Litchfield enquirer., 1879-05-22

THE ETHICAL REVOLUTION IN VIRGINIA Without the least sympathy with the social ethics to which PoindeXter. the Richmond, Virginia, homicide, acknowledges his allegi- ance, we cannot avoid the conviction that he was right when he said, before receiving his sentence last Saturday, that the sentence made him ''the first victim of revolution in tra- ditional sentiment of his native state." The fact that Poindexter has been convicted and sentenced to States Prison for homicide con- mitted in obedience to those demands of pub lie sentiment to which he referred in his ad- dress is gratifying evidence of the fact that a revolution in Virgi mia sentiment really has ta- ken place. The barbarous code of honor which has prevailed until now in Virginia required not only that men should hold themselves ready to decide quarrels by duels, but also that men appealed to as PoindeXter was to avenge the real or fancled wrongs of women by commit ting assaults upon the offenders should execute the behest further, that code required the as- saulted man to "wipe out in blood the stain upon h1s honor" at his first meeting with his adversary, and that adversary was bound, in his turn, of course to defend himself against the attempt
 In a word, this homicide was, in a sense, involuntary, the inevitable result of the natur- al operation of social law under which both men lived. The public sentiment which tol- erated the late Rives Pollard and his perform ances when parading the streets with a shot, gun in search of man whe had insulted him {; the public sentiment which justified the street fight between an editor and member of the state convention the public sentiment which made Governor of the state violate hls sworn duty by concealing in the executive mansion a duellist who was seeking to break the public peace and was hiding from the officers of the law-that public sentiment was a barbarous thing unworthy of an enlightened, Christian state, and it is profoundly gratifying to know that Virginia no longer entertains views 80 pernicious. Poindexter is, as he says, the first victim of the revolution because he had not wit enough to see that a revolution. had taken place. Let us hope that other men there may now discover tEe fact, and that no more of them may put themselves in opposition to the new and more wholesome public sentiment of the state.
 It would be a cuaious and not an unlnstruct- i've study to investigate the causes of the some what sudden and altogether radical change that has occurred in Virginia opinion on this subject. Undoubtedly the abject cowardice shown during the war by many of the most arrogant of the old duelsts and street fight CTS had much to do with it by bringing duel- lists and street fighters into contempt. Per haps, also, the familiarity with very earnest fighting which all Virginians gained in the field bred among them contempt for the small Ter danger to which the duellist exposes him. self, and thus robbed what is called ''personal warfare" of it's only title to respect. Men who stood before the fire of Grants battalions, men who lived for eight months under fire at Peters burg, men who fought in all the battles under Lee are not easily impressed with the sublim- ity of the courage of a man who simply faces one pistol.
 Whatever the causes may be, it is fair sub ject of rejoicing that Virginia courts and jur- ies find men guilty and sentence them to the Penitentiary for doing what Poindexter did, ~. y. Eoensng Post