The Lincoln County leader. [volume] (White Oaks, Lincoln County, N.M.) 1882-189?, 1883-09-08
DUELLIEG PAST. AND PRESENT.

49, ENAEHAH
when it is that a man grows old ?
~
DUELLIEG PAST AND PRESENT
Twenty-Five years ago, at the Ia
bic of a gentleman whose father
had fallen in a duel, the converse
tionfell upon duelling, and after it
had proceeded for some time the
host remarked emphatically, that
there were occasions when it was
a mans solemn duty to fight. The
personal reference was too insig-
nifcant to permit further assistance
at that table that duelling was Grim
inal folly and the sub ect was
changed.
The host, however, had only re-
iterated the familiar view of Gen
eral Hamilton. His plea was that,
in the state Of public opinion at the
time when Burr challenged him,
to refuse to fight under circamstan-
ces by which the code of honor"
authorized a challenge, was to &c
ccpt a brand of cowardice and Of a
want Of gentlemanly feeling which
would banlsh him to a moral and
social conventry, and throw a
cloud Of discrcdit npon his family.
SO Hamilton, one Of the bravest
men and one Of the acute intellects
of his time, permitted a worthless
fellow to murder him. Yet there
is no doubt that he stated accurate.
ly the general feeling of the social
circle in which he lived. There
was probably not a conspicuous
member OF hat society who would
not have challenged any man who
had said ofhim what Hamilton had
said OF Burr. Hamilton disdained
explanation or recantalion. and the
result was accepted as tragical, but
in a certain sense inevitable.
Yet the result aroused public
sentiment to the %atroc!ty ofthis bar
barous survival OF the ordeal OF
private battle. That one Of the
most justly renowned Of public
men, ofunsmpassed ability, should
be shot to death like a mad dog,
because he had expressed the gen
eral feeling about an u%nprincipled
schemer, was al exasporating pub
lie misfortune. But that he should
have been murdered in Difference
to 4 practice which was approved
in the best society, vet which plac-
ed every other valuable life at the
mercy Of any willy vagabond, was
a public peril. From that day to
this there has been no duel which
could be said to have commanded
public sympathy or approval.
From the bright Juue morning,
eighty years ago, when Hamilton
fell ut Weehawken, to the June
of this year, when two foolish men
shot at each other in Virginia,
there has been a steady and com.
plete change Of public opinion,
and the performance Of this year
was received with almost universal
contempt, and with indignation
censule Of a dilatory police.
The most celebrated duel in this
country since that of Hamilton
and Burr vas the encounter be,
tween Commodores Decatur and
Barron, in 1920, near Washington,
in which Decatur, like Hamilton,
was mortally wounded, and like
wise lived but a few hours. The
quarrel was one Of professional, as
Burr's of political, jealousy. But
as the only conceivable advantage
of the Hamilton duel lay in Its
arousing the public mind to the
barbarity OF dueling, the only gain
from the Decatur duel was that i;
confirmed this conviction, In both
instances there was an unspeak-
able shock to the country and inf
mite domestic anguish. Nothing
else was achieved. Neither gen