New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1860-04-23
Neiu Orleans Duly Grtstert.
MONDAY MORNING. APRIL %, 1860.
THE PRYOR AND POTTER DIFFI-
Guilty.

Guilty.
The personal quarrels Of gentlemen is something |
with which the press has, legitmately, nothing to
do. It il matter affecting the gentlemen con- |
cerned in it, and them alone. The publicity given
to them in other portions Of the Union is, we are
glad to say repudated in this, alike unnecessary
and unbecoming. .-..
But the New York press has blazoned forth
every incident connected with the late controversy
between Messrs. Potter and Pryor, and has accom-
panied it with SO many false statements and false
inferences affecting not only the character Of Mr..
Pryor himself, but the character of the Southern
people generally, that we feel constraned to take
some notice of them. We do not recollect ever to
have read more abusive, outrageous, and scan
dalous articles in reference to any circumstance,
than have lately appeared in the New York Herald
and Tribune, with reference to Mr.. Pryor. He IS
abused and villifed in terms that would pc DIS
graceful If used in the fthest alleys of the Five
Points. We are advocates of the freedom OF
the press but when that freedom is abused in
the manner it sometimes is and particularly as II
has been by the Northern press in its comments
upon this affair, we are almost tempted to wish for
an imperial censorship of journalism in TINS coah-
try such as ID now so vigorously exercised by Louis
Napoleon in France. cyl 50 :
The public will appreciate the magnanimity Of
these attacks when is recollected that Mr. Pryor
ia now under bonds of FIVE thousand dollars to keep
the peace, OF all sorts of cowardce, that is nni-
versally regarded as the most fragrant and despica-
BILE which prompts an attack upon man who is
laboring under either physical or pecuniary
disability. Mr.. Pryor is, in pecuniary sense, a
poor man. His hands are tied by the memorable
bands Of the law. To take advantage Of this cir
cumstance to pour upon him volley Of abuse and
malediction-to heap upon him reproaches of cow
ardice, and to taunt him with reflections upon his
own manliness and that of the section from which
he comes-is an outrage and an indignity, our true
appreciation Of which we have no language to ex-
press. .. ....t4 .5
Mr. Pryor isrepresented as declining to fight with
weapons which are in common use in the South, IN
dues. There are two falsehoods in the assertion.
Mr.. Pryor's friend, without consultation with him,
declined to permit him to engage in such combat.
Mr.. Pryor himself had nothing to do with it. Nor
are bowie knives recognized as common dueling
weapons at the South. On the contrary, their en-
| ployment for such purpose is exceedingly rare
never, unless the injury inflicted is ofso outrageous
character that there must be fight to the death
In the settlement of quarrel growing merely out
| of the employment of offensive aoords, the bowie
knife is never employed by gentlemen in the South
| We cannot understand the consistency of such
journals as the New York Tribune. When Hick-
man and Grow, and others of that sort, under the
greatest personal indignity, refuse to acknowledge
the code of honor, their conduct is applauded to
| the echo-and the code is denounced as barbarous
and inhuman. But when men like Burlingame and
Potter make little fictitious show Of fight, and as
sert their responsibility to the code, these journals
are thrown into the widest paroxysms of delight.
| We are unable to understand the consistency of
such conduct. We do not impugn the personal
| bravery of Northern men. On the contrary we do
not believe there is one man in ten thousand, with
the education of gentleman, North or South,
who will not fight under sufficient provocation.
Potter himself, by proposing weapons which he
must have known could not be accepted, has done
more to create suspicion of his own bravery than
if he had absolutely declined the combat in the
beginning. In any eventwe protest that the course
of these journals in relation to this matter is not
only dsgraceful to the American press, but out
rageously unjust to the people and the character Of
the South.