The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1892-08-05
THE oEcApENcs OF ousLlNc.


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Rem Truman, author of the Field Of
Honor" regarding the decadence OF
iuelfng in this country, that gentleman
said:
The duello, which was so common
IN the United States less that half q
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 ained in a 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
bloodlessness-notwi that at
intervals combatant is killed 1t 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 hanged; and since
then, with the exception of Disraelis
cartel to the arch-agitator O'Connelh
no Britisher has felt himself bound b,
that asNIa ,Nf A..
point of the sword or voiced by TIE
pistols mouth. Not only in Greet
Britain, but elsewhere in foreign cou,A
tries, the historical and social studelt
may trace the rise, prevalence, and d.
cline of the judicial and other chara,-
teristic modes of combat down tie
march of time
vt is in our own country, howevef,
where the rise, fall and decadence Of
the code duello may be most ardenty
and satisfactorily traced. The judicial
duel had become extinct some time be.
fore the sailing of the Mayfiower, 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
C. Broderick, a senator of the United
States, at a place near San Francisco,
the 18th of September, 1889, created so
profound a sensation throughout the
country that the historian of the code
may truthfully declare that the COM
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
affairs, 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
q 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 its 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 stupendou af-
fair of national honor. A crisis of such
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-
ton 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. Its defenders have claimed
that private combat between gentlemen
was necessary to prevent their rela-
tons from falling into a state of r7lffian
ism or blackguardism, and that society
would be the purer ifevery 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 il tended rather in favor
of its repetition than against it.
A BLACKBOARD or bully, who was
called out, or succeeded in getting some
one to accept his challenge, was ra.he
in luck; for, by his display of courage
and blacl1guard or a bully is not nee
essarily physical coward-in standing
up before his opponents weapon, he
measurably wiped off the stain upon
his character 1t is quite different
where the duel does not prevail and