The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-10-27
scribes the attempt Of Brown as the work of .
mailman, aud insists upon peaceful solution
of the question.
MURDER OF SENATOR FREDERICK.

The killing of Senator Broderick in duel
tragedies in our recent political history. Though
neither Republican nor an Anti Slavery man
himself, he is yet victim and martyr to the
spirit of Slavery. He has been hunted to his
death because he dared resist the tide of Pro-
Slavery fanaticism in California. He dared to
stand up, both in Congress and out, against the
leaders of the negro-holding aristocracy, and
he pays the penalty of his resistance by his un-
timely end. He was marked for destruction,
and he has been destroyed. Such bloody in
cidents as this are among the pains and penal
ties which the cause of Freedom has to suffer,
in its struggles against barbarous enemy, in
its march toward final trismph.
We by no means wish to be understood as
endorsing either the principles or position of
the late lamented Senator Broderick. He oc
cuPied his own peculiar place. That place was
at least one of responsibility and manliness. He
acted under the light he had. That he acted
on comparatively low plane, is not to be i'm
puted to any want ofuprightness and integrity.
These we accord to him fully, He had the
character and the determination to resist the
demands of the fell tyranny that sought either
to sway or to crush him. If he did not exhibit
the spirit of reformer, he yet manifested the
temper of man. He refused to succumb to
dictation, he stood faithfully by what he re-
garded to be the rights of the people. For
this he persisted, and it is for this we honor
him. The immediate circumstances of his
death are immaterial. he happened to fall by
the hand of Judge Terry. But if he had es-
capped his deadly aim, the bowie-knife or re-
volYer of some other of the conspirators against
his life would have been equally fatal. He was
doomed man. His fate reads lesson alike
to those who went with him in his hostility to
the Shareholders, and to those who go farther
than he did. 1t should animate resolution, and
fortfy determination to hedge in and destroy
that stalking tyrant, the slave power, that thus
vindicitively pursues its victims to the grave.
We are taught another lesson in the death
of Mr.. Broderick. And that is the consummate
folly of unprepared, Impractical men, allowing
themselves to be dragooned into the duel with
profcients in the art of human slaughter. Of
course we denounce the duel in all its aspects
as hideous relic of barbaric ages. But we
here particularly condemn it as an engine of
assassination. Judge Terry is Texan. OF
his personal characteristics we know nothing.
But this we do know: That the people of his
section dwell in arsenals, and are themselves
often walking arsenals. Slavery necessarily
compels constant war, forces the arming Of the
dominant race. They are therefore skilled in
the use of weapons. Powder and lead are i'm
portant items in every Texans annual domes-
tic expenditure. Every mans house and every
mans pockets are crowded with deadly weapons.
Southwestern life and history is full of feud and
quarrel, and bloody collision. Probably ma
iority of the Southern members of Congress to-
day have had, at some period or other in their
lives, an ARRAY, an encounter, of some sort, and
very often bloody and fatal. On the other hand,
we do not suppose there are five members from
the Northern States who ever were engaged in
anything Of the kind. In the South, to be a
fighting is good passport to Congress.
In the North, to be fighting man is reckoned
conclusive reason for such man being kept
out OF that body: These statements afford sui
ton of individuals of the two sections, when
opposed in the duel 1t is well illustrated in
Senator Broderick's own case. He was New
Yorker. His opponent came from the far
South. UnusedNto his task, Broderick's pistol
was discharged through confusion or accident
before it was in position to endanger his an
tagonist. Profting by this circumstance, his
willy adversary had only to deliberately level
his weapon, without risk, and coolly fire through
the body of his victim which he did with scien-
tifc skill and fatal accuracy, his ball evidently
going within an inch of the spot he intended to
strike.
Southern men, in their duelling intercourse
with one another, seldom come to actual con-
fict. Duelling itself is not only profession
with them, but duelling correspondence is
equally an art. They are usually profcients
in both. On the contrary, Northern men know
nothing about either. When a Northern man
can be forced or in any way induced to recog.
Mise the code, be at once finds himself envel-
oped in mysteries of correspondence, as we'll as
ignorant of the customs and practices of the
duellist. II he is likely to be found trouble.
some antagonist, as Brooks found Burlingame,
suddenly.a convenient way of escape is found
for the reluctant brave, in the written PROPOSE
tons that precede the meeting.
If on the contrary, he is likely to be but a
blunderer, as most of them certainly would be
at this business, then he is regarded only as a
target which quick shooting, or some other
sleight-ofhand continuance, is sure to hit AS
general proposition, there is no equality be-
tween the parties when they are Northern and
Southern men, and it is intended there shall be
none. Practice, skill, quickness, steadiness,
are opposed to the absence of all these quail
ties, and the chances against the inexperienced
side are as ten to one. We say, therefore, it is
stupid folly for Northern men with their habits
to accept the duelling code at the hands of the
South.
Moreover, it is too near the business OF as.
sassination to suit any man of genuine honor
or humanity. Our professed duelling men are
mere assassins. They hunt in couples No
one of them intends to put himself fairly and
aboveboard against an antagonist every way
equal Is a man to be attacked? Then he
must be allowed no fair chance Sumner, I'M
armed, was assailed, sitting and confined, BY an
armed man. Close by stood confederate,
bristling with weapons, ready at a moments
warning. Had Sumner drawn pistol, and
shot Brooks, Keitt would have drawn bowie
knife, and stabbed Sumner to the heart. He