The Shasta courier., 1858-09-25
Dueling.

While we are no advocates of the duello,-
while we sincerely mourn the bloody and un-
timely death of Ferguson,-at the same time
we cannot refrain from expressing the utmost
contempt for the pusilanimous creatures who are
now, like so many blood hounds, baying upon
the track of him whose terrible, measureless
misfortune it has been to be made victim of
inexorable public opinion. 1t is folly, it is al
most absolute and unqualified falsehood, for ed
itors to proclaim that public opinion is averse
to the settlement of quarrels between gentlemen
in the stern debate of the duello. The very men
who are now upon the track of Johnston, with
the cry of e blood blood /" are they who
would have been the first, if he had exhibited
an earnest desire to avoid meeting, to have
twitted him with inuendoes unfayorabe to his
bravery Their papers would have teemed with
filings at his chivalry." Taunts and jeers-
not in broad terms, but seemingly incidentally
would have met his eye in every column, and
been buzzed to his from every bar-room.
The sneering ntimation that his bravery was
sui geners-peculiarly Johnstonian-would have
been kept as a standing sarcasm. In short, they
would have spared no efforts to make him the
laughing-stock of the State. And tie public
ecould hare Joined in the sport acih tie utmost glee,
and cracked its sides with laughter at the mirth-
provoking squibs ofwhch Johnston would then
have been the subject.
That this would have been the case, no sensi-
BILE man can doubt. Indeed, we have observed
co,on of tba-o varv ,,-ritar~
the exhibition of personal bravery made by
Johnston on the field, intimate that he did not
expect that Ferguson would meet him when he
sent the challenge that he mistook his man
Now if such bastard filings are made, notwith-
standing all that has happened, what might we
not have expected, if Johnston had made an eff
fort to settle the difficulty without resort to the
duello?
The truth is that public opinion in this State
has not as yet uttered its voice against dueling
A man who refuses to fight a gentleman, is in
variably made the subject of the taunts and ieers
of the public. The very papers now most loud
mouthed in condemnation of Johnston, have
heretofore been most expert in uttering sarcasms
at the expense of those who, after arriving On
the ground, fired without hara resulting, or
made an amicable settlement without fighting at
all. And nothing pleased the public (whose
opinion is now said to be opposed to dueling,)
so much as these taunting squibs.
1t is also true, that the press, to great extent,
has permitted itself to view the late duel from
political stand point. Editors look at it as party
affair-in which one with whom they are in an
tagonism came off victorious They behold a
!" rafter" in victorious strife with a "mud-sill.~
They therefore raise hue and cry" for his
blood, and impudently call that noise the voice
of public opinion.
While then we have not one word to say in
opposition to the execution of the law against
duelling-because we believe the duello is
savage and most un-Christian mode of settling
difiicuties-we at the same time hold that pub
lie opinion in California, and the public press of
California, (if its future is to be Judged by its
past course,) are as ready now as ever to
hail with smiles and clappings of hands the
bloody code"