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He lived. Judge Terry went back to the bench and became Chief Justice, but not for long. U. S. Senator David Colbreth Broderick was head of the Democratic Party's Abolitionist wing in the State, and Chief Justice Terry was for the South and slavery. The Senator called the Chief Justice a crook and miserable wretch, so Terry stepped down from the bench to fight a duel. Jittery Broderick put his bullet in the ground; Terry put his through Broderick's breast. A jury acquitted him of murder, but he was still struggling to rebuild his Stockton law practice when the Civil War broke out. Wounded at Chickamauga, Terry was a Confederate brigadier before the war ended. Afterward he tried sheep and cotton in Mexico, then went back to Stockton for a third try at the Law. As a foe of the moneyed interests, he helped rewrite California's constitution, helped beat George Hearst for Governor in 1882, helped keep U. S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Johnson Field of California from getting his home State's endorsement for the Presidential nomination in 1884. He had reason to regret that last move after he got into the Sharon-Hill case as Sarah Althea's lawyer.
By that time old Senator Sharon was dead of worry, and Terry was a lonely widower. The lawyer soon married his beauteous client. They made a formidable pair. During her divorce suit she had made everybody nervous by fingering a pearl-handled revolver in her handbag while a court examiner was hearing testimony. "I can hit a fourbit piece nine times out of ten," she remarked, where upon the unfortunate examiner adjourned the hearing, appealed to the court for protection. When the Sharon heirs brought suit in Federal circuit court to cancel Sarah Althea's claims, the Terrys took front-row seats. On the bench, doing the regular circuit duty then required of U. S. Supreme Court Justices, sat Terry's one-time colleague on the State Supreme Court bench and his longtime political foe, Justice Field. As he began to read a decision against Mrs. Terry, she clutched her handbag arsenal, stood up.
"Judge Field," said she, "we hear that you have been bought. We want to know if it is true, and how much the Sharon people paid you."
"Mr. Marshal," returned the grave, bearded Justice, "remove that woman from the courtroom."
Next thing the obedient Marshal knew, a blow from David Terry's big fist had sent him sprawling across the courtroom with a broken tooth. Three officers were required to hold the outraged husband while others dragged away his screaming, kicking, scratching wife. Terry tore loose, dashed after his wife with bowie knife drawn. After both Terrys were disarmed, Justice Field had them carted off to jail for contempt of court. "When I get out of jail," David Terry was reported to have sworn, "I shall horsewhip Judge Field. If he resents it, I'll kill him." Later, under friends' urging, he modified the threat, declaring: "I do not intend to injure Field bodily, but if the opportunity presents itself—I shall not seek it—I shall slap his face or horsewhip him."