John P. Slough - Postbellum Career

Postbellum Career

When the Civil War ended in 1865, Slough was appointed Chief Justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court by President Andrew Johnson. Sharp-tongued with a fiery temper, he was appointed to fight corruption, but observers thought he was too heavy-handed about it. He was trying to break down the system of patronage that was characteristic of the New Mexico courts. Many sought his removal, especially after a decision in February 1867 attacking the system of peonage in New Mexico, which he thought was akin to the slavery he had fought in the Civil War to defeat.

In 1867 William Logan Rynerson, a member of the Territorial Legislative Council, took part in a campaign to remove the judge, leading Slough to slander Rynerson publicly. The next day, Rynerson drew a gun on the judge in Santa Fe and said, "Take it back." Slough exclaimed, "Shoot and be damned!" and Rynerson fired. Mortally wounded, Slough drew a derringer but was unable to fire. He died a day later.

At his trial, Rynerson was found not guilty (by reason of self defense), but many thought the court proceedings were corrupt. No federal officials tried to intervene in the trial, however. The historian Richard Henry Brown says that the murder of Slough "helped affirm the position of New Mexico as 'apparently the only place where assassination became an integral part of the political system.'"