Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1886-07-09
DECLINE OE IKE DuEl.


Opiniun-Slaves to "a Custom.
1t has been less than twenty-seven
years, less than the average lifetime of
generation, since Robert Toombs deliv-
cred in the senate of the United States
eulogy on Senator Broderick, of Califor-
mia, who had been killed in a duel with
Judge Terry. In referring to the man
ner of Broderick's death Toombs says:
He fell in honorable contest, under "a
code which he fully recognized While
| lament his sad fate, l have no word of
censure for him or his adversary. |
think no man under any circumstances
can have a more enviable death than to
fall in vindication of his honor"
When those words were uttered they
probably expressed the sentiment of a
large majority of the senators Of the
United States. There was probably not
a senator at the time who, if he did not
approve "the code" would have been
bold enough to denounce it.
This speech, which was in thorough
accord with the manifest spirit of the
time when it was uttered. is a moral
milepOst from which we can measure the
great advance made in the popular opinion
ON the subject of dueling in a compare
lively short time. If a member of either
house of congress were to apologize in a
speech in the capital for the practice of
dueling, it would probably be the death
knell to his political ambition. 1t would
at least mark him as a victim of that un-
compromising public opinion which in
every part of this country has set the
seal of its condemnation on dueling and
abolished "the code"
This sudden and almost universal abol-
ton of custom so entangled with the
highest conceptions of honor, SO firmly
fixed in social ethics, and so softened as
to the real features of its barbaric cruelty
by a gentleness and courtesy that pre-
served the romance of medieval knight
hood, is indeed remarkable. 1t is prob
ably the best single proof that could be
offered of the advance of our people in
good morals and true culture.
The last retreat of the doomed custom
was Virginia. After it had been abjured
almost everywhere else it seemed to
flourish there. This was because of the
peculiar political complications in that
sOnal antagonism. In the heated cam
paigns of 1850 and 1881 personal diff
culties were numerous, and frequent
expeditions were made to the field of
honor" While most of those engaged
i'll this deplorable business were men of
unquestioned courage, the percentage of
damage to the number of duels was 50
small as to bring these combats into
general ridicule. The term Virginia
duel" was coined, and is still extant, to
express an affair with all the pomp and
ceremony of bloody encounter minus
the blood.
An intelligent Virginia gentleman,
who was until late years a believer in
"the code" told me the other day that
dueling was dead in this state. He said
that the crystalization of the best public
opinion in that state against it within the
past two years had been simply wonder
full and there Is not a county in Nir-
ginia where a man would not now ele-
waite himself more in the opinion of the
people by declining challenge than by
accepting one.
There never was time in a truly civil
lZeu country Wnen man ulu not revolt
from the thought of Staying or being
slain in these deliberate combats. Men
who faced each other with deadly weap-
ons to fight to the death often had no an
imosity. They were slaves to IA custom
which had drifted from barbarism into
civilizations: to an idea which had held
its place in some hard portion of the pop
ular conscience untouched by the intlu-
ences that We're identifying and and re-
filming all other sentiments of the pOpu-
lar heart Public opinion bolstered duel
ing into an unnatural prolongation of its
sway. Now that public opinion has not
only withdrawn its support, but has
lifted its implacable cry against the mis-
cradle custom, it must go.-Atlanta Con-
stitutiOn.