The Shasta courier., 1868-09-26
SHASTAlCOURIER.
Lippincetf's Duel.

The Chicago Post of August 9th publishes
the following editorial defence of General
ippincottl candidate for State Auditor, who
= been charged with having fought duel
- California. The incident will be remem-
berd by old residents of this city and corn.
ty, nays the Appeal
The truth in relation to the duel in which
Gen. Lippincott, the Republican candidate for
Auditor of State, was engaged in California,
is plainly and simply this: DR.. Lippincott
went to California in 1850, as physcan.-
During the subsequent high political excite
mentin that State, growing out Of the attempt
of the Southern or chivalric wing of the Dem
ocraaic party to put down Broderick, who
was more than suspected of being not =" sound
on the goose" the doctor assumed editorial
centrcl Of q newspaper in Yuba county, in
which he made himself so offensive to the
pro-slavery men that they conspired to draw
him tito a personal difficulty, in which, in
Southern fashion. he could be put out of the
wav. The task of doing this fell upon a
Kentucky adventurer, Tevis by name, who
was net long in provoking quarrel. which
resulted in what is described in the language
OF the code as personal meeting.n
Tevis was capital shot. if not IL profcssed
duelists, and Lippincott' 5 friends feared that
he wonad be sacrificed withouta IL chance in
the encounter but, with courage since dis
played on u wider field. he would nhate moth
ing of what he knew to 1rc right. resolving
rather to die in his tracks revis chose the
Kentucky rifle. weapon with which lie was
perfectly familiar: and after all attempts at
accommodation had failed by the exorbitance
of the demands made by Tevis' friends. the
meeting took place At the first fire, Lippin-
cott had his hair cut away by Tevis' shot, and
Tevis himself was killed bv bullet through
the heart. Subsequently DR.. Lippincott ed
tied his paper and proclaimed the truth as he
understood it, without the fear of Southern
duelsts before hi' eyes He was elected to
the Senate from the county in which lie
fought, and in many other ways had abund
ant evidence that his neighbors, who were
cognizant of the provocation he had endured,
and of the danger he had encountered for
free speech, justified him to the uttermost.
Dueiing is as hateful to us as anything can
be but there are sometimes cases in rude
communities in which it rises to the dignity
of public justice-in which it is an unavoid
able necessity..to the continuance of manly
existence and this duel with Tevis seems to
be one Of them California was at that time
full of Southerners. most of whom were men
of desperate fortunes. They made furious
and long continue4 effort to carry the State
over to the Southern side in the issue then be-
fore the country. And in that effort the tao
tics which had proved so successful in silenc-
ing opposition in the slave holding section,
were freely invoked. Violence was their
rule "D-n you" 'I'll cut your id
heart out" was their argument. Broderck,
who was Lippincott's friend and adviser, was
finally sacrificed to the fell spirt-just as lit
orally murdered as if be had been stabbed to
the heart in his own bed ard first and last,
dozens OF lesser men went down before it
shot in the duel or killed in contrived or pre-
arranged affravs That Doctor now General
Lippincott had the courage to stand up in
such cause as that in which he was engag-
cd, and put his'own life in peril, that all men
might lie free to write and speak in Opposi-
tion to that which slavery attempted, is a fact
which does him no discredit. 1t was no pri-
vate quarrel He fought and was successful
in one of the thousand skirmishes which pre-
ceded the formal opening of the war. In the
war he acted larger part