The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1859-10-08
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
SATURDAY. 6CT. 8.

WHEN public opinion sanctions duelling as is
the case in California, and hardly a newspaper
come forth to denounce il, there must be some
thing wrong in the foundations of society. The
practice of duelling is a very old one, and we are
sorry to see that in so progressive and enlightened
n country as the United States, it has of late
seemed to revive and grow, becoming year by
year, more prevalent, and being often to a GER
tain extent. justified by public opinion and
winked at by the authorities.
The practice of duelling is founded upon the
principle of that brutal, blood thirsty revenge
which makes one willing to risk the loss of his
own life for the chance of killing or naming his
adversary 1t is one of the last and worst relics
which have been handed down to us from the bar
barous ages and it is far from fattering to the
ideas of our neral and intellectual advancement,
to know that it is tolerated by public opinion at
the present day-to know that the man who en-
cages in a duel does not forfeit his position in
respectable society, and that he who kills his fell
low man in a duel is not stigmatzed and punished
as a murderer, as is now very seldom the case.
We have said that the practice of d~uelling was
founded upon the principle of revenge-but we
do not wish TO be understood that men who send
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motive. In too many cases a more foolish and
frivolous motive, even, than that, is the prime
instigator. Honor is said to be the prompter.
Honor, it is said, i~nstigates the challenger to
challenge, and the challenged to accept. If this
is honor, then honor has a great deal to answer
for. How many cold blooded murders she has
committed, How many valuable lives she has
despoiled of all that gave them value, AND how
many widows and orphans she has made, But
alas , this is not honor. 1t is a yice-a crime
which has stolen its name. 1t is a criminal
weakness, as far removed from true nobility of
soul as North is from South. The practice of
duelling, in the eyes of all honorable and urtu-
Gus men, dishcnors and degrades the man who
engages in it.
Let US glance at the way in which duels are got
up. Two men, perhaps, have an argument, and
in the warmth of dispute, one utters a hasty
word, an insulting phrase, to his friend. The
other, actuated by this perverted sense of honor,
calls him out-for what earthly good no one can
tell. 1t cannot be to prove that he, the challenger
is in the right, for experience has shown that the
man in the right is as often killed as the man in
the wrong But then, the duello claims it as the
only fair way Of settling . dispute. Fair way of
settling q disputeg No xnfairer method could be
devised. 1t is like tossing up a dollar to see
which Of two men shall commit murder. The
right of the case has nothing to do With the ne
suit 1t depends entirely upon the phyrcul Qnal-
titles of the combatants- 1t gives tbs ono =
wrong an equal chance with the one IN The Il
and 30 far as strict justice goes. is not half % fair
as would be the waylaying and numbering By the
injured party. Of the one who has done the