The Duel (34 page)

Certainly it is deplorable to see a young man, the hope of his father and mother—a ripe man, the head of a family—an eminent man necessary to his country—struck down in a duel, and should be prevented if possible. Still this deplorable practice is not so bad as the bowie knife and revolver, and their pretext of self-defense—thirsting for blood. In the duel there is at least consent on both sides, with a preliminary opportunity for settlement, with a chance for the law to arrest them, and room for the interposition of friends as the affair goes on. There is usually equality of terms; and it would not be called an affair of honor if honor was not to prevail all round; and if the satisfying a point of honor, and not vengeance, was not the end attained. Finally, in the regular duel, the principals are in the hands of the seconds (for no man can be made a second without his consent); and as both these are required by the dueling code (for the sake of fairness and humanity) to be free from ill will or grudge toward the adversary principal, they are expected to terminate the affair as soon as the point of honor is satisfied, and the less the injury so much the better.

—Reply by
Senator Thomas Hart Benton
(1782
–
1858) after congress condemned to death any persons involved in a duel, fought within the confines of Washington, D.C., that resulted in a fatality. Benton was nicknamed “Old Bullion,” and was a Senator from Missouri famous for his bombastic speeches, as well as his reputation as a duelist. He was an early proponent of the westward continental expansion eventually dubbed “Manifest Destiny.” When asked about whether he was quarrelsome, Benton supposedly replied, “I never quarrel, sir, but I do fight, sir, and when I fight, sir, a funeral follows, sir.
”

But the average man who has made his money by ways that are dark and tricks that are vain or who has used deceit, dishonesty, hypocrisy, or oppression in gaining his ends, has no right to send or accept a challenge to mortal combat. He must stand fair and square before the people if he expects their sympathy. If he fights of course it is out of respect to public opinion, for no two men would fight if they were on an island by themselves. And this proves the duelist a coward, the worst kind of a coward, for he has more regard for public opinion than he has for himself or his family or his friends or his Maker. He knows that a duel proves nothing and settles nothing and yet he deliberately lets public opinion outweigh his wife and his children and worse than all he puts his soul in reach of the devil. From every moral standpoint he is a fool and a coward and could be convicted of lunacy in any court, and ought to be. Lord, help us all—when will this foolishness stop? The law is against it. Public opinion is against it. Common sense is against it and so is humanity and morality. Public opinion says that every such case lowers our moral standard at home and belittles us abroad. Public opinion doesn’t care a snap for the duel or the duelist. Duels prove nothing. They establish no man’s character for truth or integrity. They give him no better credit in bank, no more friends in business. Among decent peaceable people he is looked upon as a partial outlaw, and they shrink from his society for fear of offending him. His code of morals and his peculiar sense of honor is a silent insult to them as though he had said: “I move in a higher plant than you common folks. I am a man of honor—a gentleman.” He has been engaged in a dishonorable business and he knows it, for he has had to skulk around in the night and hide and dodge like a thief. He does not dare to fight on the genial, loving soil of his own State, for that would disfranchise him and so he seeks some other. In fact, the whole thing would be as funny as a farce if nobody was concerned but the principals and their seconds. But there are parents and wives and children and friends and hence the deep concern. Then let us have more peace and less foolishness. Let a man take part in no show that he has to keep secret from his wife or his children. Let him undertake no peril that his preacher couldn’t approve with a parting prayer and benediction. In fact, I have always wondered why the preacher was not taken along as well as the surgeon, for where the devil is, the man of God ought to have an equal chance to capture an immortal soul.

—from
The Farm and The Fireside: Sketches of Domestic Life In War and In Peace
by Bill Arp
.
Charles Henry
Smith
(1826
–
1903) wrote under the nom de plume of Bill Arp, and was widely read and published in his lifetime. Smith fought in the Civil War for the 8
^th
Georgia Volunteer Infantry and later became Mayor or Rome, Georgia
.

BARTLEBY THE SCRIVENER
HERMAN MELVILLE

THE LESSON OF THE MASTER
HENRY JAMES

MY LIFE
ANTON CHEKHOV

THE DEVIL
LEO TOLSTOY

THE TOUCHSTONE
EDITH WHARTON

THE HOUND OF THE
BASKERVILLES
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

THE DEAD
JAMES JOYCE

FIRST LOVE
IVAN TURGENEV

A SIMPLE HEART
GUSTAVE FLAUBERT

THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING
RUDYARD KIPLING

MICHAEL KOHLHAAS
HEINRICH VON KLEIST

THE BEACH OF FALESÁ
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

THE HORLA
GUY DE MAUPASSANT

THE ETERNAL HUSBAND
FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY

THE MAN THAT CORRUPTED
HADLEYBURG
MARK TWAIN

THE LIFTED VEIL
GEORGE ELIOT

THE GIRL WITH THE
GOLDEN EYES
HONORÉ DE BALZAC

A SLEEP AND A FORGETTING
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS

BENITO CERENO
HERMAN MELVILLE

MATHILDA
MARY SHELLEY

STEMPENYU: A JEWISH ROMANCE
SHOLEM ALEICHEM

FREYA OF THE SEVEN ISLES
JOSEPH CONRAD

HOW THE TWO IVANS
QUARRELLED
NIKOLAI GOGOL

MAY DAY
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

RASSELAS, PRINCE ABYSSINIA
SAMUEL JOHNSON

THE DIALOGUE OF THE DOGS
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES

THE LEMOINE AFFAIR
MARCEL PROUST

THE COXON FUND
HENRY JAMES

THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYICH
LEO TOLSTOY

TALES OF BELKIN
ALEXANDER PUSHKIN

THE AWAKENING
KATE CHOPIN

ADOLPHE
BENJAMIN CONSTANT

THE COUNTRY OF
THE POINTED FIRS
SARAH ORNE JEWETT

PARNASSUS ON WHEELS
CHRISTOPHER MORLEY

THE NICE OLD MAN
AND THE PRETTY GIRL
ITALO SVEVO

LADY SUSAN
JANE AUSTEN

JACOB’S ROOM
VIRGINIA WOOLF

THE DUEL
GIACOMO CASANOVA

THE DUEL
ANTON CHEKHOV

THE DUEL
JOSEPH CONRAD

THE DUEL
HEINRICH VON KLEIST

THE DUEL
ALEXANDER KUPRIN