into a cycle of revenge killings between partisans of "The House" owned by James Dolan (supported by the Jesse Evans Gang) and the Lincoln County Regulators supporting competing businesses run by John Tunstall and Alexander McSween. Governor Axtell intervened on behalf of The House, using his authority to remove pro-Regulator officials and shift legal authority to those supporting Dolan. This decision may have been influenced by the Attorney General of the New Mexico Territory, Thomas Catron, who held a mortgage on Dolan's property. Accusations of corruption and misconduct led Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz (R) to initiate an investigation into Axtell's activities as governor. Frank Angell, the investigating agent, would later describe Governor Axtell's administration as having more "corruption, fraud, mismanagement, plots and murder" than any other governor in the history of the United States. Based on Angell's investigation, Secretary Schurz suspended the Governor on September 4, 1878. President Rutherford B. Hayes (R) then appointed General Lew Wallace to replace Axtell later that year. Chief justice Despite the corruption, no criminal charges were brought against Axtell. Indeed, he was still seen as a prominent political figure in New Mexico. After a brief cooling-off period, he was appointed chief justice of the New Mexico Territorial Supreme Court in 1882. He resigned in May 1885 after Grover Cleveland (R) was elected president, and planned to remove Axtell from the office. In 1890 he was elected chairman of the New Mexico Territorial Republican Committee. He died at Morristown, New Jersey. Legacy Despite his total failure as governor, he was a brilliant jurist, and that is his political legacy. On the bench he endeavored at all times to secure what he saw fit to designate as "substantial justice" for all litigants, and judicial precedents which interfered with the main object of trials in his court, or with equity from his standpoint, were ruthlessly cast aside. However, his time on the bench was still marked with corruption, and many found his method of authority dictatorial. He often cast out any jury's opinion when he did not agree with it. He is most remembered for two cases: In a celebrated criminal trial at Las Vegas, New Mexico, Axtell had been warned that his life would be forfeited if he dared to sit in the case. Axtell took the bench, and promptly opened court on time. He compelled the sheriff to search all of the court