The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1892-08-06
THE pEoApENoE OF puELINo.
IL Isn't Necessary to Resort to tho Code
In These Days.

IL Isn't Necessary to Resort to tho Code
In These Days.
In conversation yesterday with Maj.
Ben Truman, author of the ''Field OF
Honor" regarding the decadence OF
dueling in this country, that gentleman
said:
'"rhe duello, which was so common
in the United States less that half
century ago, and which few genera
tions before had been so generally prac-
ticed that it seriously decimated the
official ranks of some of the European
armies, has pretty nearly reached a
state of decadence in many civilized
countries; and throughout America and
Great Britain it may be said to have
practically ceased to exist. To be sure,
It is main tained in modified form in
the German universities, where the So
called duels amount to what may be
properly termed brutal sort of pas
time-rarely resulting in anything more
serious than cash across the scalp or
face-while great majority of duels
among the French are noted for their
Notwithstanding that at
intervals combatant is killed. II is
nearly fifty years since dueling was
completely checked in Great Britain,
and this demise may be accounted for
from the fact that the survivor of a
fatal meeting between army officers
was promptly tried for murder pro-
nounced guilty, and hange1; and since
then, with the exception of Disraelfs
cartel to the arch-agitat to: OConnell,
ne Britisher has felt hims elf bound by
that mode of arbitration written at the
point of the sword or voiced by the
pistols mouth, Not only in Great
Britain, but elsewhere i'll foreign coun-
tries, the historical and social student
may trace the rise, prevalence, and de-
cline of the judicial and other charac-
teristic modes of combat down the
march OF time.
''It is in our own country, however,
where the rise, fall and decadence of
the code duello may be most ardently
and satisfactorily traced. The judicial
duel had become extinct some time be-
fore the sailiug of the Mayfower, but
not long after the landing at Plymouth
Rock did there fall victim of the fash
ionable, or social, means of settling af-
fairs of honor. And from that time on
the custom grew and soon numbered
Hamilton and his son, Cilley, Decatur,
Broderick, and hundreds of others
among its choicest victims. The un-
timely and unfortunate killing of David
G. Broderick, a senator of the United
States, at a place near San Francisco
the 18th of September, 1859, created SO
profound a sensation throughout the
country that the historian of the code
| f,,11 41,o+
mencement of its end was right then
and there. Shortly after came our civil
war, which was probably the greatest
agency of all in abolishing this cruel
practice which had prematurely eXtin-
guished the bright prospects of so many
lives, made desolate so many domestic
altars, and gave society in exchange so
little that was humanizing or good.
Yet, long before that war, dueling had
become an odious and obsolete practice
in all of the northern states, except Cal
ifornia, and much less frequent in the
southern states, where the top laurel of
u mans honor century ago was that
he had been fired at or had killed his man
on the so-called field of honor.
Nevertheless, the civil war was un-
doubtedly the one thing more than any
other that laid this brilliant barbarism
in it's grave. Perhaps the frightful
slaughters on glorious fields so sick
ened the country of bloodshed that it
was indisposed to look with old time
indulgence on private fatal encounters
But the more probable hypothesis is
that the changed sentiment in relation
to dueling is only a part of the great
revolution in everything social and po-
litical produced by that stupendous af-
fair of national honor. A crisis of such
magnitude hastens the development of
the conditions toward which a nation is
tending, and dueling in the United
States was already on its way to eXtinc-
tion before our national disaster came.
} Since that time, or since the close of
that war, dueling has been scratched
! off the lists of lawful and fashionable
undertakings
''The law, too has played an import
ant part in eradicating this social curse
by subjecting all connected to most
rigid penalties, although the logic of
the code duello is fatally effective, and
it is strange that it should ever have
imposed on intelligent and thoughtful
people lUS ueIenuerS nave Claimed
that private combat between gentlemen
was necessary to prevent their rela-
tions from falling into state of ruffian
ism or blackguardism, and that society
would be the purer if every man should
be held responsible for his words and
his acts. The latter claim is true
enough, but it is not and never has
been true that the duel furn ished the
best or even tolerable means of en-
forcing the responsibility. Indeed, in a
great majority of cases the code
duello supplied such ready atone
= ment for ungentlemanly conduct
that it tended rather in favor
of its repetition than against it
A blackguard or a bully, who was
called out, or succeeded in getting some
one to accept his challenge, was rather
in luck; for, by his display of courage
and blackguard or bully is not nee
b essarily physical coward-in standing
up before his opponents weapon, he
d measurably wiped off the stain upor
d his character. 1t is quite different
9 where the duel does not prevail anC
8 where society undertakes by the mere
r weight of its opinion to punish dishon-
t orable conduct instead of delegating
, the duty to the individual who may
8 seem to be the immediate sufferer
s Then the reproach put upon himself by
j the person who offends against the or