Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-07-13
THE DUEL IN AMERICA.
Polite Requests to Tribe with Eternity
During the Revolution.

During the Revolution.
William Ca5sH bruce ia, Chicago Current.
During the Revolution there were sew
eral noteworthy duels. Button Gwin-
nett, one Of the signers of the Declaration
OF Independence, was killed by Gen. Nc
Intosh, Of Georgia, in 1777. In the next
year duel between Gen. Conway and
Gen. Cadwalader, the origin Of which
does not seem to be altogether clear, ter
minated in such a severe wound to Gen.
Conway that, in "A moment of cOntritiOn,
he wrote to Assure Washington, in the
intrigues against whom he had been deep
ly involved, that ''you are, in my eyes,
the great and good man." In the same
year a duel between Col. John Laurens
and Gen. Charles Lee, in which the latter
was slightly wounded, grew out of GER
tain disparaging expressions which Gen.
Lee was supposed to have applied to
Washington. But this is not the only
duel into which Lee was hurried by the
turbulent impetuOsity which won for
him the name of Boiling Water from the
MOhawks. In the course of his adYentur-
Gus career prior TO his emigration to
America, he had killed an Italian officer
with Judge Drayton, of South Carolina,
may still be read with the interest which
attaches 10 everything that we owe to his
pungent but Hbertine pen. Few other
duels, IN which individuals prominent in
the American Revolution were engaged,
can be cited. Benedict Arnold twice in
his life exhibited upon the dueling field
the sedate resolution which seems to have
sat upon him as naturally in an infamous
noble n a
the captain OF IA British ship when he WAS
sailor In the West Indies; and once,
subsequent to bis treason, in the we'll
known duel with Lord Lauderdale Gen.
wilkinson, too, who long afterwards
showed himself TO be master OF cumula-
tive insult by posting John Randolph as a
'prevaricating, base, calumniating scOun-
drel, pOltrOOn and coward" challenged
Gen. Gates to a duel which is said not to
have come of because Gates burst into
Hood or tears upon the ground, and pro-
tested that he would rs soon shoot his
own son as the challenger. Somewhat
similar were the circumstances which
anticipated the duel between Henry Lau-
rens, President OF Congress, and John
Penn, member OF Congress from North
Carolina. The parties were on their way
to the field, when Penn extended his hand
to assist Laurens, who had foundered in
one OF the filthy streets Of Philadelphia, at
the same time remarking that the affair
In winch they were engaged was a foolish
one. This opportune remark made such
pacific impression upon the mind OF
Laurens that reconciliation Immediately
ensued. On two other occasions, at
least, during the Revolution, we may add,
the duel was subjected To Il stream from
what Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan have
called in the most spiritual, If not the
most laughable, of their operas, ''the hose
of common sense" When Gen. Greene
consulted Washington as to the propriety
OF accepting a challenge from "A subordi-
nate officer, alleging that, if he thought
that his honor would suffer, he valued
life too little to hesitate to accept it,
Washington gave another proof OF the
judgment which was the greatest of all
bis great qualities, by reminding Gen.
Greene that if a commanding officer was
to be amenable to private calls for the
discharge OF public duty, be would have
a dagger forever at his heart; "fOr there
were few military decisions which were
not offensive to one party or the other"
Even more signal, according TO AleXan-
der Graydon, was the treatment which
another challenger received at the hands
of Gen. Adair. Having failed to best0w
any notice upon polite request to trile
with eternity, Gen. Adair was informed
that, If satisfaction WAS not accorded, he
would be posted as coward: to which
the doughty General replied thatthe chal-
lenger might proceed at mis- leisure.
as the only effect OF such an act
would be to post the poster as a "f0Ol
and liar"
These are among the most remarkable
instances in which challenges were sent.
or duels actually fought, In the geograph-
lcal limits now known as the United
States PRIOR to the year 1855. But the
list may be supplemented with a few
other illustrations. Watson, in his can
nails of Philadelphia" recalls challenge
which passed In l7l5 between Peter Evans,
gentleman, and clergyman of Philadel-
pha, Francis Phillips by name, in which
the former, after alleging that the latter
mad "scandallzed" a gentlewoman for
whom he had great respect, invited him
IN language something between that of a
special pleader and pedagOgue to meet
MN CtddiO CtnctuS between the hours OF
Z and s, on the west side Of Joseph
Carpenters garden. About the year 1866
duel IN North Carolina between Alex
ander simpson, master of Her Majesty's
sloop-of-war, the Viper, and Thomas
Whitechurst,a Lieutenant upon the same
vessel, terminated in a double tragedy;
Tor not only WAS Lieut.. Whltechurst, who
was relative Of Mrs. Coy. TryOn,
killed, but the Judge before whom the
survivor was tried and acquitted was so
bounded by Gov. Tryon that he ripped
open his bowels in despair. ln1777 John
Sargent, Esq, laid before Congress a
challenge which be had received from
Cunning Bedford, and for which Bedford
was compelled to atone by asking the
pardon OF the House. But one OFT most
notable duels of the era to which we are
abiding, remains to be cited, although
the combat itself was not fought upon
American soil. In 1892 duel came Offin
Hyde Park between the Rev. Bennett
Allen and Lloyd Dulany, an American
loyalist, in which two other American
loyalsts, Delaney aud Morris, acted az
seconds, and in which Dulany was killed.
The hour Of the duel was 10 o'clock in the
evening, and the testimony upon the trial
established the fact that Allen calmly
adjusted his spectacles to his nose before
firing. But, Notwithstanding the en-
phatic terms in which the law upon the
subject OF dueling was eXpounded by j.
Baller, the prisoner escaped with no
eeyerer sentence than that Of being fined
one shilling and imprisoned in Newgate
for six months.
II was subsequent 10 the year 1888.
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