The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1917-02-08
DUELLING IN SOUTH CAROLINA.
Last of Any Note Fought Near Cam.
den.

our ante-bellum days were stored
away in their cedar chest of remem-
brance. Stored away with tender,
lingering touches, sweet scented with
the nyrrh and lavender of reverent
love. wet by the sacred tears of our
mothers, and stained by the lifes S
blood and the gallant men who gave
their lives freely in cause that they
at least thought right.
The impulsive, brave, hot-headed
men, who prizing honor above all else
did not hesitate to pit their ideals
against the roar and flame of the
cannon; or to refute an imputation
against their honor, by facing at thir-
tv PAGES the pistol held by practiced
hand.
So keen was their high sense of
honor, so clean and clear cut their
ideals of right and wrong, that it be-
came to be the accepted custom to
wipe out an insult by the blood of
the offender else to lay down ones
life in the defense of name and home.
In this colder commercial era that
we have drifted, or rather evoluted
into from the force of circumstances
and the stress of social and political
conditions, it is hard to judge cor
rectly the standard of right and
wrong established by our forefathers.
Then a mans name was his for
tune-his word his bond; his home
was his castle. Any asperslons
against any one of these and his hot
Southern blood boiled and he was
eagerly anxious to lay his life upon
the altar of his high ideals, rather
than to live under what he consider
ed insult.
Some of the most spectacular
events, some of the most gripping
stories of other days, are woven
around duels that were almost his
torical in their bearing upon the his
torical, political as we'll as social life
of that period.
After the titanic upheaval of our
unfortunate war, not only were our
politics reconstructed, but the GUS
toms and lives of the people were al
most entirely transformed. Things
took on a different perspective, net
only ideals, but the accepted belief
in old standards were altered.
Along in the '70s strong tide of
sentiment set against duelling-still
in the minds of the older people, the
habits and beliefs Of their ancestors
were sacred. They firmly clung to
old customs, old ideas, faithfully
protesting that their fathers could
do no wrong; upholding by their
daily lives and actions, their belief
in the fact that What was good for
father should suit me-
In spite of this; however, the cool
er headed younger men, who gradual
ly took the reins of government into
their hands, in the historic Palmetto
State, talked strongly of legislating
against duelling. Though the older
generation protested that man had
the divine right of self-protection, IN
any way that seemed best to him;
that it was absolute anarchy to de-
prive a man of the privilege of using
the sword or pistol in defense of his
honor. They were sincere and hon
est in their belief, feeling that duel
ling was absolutely justif1able; and
could by no means be considered a
disgrace or be punishable by any
law. Rather they considered that a
man vas eternally tabooed from all
social intercourse with his fellows, If
he permitted an insult to pass un-
punished-if he did not at least try
by challenging his enemy to COM
bat on the Field of Honor Of
course if for any reason whatever the
challenge was declined, the giver of
it was held to have avenged his
word squarely in the face, without
cringing at the thought that the
dread name of "coward' was set
against his name in the minds of his
fellow man. For nothing was more
abhorrent to the real Gentleman of
the Old South" than an imputatlon
of cowardice.
Therefore the talk of the younger,
more progressive, conservative men
in charge of the States affairs, OF
making duelling a punishable crime,
aroused strenuous opposition from
the older generation, and the ques-
ton was discussed pro and con,
across many a Southern table.
Before the law became a fact, how
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