The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-02-22
Ger. Gen, b. H. Hill on Dueiing... e..
+; James Gordonf Bennett. Proprietor

Cen, b H.. Hill on Djueling... .ite. H..
James, ,Gordonf Bennett, Proprietor Of
the New York Herald, fought a duel last
week az Hdyre-de Grace, Maryland, With
Fred. May. who had cowhided him.
May was slightlymounded, and the honor
Of bothigentleHen was abdndantly salts
| fed, Bennett BY biz own confession;
had acted badly towards Mays sister and
deserved the thrashiug.,. 1t would seen,
then that the, waunding of May has but
aadedito the wrong already done: This
tS'Ffipgs upthe Whole Question Of the So
called code Of honor. The. objections; to-
81 maybe briefly stated thus: "First, 1t
.is~an uncertain mode Of Fighting wrong.
The injured man i sjjust st aas S likely 70 be
killed or wounded az the aggressor.rr In
fact, the chances are againstthe innocent
man. q For the professed duelist and the
expert with deadly weapons are more apt
to be offensive than other persons; They
give insults, accept tfesehallenge and Sc
leet the weapons, with which they are
MOST familiar and then kill or MAIN those
they have iwontenfy provoked. ;.'Second,
The duel settles nothing. Suppose A de-,
tects B in some mean or wicked action
and Larges him with it. : Is B made less
guilty, because heikills A or kills him
self? as the offence against morality or
decency checked or encouraged by the
duel III! the scase supposed ?fn Would A
have spoken it, if he had known that
he did it at the risk Of his life7 There
have ebeen duelists int the South, who
were licensed rufians, the terror Of COM
munities and even States. We could
readily name half.a dozen notable cases,
familiar to all our readers People let
these monsters do almost what they
pleased; for:lneddl;ng, with them was
death. Third, The duel is no test of
courage. Every military man knows that
duelists, as. q general rule, are not as
brave in battle as other: men. The rea-
son of this is obvious. The duelist trusts
IN his skill, his tact and address. On the
battlefield, these advantages are taken
away and he is just like other men:
Hence the things in which he trusted
being removed, his confidence and cour-
age 20 with them. Let man habitiual-
" carry a deadly weapon, he will be cow
ardly when he does not have it with him.
So a duelist may have the average cour.
age of mankind, but the advantages that
he has over other men on the dueling
field will make cowardly in the battle
field. The greatest warrior of modern
times, the 1st Nopoleon, understood the
demoralizing influence Of the duel, upon
the courage of his officers, and he pun
ished it with death. So did Frederick
the Great, and so does the Emperor Will
liam. If these great warriors had be-
lieyed that the duel impaired higher
sense of honor and chivalry, they would
have encouraged it instead of repressing
it. Every soldier knows that old field
bullies and court house bullies were, as a
general rule, cowardly on the battlefield.
The philosophy of it has just been given.
In fist and skull encounters, they had su-
perior strength or superior skill. Losing
those advantages in battle, they become.
more easily frightened than other men.
Precisely so with the duelist, when
placed where his skill and address avail
him nothing, the loss of these advantages
puts him below the average scale in cour-
age, Our attention was first called to
this at Contreras, in, Mexico, where a
Captain who had killed three men in
duels took to his heels at the first fire,
and a greyhound could scarcely have
caught him. 1t is our deliberate opinion
that nation of duelists will become a
nation of towards: Fourth, The code as
we have seen, gives birth to class of
bnllies who are little. better than assas
sine, and in some cases have been killed
like mad-dogs to be got rid of. A few
years ago, one of this class was shot in
most cowardly manner in Richmond, Va,
but the Jury acquitted the murderer after
few moments deliberation, and the au-
dience .cheered their verdict. The tree
must be Judged by its fruits; a. system
that begets ruffians and assassins must be
vicious system. Fifth, Dueling is ex-
pressly forbidden by the law of God.
The command ":Thou shalt not kill"
prohibits the taking of the life of another
in a duel, and equally prohibits US from
exposing our own lives in that way. No
casuistry can make that right which God
has pronounced to be wrong.
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