The Middlebury people's press. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1841-1843, 1841-11-23
DIFFICULTY OF SURPRISING DU.
ELLING.
FROM THE =. s. GAZETTE.

ELLING.
FROM THE 1. S. GAZETTE.
DueHing not to be abolished By Lav.-Sev-
eral recent duels in the Southern States, all of
which, so far as the journals inform us, having
gone UNPUBLISHED, bring to our mind the Sc
we're laws passed in Florida, Alabama, and
elsewhere, two or three years ago., and the
prophesies that they would put a stop to duel
ling within the limits of their operation. The
result has shown that the practice cannot be
prevented by legislative action. The state of
public opinion at the South will prevent any
law on this subject from being enforced. Who
shall enforce it! No citizen would complain
of another for fighting a duelJ without being
stigmatized as diShonOrabe By most of his
neighbors and acquaintance. And if he
should have sufficient moral courage to brave
this, and act from L sense of duty, by whom
is the violator of the law to be tricdl After a
citizen has complained of him, a grand jury
must find a bill of Indictment. And what are
the prospects of this, in 4 grand jury compos-
ed of men the majority of whom feel bound
TO resent an insult according to the laws Of
honor? 1t would be difficult to find twenty
four men in q Southern state, sufficiently re-
spectacle for a grand jury, of whom The ma
jority did not feel bound by this code. Most
of them might admit that duelling ought to be
suppressed, yet each one would insis that he
could not refuse a challenge without mourning
the contempt of his fellow citizens. Can we
expect that a body of men under such in1u-
ence would be much disposed to indict a neigh
Dor, or acquaintance, OR friend, for fighting a
due, or giving or receiving a challenge?
And even ifa grand jury should so far shake
off these t~yranical trammels, as to find a bill
of Indictment for the sake of form, what are
the probabilities of its being fairly tried ? Du-
eilists may be found or the bench, at the bar,
and in the jury box; and every one of them
would take especial pains 10 frown upon all
attempts TO abolish this detestable code. Un-
der such influences, those who really abhor
duelling would be afraid 10 act upon their prln-
ciples or feelings. Among men consisting Of
d~uellists, and those afraid to encounter the cow
ardly taunts and sneers of duellists, one cannot
expect that a man indicted fer duelling would
be very hardly pressed by prosecuting attor-
neys, or very severely Judged By courts and
juries. Judges would wish them Il safe deHU-
%erence, and lean as much as possible TO the side
of mercy. Defending counsel would make
their utmost appeals to the honorable and ckir-
dtronS, feelings of jurors, who,catching the en-
t~auSidsm of chivalry, and awed by the taunts
of the Jrare, would Flock rather kindly upon
one who ueniured life in defence Of honor
Under this vitiated state of public opinions, ali
laws against duelling must be dead LETTERS
We believe that to kill in a duel is punishable
rs murder in most of the States. Yet. who
ever heard of a conviction, in any State o. the
Union, upon an indictment for murder in a
duell And even if a conviction could be OBJ.
tanned, what Governor, at least in a Southern
State, would have moral resolution enough to
sign 4 death warrant! Even in New Eng
land, where public sentiment is more opposed
to duelling than in any other part of the Union,
a prisoner would be almost sure to escape from
an Indictment, through technical bubbles, or
that present most fertile sources oflegal peryer.
sion, disagreement of a jury. Vain, then, are
all laws TO prevent duelling, without a radical
change of public opinion.
New OKLEANs.-ln a CHARITY sermon
preached in New Orleans, by the Rev.
Mr. Clap, he said" that he had resided
twenty years, wanting only a few months
in New Orleans and during that time had
witnessed eleven epidemic yellow fever
years, and two choiera-each epidemic
carrying to a sudden grave never less than
three thousand human beings, and often
five thousand. Within that space oftwen-
ty years one hundred thousand human be
ings had found a grave in New Orleans
and of that immense osttwenty-6ve thou
sand were young men between the ages of
eighteen and twenty years each one the
representative of some distant family, with
whose fate that family was connected, RI
sing when he rose and with his fall sinking
hopelessly and forever.
CRoWDINo THE PRoFEssIoNs.-One of
the ablest periodical writers of Great Brit
ain, speaking of the ambition in that coun-
try of adopting professional life of all kinds.
and of the rush. if we may so call it, into
the professions of" law physic, and divinity
-, thus points the minds eye to the general
consequences, or some of them:
"But thousands have died of broken
hearts in. these pursuits thousands who
would have been happy behind the plough