Alexandria daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1803-1808, 1804-11-06
From the CaAstrsros COURIER.

IL
] be denied: IN the fear of being suspected
| Of want of vaIour. And that this tear IS not
\ the fear of nature, reason, or experience,
but Of mere corrupt, wicked and stupid
custom, can easily be demonstrated. lit
it mhered in our nature, or was the result
of reason operating upon experience, all
nations would have felt it, and moststrong-
iys8S particularly, OF course those who have
stood most eminent in arms, arts and ltera-
ture. Bat the Teversei is the case. Ire
Greeks and Romans who take the lead IN
those respects, ielt nothing Of the kind.
Aud when we canswith truth say that the
Romans never acted upon such principle
and never practised duelling, we say e.
nsugh to prove that I cannot reasonably
be considered as being in any sort con-
stituent part or even dyagaostlc OF brave.
nv. The modern Romans, for SO we may
call Britons, are less given to mortal angle
combat than any other people upon earth
while or the other hand we may oppose,
as converse proofs of Our position, the well
known fact, that more men fall in single
combat, 1--WE do not mean assassination,
but in fair single combat) in Spain and
Portugal, than in Englnnd, France, Ger
many, Switzerland, and the northern coun-
tries put together.
We own that where long established
| barbarous custom has established kind OF
! general opinion respecting the necessity Of
resort to single combat, the refusing of
challenge. crthe passing over OF an insult
may De dlsreputahle in certain circumstanc.
! es, and worthy man may feel himself dis
posed rather to trust his soul to the mercy
Eof his God, than his character to the msr-
I cy of men. But what does all this prove
Why it proves only this, that it is the duty
of every brave, wise, andvirtuous man, to
lee, ria of the custom; to eradicate the o.
piuioa; to exsirpate from the very heart and
| mind the barbarous notion; and if possible
to wash away from the memory of society
ali recollection that it had ever existed.
| We say TO americans, or to any other
people epon earth, Vain men if the re-
publicans of ancient Rome, who never
were Iismayed by defeat, and never made
]'peace or parley with victorious enemy,
did without duelling, you may very well
| dispense with it.
lin looking back upon the history of
] man we.found that the practice OF duelling
was uniformly prevalent in nations distin-
guished for courage and deeds of arms, we
should at least pause Upon the subject,
and perhaps set it down among many o.
Their unfortunate propensities, which are
proved to inhere III our nature, or COM
/ port with our necessities, by their being
common to mankind. But when on the
contrary we find that it originated in an
/ age, and with people, the very names Of
| which imply ignorance, blindness, dark
/ ness, and barbarity and that to the most
wise and brave people, and the most REIN
| ed and polished periods antecedent there
/ to, it was unknown then, we insist upon it
that there is no one circumstance OF rea-
son, or necessity, to palliate the continual
ton ola practice which every man but an
| atheist must allow to be damnable, In
/ fact, so far is it from arising either from
mature or necessity, cthatif duly consider
ed it will appear entitled to stand among
/ those called unnatural crimes (which though
custom may, and in some countries does
make fashionable, no custom can recon
| Gle to morality or virtue, or make other
than criminal.
/ If we are asked what we would do our
! selves, or advise bosom friend to do, in
a case Of offence, or challenge, we will
answer, that what an individual would 90
under the hard terms which corrupt cds-
tom and erroneous opinions founded on
it, may impose, has nothing to DO with our
/ argument. Kis the custom ard the OPT
Mon that we rsprobate, and those ought
by a unipersalconsent 10 be abolished and
ireprobased. Each individual would then