Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1856-10-07
WHAT'S THE COUNTGY COM
INC no o


Has with very great propTiety been asked OF late.
On every side, in the high places, and among the
ministers of government and public advisers, We
hear Of challenges and rumors Of challenges
The Duclio is certainly being recalled from the
supposed disgrace to which it had been consign.
ed, and is again the bloody, fearful Draconian
law, threatening to supercede legal accountable
" for words spoken or written. We devote an
unusual space to-day to the results from, as also
to the further prospects Of the Code.-"For this
rash act, said the apologist of Alexander Hamil-
ton, because he disclaimed it and was penitcnt,
forgive him:" but said the apOlogist, cannot
forgive the ministers of the law, tho Legislators
and Judges, in that they have seen these often
ses often repeated and have taken no steps to
aycnge them. We might qualify this but
very little, and make it applicable to our own
times
We have laws in many if not majority Of the
States against this mis-named "code Of honor"
yet they are as so many dead letters upon the
statute books. We question, even in the States
where they mos: frequently. occur, and where
there are penal enactments against them, if even
so much as notice Of such offences are among
the recitals of Judges to the Grand Juries. In
stead Of being dis-Ganchised, they not unfre.
quently receive the highest honors of political
life. We believe that this day the hold of this
1nonstrous and barbarous resort is SO strong up
on the public class ofmeu, that fully ono half of
them look upon man with little esteem, who
does not bow to its requisites when called upon
Some are sincerely opposed to it and hold it and
its advocates IN contempt; others are deferred
from the known views of their constituents, yet
even their constituents in Puritan New England,
it seems, do. not look upon its champions as
unfit to represent their collective sentiments.
We doubt not but that if Arson Burlingame
had not been driven, by public opinion at home
and abroad by the taunts Of his own papers, in.
TO challenging Preston Brooks to go to Canada,
ne would have been allowed to sink back into
oblivion 50 deep that no arms Of political TesuT-
reetion would have ever re;nstatsd him. Par
sons and school teachers may lecture those IN.
der their guidance until doomsday about the
cowardice and criminality Of duclling, but the
admiration Of physical courage in the human
heart is inherent and as far rs We can judge in
sradicable. We all, in our readings Of the SIN
gle hand fcats Of the redoubtable Harold and
his followers ia their rude batte-axe "satisfac-
tioau-ia The nervous promptncss of Caeur do
Lion on the plains of Palestine to avenge an in
suit, feel IN instinct of hero worship. But the
spirit of civilization has had to contend with
and subdue many such instincts. 1t had tho
gladiator system Of early timss-the bull bait
isz-the toufnnments-the whole round Of Eu-
Topeau Quixotisms to meet and put down
what We want is not more legislation, but the
vigorous enforcement Of such as we have. Our
Legislatures and our Congress at present Eeem
sc SC nothing more than old timc cities Of fcf