New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1859-03-09
NOTIONS OF HONOR.

NOTIONS OF HONOR.
The editor Of the New York Tribune Is as sorely
puzzled to understand popular ideas or notions OF
honor a. was the fat knight on the bloody held OF
Shrewsbury Ii the following article (Which We pre-
sumo could have been written by no one but MT.
Greeley himsel) he ingeniousy maintains his pecu-
liar opinions upon The subject taking the ground that
there Is neither benefit satisaction expedency in
the usual modes Of punishing private wrongs, and
that to crush The worm that stngs us is altogether
wicked and useless, the better way being to dodge
| ruf6ans and assassins when you can and submit to
their violence when you must. Hesays:
There Is very much perverse and wry-necked logic
aAoat but the logic Of Honor seems to hardest of
| comprehension. For instance:
"A bully, exasperated by some fancied insult to
himself OF his friend, his party assails you and
beats yon with club or with his fist. Honor says,
you must challenge him to fight with pistols with
equality, despite his overwhelming physical strength
and do your best to put bullet through him. But
why? Let us understand the rationale of the pro.
cess. II shooting him would rid the world Of that
it. Unhappily, we know that such is not the actual
case. Ruifians and blackguards would still abound,
though this one were dead your shooting him would
at best diminish their number BY one, while it would
swell it BY another through the addition of yoursefto
the remaining number. Why is it not the dictate of
true honor to leave butchery to natural assassns and
keep yourself clearly apart from the disgusting
wretches IS possihle2 Suppose we admit that the
Take another case
A villain seduces your sister, daughter or wife.
Honor says, kill him! But why? because he has
dshonored me-" How dishonored you? That he
has dishonored himself, if that were possible, we
might admit that he has dshonored the poor victim
OF his articles, is also not incredible. But how has
he dishonored you, who had part in his baseness
were no wise privy to 1t, never promoted nor coun-
II, wav Inf vOu ma ha
like the sufferer by the other brutality we have con-
templated, but not dshonored, any more than he
was. You can only be dshonored by some dishonor-
honored by killing him, not by spurning him and
stunning his leprons presence. Let him bear the
mark of Cain whatsoever he will but do not pollute
your hands with his blood. How should you be dis.
honored BY simply loathing and avoiding the scound
rel? Honor is not ostentatiousy at with COM
mon sense as well as with Christianity, why should
it not revise its code on this point?
It 10 hardly worth while to discuss abstract ideas
Of honor. Many people may agree with the writer
OF the above in their views Of the subject but all
the logic in the world could not change the settled
conviction of the great majority, that when suf
fers wrong that renders life hateful and shameful
he is justified in seeking bloody atonement. Such
seems to be not only almost the universal sentiment
Of the human heart but the deliberate opinion of
nearly all uries that sit in judgment upon cases of
the kind. But suppose that peaceably disposed and
decent people should generally carry out Mr.. Gree
leys idea of submitting quietly to assaults with the
club and fist. and of Furnishing still deeper wrongs
which the laws cannot reach-only by stunning the
"leprous presence" of the wretch who nflicts the
injury, and by permitting him to 'bear bis mark of
CAIN unmolested. What would be the consequence?
Would not society as the laws in this country are
constituted and executed, be reduced to miserable
condition by granting such immunity to ruiianism
and the perpetration of domestic wrongs?
II it would be expedient or desirable that society
should adopt such method of defending itself
against the license of violence, lust and general
scoundrelsm, in all cases where the laws are inefi-
cient, why should not the nation discard its dipo
macy and its warlike ultimatum and turn the cheek
in Quakerly submission-as we must confess it too
often does-to the insult outrage of every petty
sovereignty that can build or buy ship and equip
soldier? The policy would certainly work quite as
well on large scale small one, but it will not
work in any shape at all to the satisfaction OF any
person of spirit and proper feeling. Mr.. Greeley has
never, to the best of our knowledge and belief, been
subjected to any wrong outrage of the character he
speaks Of above, with the exception of few harmless
blows from the cane Of an irate Arkansas Senator,
and therefore he is hardly qualified to write essay
upon the virtues of non.resstance and the beauties
of Christian forbearance. But there are probably few
subjects upon which he has not theories peculiarly his
own.