New-York daily tribune., 1856-08-01

arms In common life-srd WA held TO be % - loes
ago % when Thucydides wrote. The street-6shfs
which have Of late yeArs to great an extent re-
placed the duel, are another proof Of the affection
they have for their own precious lives, and their
unwillipgness to risk them unless they can get an
advantage over their antagonist. Fear 10 Pass'on
that grows BY indulgence, Like other passions; and
in the Slave States It is in q state of continual
exercise through their sense OF righteous
danger from their slaves, ss well - from
the barbarous habits of their fellow slave
hoders 1t is organized into all their Institutions
aid speak, out from all their manners and customs
But all men do not come into immediate contact
with slayeholders-some have hardly seen one In
their lives-and TO such il seemed strange tnat
there should not be some foundation for the extra
ordinary good opinion they were forever expressing
of themselves.
But that is ali at an end now. They have strip
ped themselves Of the disguises In which they
rejOiced, and the dullest eye can hardly fail to
make them out Brooks, BY his own confessions,
was afraid to attack Mr. Sumner where be had
chance to defend himself, and struck him deadly
blows over the head for his own safety as well as
for the murderous purposes Of the attack. And OIL
the Shareholders in the land, by public meetings and
the almost unanimous voice Of the Press cry praise
and honor on him for this cowsrdly and felonious
deed They accept it as their own, and salute
Brooks as their Champion and Hero Thus what
hid betn the crime of single rufisn becomes that
of the entire class to which he belongs. Like the
Jews of old they exclaimed, "let his blood be
"upon US and upon our children" 1t is not we
that have put it there; it is they that have called IL
down upon their heads. Thus they have made
Themselves accessories after the fact. Not all
great Neptune's ocean can wash those stains from
their hands or from their characters.
And, as if this exposure of themselves were not
enough, they have Just made another, even more
hunilisting to men Of their presensions. Brooks,
stung by the coutt tmpt not all this hattery could
hide from him which all truly brave men felt for
his base action, at last spurred himself up to call
out Northern man for calling it by its rishtname,
wbo whether wisely or we'll we will not here in
quire, accepted the challenge. Brooks, on the
fllimsiest and most transparent pretenses, shuns
the meeting, showing that be had no stomach tor
such an encounter. To attack an unarmed man,
in posture making self defense impossible, and to
cut him down by blows over the head, to this
achievement he was equal, especially with at least
one armed aocomplice at his elbow. But to meet
an antagonist face 10 face was another matter
quite and made him take counsel of the better part
of vslor. We look at this affair to-day solely from
the duepg point of view, and assume that code to
be binding for the sake Of the argument; and from
this and-point, fighting men and pesce-men, IRE
eaters snd wate drinkers must see that Brooks is
di.Qraced man. That the kind of honor he most
brsgs of s smirched al over. That the brand Of
coward is burnt to the bone Of his forehead and
that by his Own hand.
This disgrace, too, the shareholders Of the Co
lumbia District have taken to themselves BY re-
elec,iDg Brooks to the seat be had resigned with
out dissenting vote! They, and every man sus-
tsin,pg him, have laid themselves down in the dirt
by his side. Every one of them accepts the char
acter Of feop striking stolen blow on the temple
of an unsuf ufpectiDg man, and Of disgruced pol
troon who sneaked away from 3 duel he had in
yited There is no escape from the conclusion.
The exposure of character is complete. The con-
fession is voluntary. They are all in one boat, and
they must sink or swim together. And these are
the men who have governed US for seventy years,
and who demand TO be established in their dominion
The institution which has made such men as these
is to be forced upon struggling Kansas to make US
all the thralls of such these If thing could
rouse freemen everywhere to a united resistance,
it mu.t be, one would think, the portraits painted
BY themselves-or rather the mirror held up TO
their own features-of the men who claim divine
right to govern well ss their slaves. This is
the chiyslry that would reign over US! Chivalry,
indeed May the age of such chivalry soon be
over The cbivalry which Burke lamented pro-
tcted the poor instead of expressing them, rghted
wrongs instead ofinAicting them, met their enc
mics in open field instead of waylayiDg and assas-
sinatiDg them, and thought it base shame to slink
away from . corbst they had demanded. That
cbivalry followed the White Plume of Henry of
Navarro into the thickest Of the 8sht At Ivry,
while ours, alas! is reduced TO accept ~ its
OriHsmme the White Feather of Brooks Of Caro-
lima