Tennessee's Partner

Tennessee's Partner is by Bret Harte, with an introduction by William Dallam Armes. The introduction says that when Marshall's discovery caused a sudden influx of thousands of adventurers from all classes and almost all countries, the conditions of government in California were almost the worst possible. The introduction says each camp elected its own officers, recognized the customary laws and adopted special ones, and punished lawbreakers.

The text says that, as there were no jails or jailors, flogging and expulsion were the usual punishment, but in aggravated cases it was death. A passage says the Judge appeared to be more anxious than the prisoner, who evidently took a grim pleasure in the responsibility he had created. A passage says that when there was a tap at the door and it was said that Tennessee's Partner was there on behalf of the prisoner, he was admitted at once without question. A passage says that Tennessee's Partner was not forgotten, that a secret investigation had cleared him of any complicity in Tennessee's guilt, and that it left only a suspicion of his general sanity.