Butte record. (Bidwell, Butte County, Cal.) 1853-1858, 1857-04-11
Decline Of True COdrage.

fact 10 WHICH history seems to testify
with eq1al directness an unanimity.
Nations, like individuals, appear at
tasss excessively puguacious and ten
der upon points of honor, while at 9TH
ers, they exhibit, in view of injuries,
most forbearing and Christian-llke
spirit. 1t is said, and, doubtless, with
truth, that the appetite for hostilities,
even with those whose whose courage
is NEST unimpeachable, depends great
ly upou the state of the physical stom-
ach. A hero with an obstinate dvs-
pedsia, Bayard, Siduey, or Mu
rat suffering under chronic ini estion,
so far from being possibility, is one of
those monstrosilies which, like the GEN.
taur, the ph@nix, or the griffin, can
only be conceived by people whose i'm
agnatiJns are IN an abnormal condi-
ton. Whether nations are subject to
complaints analogous to those by which
individuals are afflicted, that have the
effect TO cool down their courage and
incline them to the prI ctice of discre
lion, we will not attempt to decide, but
that there are certain causes which
serve, for the time being, to divest
States of their warlike propensi;ies.
seem sunquestionable. CoMTE, in his
Positive Philosophy, afirms that the
industrial spirit, in its perpetual ex-
tension, constitutes the best safeguard
against any serious recurrence of the
military or feudal spirit and all ex-
perience seems to teach that in pro-
portion as fondness for productive
labor prevails, the appetite for unpro-
ductive bloows disappears. The An
glo-Saxon race, neveri riheless, is of
warlike nature, and it can hardly be
supposed, however earnest its atten-
tlou to material pursuits, that its origi-
hal love of strife has become en,i;ely
obliterated. Nature says Lord Ba-
con. lis often hidden, sometime over
come, seldom extingui>Eedl' The dcs-
cendants of the ancient Sea Kings now
and then demonstrate that the taste for
plunder and piracy which distinguished
their hardy ancestors, still shoulders
ready 10 break out whenever a favora-
bic occasion appears. As each indivi-
dual, in his progress from infancy to
matu ity, is supposed, by philosophers
to exhibit the different stages through
which nations pass In the march OF ci
vilization, it is not surprising that
Young America robs watermelon patch
es in his boyhood, joins tIain-bands,
and goes on filibustering expeditions in
his youth, and all preparatory to set
ilihg down into money-makIng, pains
taking manhood Thus the character
istic of race make their strongest APP
pearance in the young, the soil most
susceptible. also, to new ideas and
thus it is that in the bosom of the ris-
ing generation occur the most violent
struggles between the past and the fu-
ture, between the radical and the con-
servative elements. between progress
and order, that humanity is required
to sustain.
That there is. however, a Very con
siderable falling off in this genaeratien
from the ancient spirit of the Anglo
Saxon race, as exhibited in those acts
which are supposed to indicate the pre-.
sence of real bravery, seems almost un-
questionable. There was a time when
fair play and magnanimity and honora.
BILE bearing were deemed of true eour
age the indispensable accompaniments
and he who had not the latter exposed
himself to deserved contempt by set
ting up pretenslons to the former.
Now the importance that is attached
to an act of personal violence without
regard to the circumstances under
which ii was committed, aud the repu-
tation for pluck which such an act con
fers upon the author, would seem to
indicate most lamen.able scarcity of
that high and chiva'rous courage for
which Tho Anglo Saxon was once SO
eminently distinguished.
Once, the duel, however much the
practice may be deemed to have savor-
ed of barbarism, was an honorable form
of combat, whose rules were elabor>
ately designed to prevent either party
from gaining an undue advantage over
the other The code of honor pro-
nouneed him who. by any means what
ever, attempted, by unfair or unequal
means, to overcomh bis adversary, a
felou and unworthy to associate with
gentlemen. Nothing can be more hi
deously farcical than an America du-
el and its peliminaries, at the present
day. 1t usually begins with mulIifa.
rious exchange of cartels, wherein each
party and his confidential friends ap-
pear to be smitten with an unanimous
cacoethes scribeadi, the principal use and
object of which evidently is to gain for
each party, when the same shall get
into the newspapers, a reputation tor
courage at the expense of the other.
These proving of 10 avail TO settle the
difficulty, then comes the arrangement
for the duel, in which the end to be
attained is to enable each party to kill
his adversary without exposing himself
to danger. In the outcome, in ma
Jority of cases, nobody is hurt; the
doughty warriors gain huge reputa-
ton Tor courage, their gallant bearing