The Dillon tribune., 1884-08-23
REMORSE OF DUELISTS,
The Shadows That Swallowed Benton,
Prentiss and Others.

descriptive Of the great grief which shad-
owed the life OF the otherwise pleasant
and congenial George Pen Johnson for
nearly twenty-six years, declared that "he
| was changed man ever after, and the
shadow Of tina. tragic event was to his soul
like that typifed by Poe's Raven the
| midnight dark and dreary of its coming
was to him the fatal anniversary of the
| duel, when the shadows invariably deep
ened on his brooding heart" While few
Americans or Englishmen (this cannot be
said SO truthfully of others, unless it be saic
OF Irishmen) who have survived fatal dues
during the past century and a half, are
strangers to either grief or remorse, there
have lived and died many like the gentle,
humane, clvalrous and atfectionate John
ston, whose perfect peace Of mind has been
forever atterward shattered or destroyed
The brilliant S. S. Pren:iss, of Missis-
sippi, Ia New Highlander by birth and edu-
cation), who fought number of duels in
Difference to public opinion, admitted great
remorse. Hisainoral and relig iou> training
and scruples were antagonistic to the Gus
tom; vet he once went upon the field after
he had become possessed of wife and chill
dren. Probably no gentlemen of as much
natural wit and sunshine walked SO much
in the "valey OF the shadow of DEATH" He
once wrote to a friend concerning one Of
his meetings that he did nothing but "read
the Bible and weep and pray.' "'rhe pos
>ibiiitv of leaving my own family unpro-
tected.' said Prentis>, ''or of killing tel-
low being, haunted ne 80 that could not
sleep, and tottered round in the daytime
like WORKOUT Old man.
Undoubtedly Mr.. Graves. who killed
Mr.. CiIlev, suffered much from re'norse.
Just before ne died he said it required a
higher order of courage TO decline than to
accept challenge, and he declared that, if
ever he became involved in another diff
Guilty his nlora obligations and not fear OF
public opinion, should guide him in all his
actions in the premises
W AS vigorously and as humanely as
O'Connell deprecated duelng, and as re-
uctantly as he met D'Esterre,. whom, he
killed, he never got rid of his remorse of
conscience from the day OF that fatal meet
ing in the county OF Kildare. The dying
groan Of D'Esterre made wound IN
O'Connell's heart which no physician could
heal. He once declared in the house of
commons that, having blood upon his
hands, he had registered VOW in heaven.
And it has also been written of O'Connell
that he never attended church after the
killing of D'Esterre without first wrapping
, up in Il handkerchief 1.-The guilty hand" de-
claring that he could not approach his Re-
deemer with the hand exposed which had
aiken the life of tellow-man.
Senator Thomas Hart Benton, of Mis-
| souri,, (although it has often been stated
that tine duel was forced upon HIM, deeply
regretted his meeting with Lucus in which
the latter was killed. and some time pre-
vious to his death Col. Benton destroyed
all Of the papers he had in his possession or
that he could obtain concerning the affair.
Col. John NJ. McCarty, who killed Gen.
Armstead T. Mason, suffered great re-
morse up to The time Of his death over the
remembrance of the unnatural encounter.
Mason and McCarty were Virginians land
cousins), and quarreled over politics, which
ran high at the time--1Slo.
Henry Phillips, who slew his former
friend, Benjamin Woodbridge, one night in
died from great grief in France less than
year afterward