Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1856-08-13
CoNGREssInsAI.nuEIS

|
The recent escapades of Mr.. Brooks, OF
South Carolina, have given an unusual degree
of interest TO the subject of duelling, and the
| New York Times has revived the recollections
OF some of the more celebrated Congressional
affairs of honor. Duels have been fought by
| members of Congress from the very commence
ment of our existence as a nation, but these
affairs have been much less frequent than is
generally supposed to be the case. In fact all
tie Congressional challenges that have been
sent, from the meeting of the first Congress in
hiladelphia down 70 the affair between Brooks
and Burlingame, do not exceed, twenty-five in
number-not half SO many as have been fought
by members of the British Parliament.
The first duel by member of Congress, on
record, was that between Button Gwinnett and
Jacklaud Mcintosh, in 1777. They were both
of the State of Georgia, though Gwinnctt on
ly was a member of Congress. lie was a sign
er of the Declaration of Independence, and his
antagonist was an officer of the army. The
dispute was Of personal nature, and the duel
can hardly be called Congressional encoun-
ter, as it did not grow out of any act of either
party connected with politics. The next af-
fair Of honor in which member of Congress
was implicated, occurred in 1897, and was
strictly Congressional, as it was occasioned by
words spoken in debate. The parties were
Thomas Blount, representative from North
Carolina, and Judge Thatcher, from Massachu-
sets. The challenger was Blount who took
offence at verbal criticism of an expression
he used, by Thatcher, who, on receiving the
invitation to fight, declined giving an answer
until he could write to his wife and obtain her
consent; and there the matter stopped. Sev-
en- years afterwards, in 1904, Senator Jackson,
of Georgia, was wounded in q duel with Col
Watkins the cause of the duel was political,
but not Congressional quarrel. In the year
previous, Jonathan Dayton, a Senator from
New Jersey. sent a challenge to De Witt Clin-
ton, then Senator from New York, on ac-
count of an offensive remark of the latter in
debate, for which he made an apology that
was read in the Senate. In the year 1919
General Mason, q Senator from Virginia, was
killed in duel, by his relative, McCarty, also
a Firginian; bat though the cause of the duel
was political, it did not originate in Congress.
The next affair of honor, in which a mem
b9r of Congress was party, was the celebra-
ted affair of McDutfie, of South Carolina, and
Col, Cummings, of Georgia, which came Off
in the year 1922. The famous affair between
Henry Clay and John Randolph occurred four
years after the last, in 1926. The next year
Mr.. Vance, an ex-member of Congress from
North Carolina, was killed in duel by Mr..
Carson, member from the same State. Ten
years afterwards, in 1887, Mr. Dromgoole, a
member of Congress from Virginia, was NOR
tally wounded in duel with Mr.. Dugger, of
| the same State. In 1888, the still freshly re-
| than Cilly, of Maine, and William j. Graves,
of Kentucky, both members of Congress, in
whichthe former was killed. This tragical af-
fair created a feeling in the public mind so re-
pugnant to the duello that it was not until the
year 1851 that another affair of honor grew
out of a Congressional quarrel, when Mr..
Stanley, of North Carolina, and Mr.. Inge, OF
Alabama, met ard exchanged shots without
doing each other any personal injury, and then
explained and became friends. Two years af-
forwards, Mr.. Inge was the second Of Senator
Gwinn, Of California, who fought with Mr.. Nc
CorkIe, a representative of the same State.
Though members Of Congress, the duel grew
out of expressions used by one of the parties
at race course in California, where the meet
ing took place. In 1854 the affair between
Mr.. Cutting, of New York, and Mr.. Brecken-
ridge, the Democratic candidate for the Vice
Presidency, occurred, in which no meeting
took place from the difficulty of deciding
which party had given the challenge. The
next affair of the kind that occurred is the one
which now engrosses the public attention, and
which, taken in all its aspects, is certainly the
most remarkable, and the least creditable to
one of the parties, of all the affairs of honor
in which members of Congress have been en-
gagged, of which we have any knowledge. Du-
ring the past eighty years there have been but
few hostile meeting between our leading poll
ticians, considering the virulence and strong
sectional feelings that have existed, while
there has hardly been an eminent British
statesman who has.not been engaged in duel.
Pitt, Canning, Fox, Curran, O'Connell, Peel,
DIsracli, Castlereagh, and many more of the
leading statesmen of England, have had their
little affairs of honor, but our eminent public
men have been singularly free from such de-
grading encounters.
BUCHANAN AND THE CoMPRoMIsE.-In a
speech delivered by Mr.. Barksdale, OF Missis-