The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-08-16
a HAPPY DECLINE.


creasing disgust which right-minded and
right-hearted people feel for this relict
of barbarism. The duels themselves have
generally been of such character as to
supercede the necessity of much ethical
argument; their own intrinsic absurdity;
the tragi-comic behavior of the parties
concerned; the ill-advised publication of
=" the correspondence, has been too much
for the easy going toleratisn of public
sentiment and has given rise tQ a feeling
much akin to sea-sickness with regard to
the duel and all its works.
The day has been when Southern gen
tlemen, travelling in Europe and keenly
sensitive to all that concerned the credit
of the land they loved, when in familiar
intercourse with men distinguished in
science, craftsmanship, and culture OF
every kind, and whose sympathy and
admiration for the South were most pro-
nounced, were quite non plussed by the
question; But why do your people toll
crate an institution which all history
shows is repudiated just in proportion to
the advance of the most enlightened and
elevated civilization?' To this inquiry
they have had no answer to make except
the honest confession that the people
Of the South had not kept pace, in this
respect, at least, with the progress which
the world had made in it's appreciation
OF the true ideal of honor, courage, and
duty.
But the day is not far distant when
this embarrassment and modification will
cease to exist, thanks to the prevalence
OF better sentiments, and thanks to some
thing ludicrous in the style in which
these lugubrious affairs of honor are al
ways managed, awakening commingled
derision and pity in the public mind.
Once the advocates of the code were in
the habit Of telling us that there are some
offences against which the laws of the land
furnished no protection, and that the in
dividual so assailed was justifable by
the very law of nature in protecting him
self by calling the offender to account;
but the evident absurdity Of putting the
aggressor and the aggrieved on precisely
the same footing has well nigh silenced
this plea. No defender of the duel can
deny the fact that it involves not only
the absurdity but the injustice of com.
polling one who has already been grossly
injured to submit to the additional wrong
of giving his assailant the chance of tax
ing his life. A man may be subjected to
the most cruel and intolerable indignity
an indignity affecting his own honor
or that of his wife or daughter, and as
the laws of the land are said to offer no
compensation for wounded pride or in
suited feeling, the aggrieved man must
seek redress in code which provides
him with the chance of washing out the
injury he has received Oith his o10q blood,
while the transgressor not only leaves
the field unscathed, but marches away
with the eclat of being dead shot and
of having pinked his man
Public opinion in the South is slowly
but steadily coming to the conclusion that
the duel settles no principle, ELECTS no
truth, yindcates no innocence, establishes
no right, proves no man brave. The only
wonder is that such an institution should
have existed so long, incapable of defence
by any arguments which will stand the
test of reason or common sense; con-
demned by the laws of God and man; in
conflict with the enlightened protests of
the living and the keen remorse Of the
dying; and which plunges the innocent
and the loving into the abyss Of hopeless
sorrow.
It sometimes happens that when
divine, or a teacher Of ethics has ex-
pressed his opinions on this subject, the
reply is: 90 yes, it is all very well for
you to inculcate such views-it is pro-
fessional-but we are men of the world
we understand the spirit Of the society to
which we belong; and in actual life we
find it impossible to be governed by the
fine spun theories Of ethical writer's and
parsons"
This is highly probable, but we may