Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1870-07-22

would iiavc violated his code for he
was himself acting outside of the code
III threatening TO shoot me &c | came
on that street, and in selecting the
place for posting. He had asserted
that If | came ON that street he would
/ give ME two shots To his one and then
thrash me, yet | looked him suunro i'm
the face at distance that IL often &C.
lected Ivy duclists when on the field.
lie asserted that he could not como ON
Main street for the citizcns would mob
him, which was lie of his own ma
king. He insisted that he wanted TO
night, buthc had particular way of
wanting to fight, of staying quar,er
OF mile from me and wanting me Ia
80 tc his room and attack hin, omono
The skirts of the little girls that wore
kept about and around him as a screen.
To have attacked him ut the ylrrinio
House, skul.ing and hiding behind
the skirts of three widows and their
ilttle orphan girls would have subjected
me to charge of cruelty even to such
an animal rs Clarkson and placed me
under tho necessity of giving him
twcnty-four hours notice to remove
the women and children. lie takes
shelter under his code which | don't
recognize and which he violates. If
1t is said that I brought myself with
in the c0dcby corresponding with him;
| reply that such courtesy | would
extend 10 an educated dog that felt
himself wropged. Any man, whether
high or low, feeling himself agrieved
by any thing that have written has
only to show wherein lie has been
wronged to obtain prompt redress but
if man Is thief and | publish him
as thief, the publication must stand If
I should fall.
But, descending from tho high mo-
tives that should move gentlemen, to
accept his challenge was to make
myself an outlaw; | would have
deprived myself of the right of suf-
rage and the privilege of holding any
Office i'm Virginia. As the prohibit
ton is n constitutional one. neither
the Legislature Tor Congress could
remove the disability. If | had
fought him in that State / would have
been arrested as soon rs | went home
to dinner and then been sent to the
penitentiary to have fought him In
Tennessee was to have been arrested as
soon as entered my Office aud then
sent to the penitentiary, for Clarkson
would have turned States evidence as
he has done before. But he clamored
for chance on the street and when |
appeared on the street he refused to
fight him duel he had every other
opportunity that brave man could de
sire and was better armed than | was.
Thirty PAGES in open field with army
pistols is good shooting distance. But
Clarkson never intended to fight when
he came to Bristol, for he made the
matter so public on the cars and at the
hotel as to cause his arrest, had he been
in any other town in America. There
was not a citizen that lid not know
his business before | received his
challenge. He openly declared his
purpose before the Mayor of the Ten
ncssec side and put up at the residence
of the newly elected town Sergent cf
Go0dsOn. He proclaimed his object
within the hearing Of the deputy 5her-
iff of Washington county and If there
had been a Magistrate in town / be-
lieve he would have sent for him. Ger
tain it is that every arrangement to ar
rest the party if we started out OF town
had been completed But docs any
man go to the Virginia House or to my
Office 10 find me? | neither live Mt the
Virginia House, nor pass that way
more than once n week.
Then shall christian gentleman
, living in a christian community, at
this advanced stage of civilization, af
ter more than 100000 majority of his
fellow citizens have adopted as a par
of their State Constitution n CLAUSE
making the duelist am outlaw, suffer
himself to be buIlied into violation
: of the laws OF God and man, put him
, self in position where he must taxi
u refuge in the Territories or serve q torn
in tile penItentidry, deprive himself o
the birth-right of a freeIiian and max,
) himself an outcast from decent society
u by man who is stamped by publ
o sentiment as a murderer and villain
. of Statewide reputation, blackguar'
u and bhIlyS Shall he lie required t
u conform to a custom having its origi!
in the superstition of barbarism, tina
o the guilty fall and the innocent escape
l. that proves neither one nor the othe
r fight, but that both are fools Pit trie
IL the nerve that steels the soul of a BRAY
!. heart to decline Il challenge, but an
> fool may be goaded into an acceptance
IF care not what Others may do, I'll nc
, sacrifice principle to gain the applaus
1t of the rabble. / am willing to abid
re tho verdict of my countrymeE, ana
ii any man believe Clarkson's assertion
Of or think that / acted improperly |
m this affair, let him presume to attac
he me or assail my character and he ma
s. find that no has been terribly mistaken
II, IL this be c6wardice make the mo-
r. of It. ELBERT FON LEt'
IN -------------------=
of For SaI.-Mr: Greenway has bee
/, engaged in boring for salt on the Ian
is of Mr.. Fleenor, some five and a Ia