ruling. After all, Senator Sharon was dead, which, David Terry argued, had rendered any court decisions concerning the California divorce case an “ineffective, inoperative, unenforceable pronunciamento.”

And by simply ignoring the existence of the Federal Court order vacating the will, he avoided dealing with the decision that the will had been forged. Plus, if Althea continued to hold onto the marriage contracts, in defiance of the Federal court order, she could still use them as evidence in her California divorce case, which Sharon’s son Fredrick continued to fight in state court. And it was about here, as the fall of 1886 approached, that Frederick Newlander opened yet a third front against Althea and David Terry; a political front. Or perhaps, a political affront.

“But this had been a sin of passion, not of principle, nor even purpose.”
Nathaniel Hawthorne.

In the elections of November of 1886, Fredrick Newlander threw huge sums behind the “Blind Boss”, Christopher Buckley (above). Buckley's bi-partisan political machine had run San Francisco city hall for years, but had been recently thrown out of power by Republican reformers.

But with Newlander money, the Democrats under Buckley (above) were swept back into office. This allowed Buckley to appoint judges friendly to the Sharon divorce case. Which he did. Althea's alimony had already been reduced, from $2,500 a month, to $500. Now, Friedrick Newlander was granted an entirely new trial - which forced a living woman to argue she should be granted a divorce from a husband who had been dead for two years. But before that travesty of logic could occur, the California Supreme Court, now stacked with judges whose election had been financed by Frederick Newlander, overturned the original decision in the divorce case. The common law marriage of Senator Sharon and Althea was retroactively null and void. And with that, officially, Althea was now a perjurer and forger, in both the Federal and the State courts.

While these momentous events were unfolding, the time limit for Althea to appeal the Federal Court Order, requiring her to hand over the marriage agreements and the will, ran out. Immediately Frederick’s lawyers requested an order of contempt be issued against her, which the Federal Court, meeting in the Assessor's Building in San Francisco (above), immediately agreed to do. Terry’s strategy of defiance was thus proven bankrupt. Twice he appealed the contempt court orders all the way to the U.S Supreme Court, and twice the order was affirmed. This is what happens when lawyers stop thinking with their big heads.

“It is with our passions as it is with fire and water; they are good servants, but bad masters.”
Roger L’Estrange

So, on 3 September, 1888, Althea and David Terry found themselves back in the Assesors' Building (above), while the final decision in their contempt case was read out by the ancient, pompous, humorless, and equally prone to violence, Federal Judge Stephen Johnson Field.

Field (above) was a gun toting Justice of the United States Supreme Court, helping out in lower courts during the summer while the Supremes were in recess back in Washington. This was a man who was passionate about the law, had no doubt about his correct interpretation of it, and was unforgiving of those who disagreed with him. In other words, he was the perfect counterweight to Althea’s passion.

As he droned on, reading the intricate legal justifications for stripping Althea of her divorce, the irrepressible Althea jumped to her feet. “Judge,” she demanded, “are you going to take the responsibility of ordering me to deliver up that marriage contract?” Barely pausing in his recitation, Judge Field ordered, “Remove that woman from the courtroom." As a U.S. Marshal reached for Althea, David Terry’s drew his six foot muscular frame up from his chair, and warned the Marshal, “No man shall touch my wife”, and then punched the marshal right in the mouth, knocking out one of his teeth.

“Passion is a sort of fever in the mind, which ever leaves us weaker than it found us.”
William Penn

Several Federal Marshals and assorted guards and lawyers who had been waiting for just this sort of outburst, swarmed the feisty pair. A bowie knife was stripped from David Terry’s fist, and a loaded pistol was confiscated from Althea’s purse. The lady scratched faces, the old man threw punches, but once order was restored the court completed reading the decision of contempt. Judge Field immediately convicted the passionate pair of contempt, and ordered David Terry to spend six months in the Alameda county jail. Althea was sentenced to one month. The two new convicts now had a new enemy.

Now, if these two litigants had regained full control of their faculties, and issued a proforma apology, as any sane person in this situation would have done, that could have been the end of this tale. But neither David nor Althea were able to regain their perspective. And that is my favorite definition of insanity - the inability to recover your senses, once you lose them.