The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1922-07-04
BY-WAYs OF STATE HISTORY
Dueling and F;sticuRs
DR. J. w. Daniel in Southern Chris
tisn Advocate

DR.. j. w. Damel IN southern Cii'''
tian Advocate.
Dueling was a widespread curse
after the Revolutionary war, but the
code seems to have been practlced
almost exclusively by the higher cir
cles of society. 1t was more preVa-
lent in the South than in New Eng
land; one reason, and perhaps the
main reason for this, was that the
earliest settlers of New England were
Dissenters and naturally put the bar
of disapproval on it because it was
practice of the English gentry whose
worldly pleasures as well as their
customs they religiously tabooed.
1t has been alleged that it was
more prevalent in the South and
Southwest because of "a landed arlS-
tocracy which adhered to the Old
World customs. to warm climate
which produced an irritable physical
condition" and Of course, "to the IN
tolerant and domineering disposition
which came to the owner of slaves.
If the author whom l have just quot
ed had stopped with his first lesson he
would have been nearer right than
when he added the other two sup
posed causes, and had he stated that
dueling was a crime particularly at
tributable to a class Of Englishmen
and not a crime practiced by the
English people he would have beer
much nearer the true cause of the
prevalence of dueling in the South.
1t is interesting from this point Of
view to study the development OF
Englishmen iH America, religiously
morally and politically. The large
land-holders, especially in South
Carolina and Virginia, very naturally
lived like Englishmen, they remem-
bered their origin and the origin OF
their institutions, they sympathized
with England though they had fought
her and won their independence. John
Adams, although of Puritan descent.
was the vice-president and during the
first congress advocated, with ma
iority of the senate such high sound
ing titles for the president as his
highness" or "his mightiness." II
these prominent AngloAmerican cit
liens had not been checked they
would have created court circle.
America was saved from this blum
der by the Democratic house. Adams
was genuinely English in his ideals.
William Maclay, Scotch Irishman,
sat one morning just before the Sen
ate opened and listened to a coversa-
ton between Adams and Thomas
Carroll of Carrollton. Adams per-
sisted in speaking to, and treating
Carroll as baron, and expressed
himself as being proud that he pre-
sided over a senate that had several
members who were barons. Maclay
was disgusted 1t was all very ma
tural, Englishmen would be English
men though transplanted in America,
it was reflection on them-they
were good, patriotic men, but Maclay
was from that strain of Americans
Providentially prepared in Ulster-he
was Republican, ard the Republi-
cans in the house saved America from
aping England. The women, however.
were more obdurate than the men
who espoused high sounding titles for
the president; up to 1915 they ap-
piled lady" and cher majesty to-
the wives of the presidents. 1t was
all in keeping with their racial train
ing for centuries and certainly calls
forth no criticism from my pen, but
] do see a most wonderful and far
reaching power in that blending of
strains and preparation in Ulster as
it resulted in American Republican
ism.
From a religious point of view We
may trace the same ideals. English
Episcopalianism, for example in
Charleston, was intolerant and world
ly and ultimately established itself
after the Revolution, as purely High
Church, and therefore, 'sectarian, in
all of it's practices and government: :
while English Episcopalian;sm of Vir-
ginia was more tolerant if not more
pious and developed into non-sec-
tartan and a more spiritually minded
church, "Prayer-book Methodists'
they have been called even to this
day. The difference between these
two bodies of Christians from the
same mother church is accounted for
in part from the fact that the colon