The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-01
DUELlS AND DUELLSTS.
by t. B. THORPE.


or eight prominent citizens without soon
learning that one or more of them had been
an actor in a duel. We have certainly met as
many as five persons at a small wedding party
who had thus distinguished themselves, and
the coincidence was not thought of except by
myself There were many reasons for this.
The country at that time was newly settled and
very prosperous. The enterprising, the adven-
turous, the unscrupulous, all came together on
the same level, and soon acquired comparative
independence. There were none of the re-
straints peculiar to long settled countries. The
very necessities of these frOntiersmen made
them physically brave and reckless. The law
laid light hand upon crime; the lowest order
of its development, such as robbery and theft,
was punished by Lynch-law, or the criminal
escaped. The disagreements among those who
held positions as gentlemen, if leading TO open
rupture, were settled in a street fight or accord
ing to the code of the duelist. This ''code''
unquestionably had its restraining influences;
and the fear of its penalties kept within the
bounds of good conduct many man who
would otherwise have been an eXtortouer or
profigate in the community.
1t is not our present purpose to add page
to the volumes that have been written in de-
nunciation of the code, for even where duel
ing has been most popular there has never
been any organized voice in its defense Our
object is to notice some of its characteristic
developments, and mark the varied phases the
custom assumes in different localities and
among different peoples.
Ny first impressions, from casual personal
association, regarding gentlemen who had
'killed their man." were that the RESPONSE
bility they had taken upon themselves sat
lightly on their conscienoes and began to
read the remorseful scenes depicted of tue
horor-stricken Macbeth and Gloster as the
mere chimeras of the poets brain. 1t
seemed to me that many of the most
pleasant people in the community were
those who had shed blood. There was
growing consciousness on my part of an ire
sponsibility in the matter contrary to the
teachings of revelation or the assertions of
poets and historians; and with this bunting
Of the keen susceptibilities of the value of life
came the consequent indifference to its sacri
fee. AS time wore on, however, my eyes
were gradually opened, and at last | came to
the Old and most correct conclusion, that the
curse of Heaven followed those who had killed
their brother in the field.
We have the secret history of the facts of the
pTeliminaries of the remarkable duel that took
place between Mr.. Randolph and Mr.. Clay. Ger
tainly two men more richly endowed by nature
never lived, and their concession to the terrible
exactions of the dueling code show how almost
impossible it is to rise above them. Both gem
tlemen possessed in the highest degree moral
courage; their whole public life atirms this.
They differed in political sentiments and in
the mental struggle for supremacy the irritable
and eccentric Virginian, unaccustomed to de-
feat, displayed the conscious weakness of his
cause by descending to personal defamation,
and to impugning Mr. Clay's honesty of pur
pose. In the bitter partisanship of the times
Mr. Clay's enemies applauded these attacks,
and thus encouraged they were continued by
Mr.. Randolph, until Mr.. Clay found farther
forbearance impossible. 1t has been, | think,
very Justly held by high authorities that the
seconds in a duel are more to blame than the
principals. They negotiate the preliminaries
of the meeting, they coOlly load the pistols,
they labor under no excitement, are not suffer
ing from feelings Of wounded honor; yet it is
they who put the instruments of destruction
in the hands of persons who are laboring
under the intensest mental irritation and
physical excitement. Gentlemen of no ordi-
nary social and political position were the
seconds of Mr.. Randolph; each individual
had character enough to have been peace
maker without the possibility of having
his motives mpugned. The night before
the duel Mr.. Randolph's mind was evil
IDENTIFY filled with sense of uneasiness, not
of personal danger, but with suspicion that
he had without cause provoked the quarrel.
Under this excitement he sent for his second
his adviser and early and dearest friend.
He answered the summons, and found Mr..
Randolph in a "calm and confding mood" p"
who opened the conversation with these
pathetic words
81 am determined to receive without return
ing Mr.. Clay's fire; nothing shall induce
me to harm hair of his head. l will not
make his wife a widow or his children
orphans. Their tears would be shed over his
grave: but when the sod of Virginia rests upon
my bosom, there is not in the wide world q
person to pay this tribute to mine" And
overcome by his feelings, he bent his head
upon his hand and gave vent to tears.
Here was true manliness breaking through
the trammels Of the duelist's code it was
god.like nature speaking out, and rebelling
under a barbaTous superstition. But while
Mr.. Randolph was thus melted, thus human
lied, his second, his adviser, this "friend o.
his youth" did not dream of Cancellation
he never suggested that possibly
Mr. Randolph had been wrong il
Offering ''his enormous and unpro
voked insults" upon Mr.. Clay, and that now
when passion had subsded and calm reason
had assumed its sway, there was greater anC
more noble satisfaction to be given than coul(
be rendered on the field. That Mr.. Randolph
could, without compromising himself as man
frankly acknowledge the injustice he had ren
dered the "Great Statesman Of the West" an,
thus not only do an act on which Heaven Woul
smile but also set an example that would b
healthful against the practice of dueling for al
coming time.
Fortunately Mr.. Clay's bullet missed it
mark, and Mr.. Randolph fired in the air. In
stantly Mr.. Clay stepped forward, and wit
great emotion, said, ~ trust in God, my dea
Sir you are untouched; after what has oC
CURED would not harm you for thousan
worlds"
OF what practical effect was this duel? I