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THE 
 
 REMEDY FOR nUELlLING. 
 
 SERMON, 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE 
 
 THE PRESBYTERY OF LONG-ISLAND, 
 
 AT 
 THE OPENING OF THEIR SESSION, 
 
 AT AQUEBOGUE, 
 
 APRIL 16, 1806. 
 
 BY LYMAN BEECHER, A. M. 
 
 PASTOR OF THE CHURCH IN EAST-HAMPTOX. 
 FIRST PUBLISHED BY REQ^UEST OF THE PRESBYTERY. 
 
 RE-PUBLISHED! BY SUBSCRIPTION. 
 
 TO WHICH IS ANNEXED, 
 
 THE RESOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ANTI-DUELLING ASSOCIATION OF NEW-YORK. 
 
 NEW-YORK: 
 
 Sold at the Theological and Classical Book-store of Williams anil 
 Whiting, No. 118, Pearl-street. 
 
 J. SEYMOUR, printer. 
 
RECOMMENDATION. 
 
 A DESIGN having been entertained of printing, in a 
 neat form, and at a low price, a large edition of the 
 Rev. LYMAN BEECHER's Sermon, entitled '^ The 
 Remedy fo?^ D?ieili?2g,'' we embrace this opportunity 
 of bearing our testimony to its excellence, and of re- 
 commending it to the serious consideration of every 
 one who regards the public virtue, prosperity, and ho- 
 nour. We are persuaded that no man, over whom 
 cogent reasoning, political rectitude, and religious 
 principle, have not lost their power, can rise up from 
 an impartial perusal of Mr. Beech er's Sermon, with- 
 out being convinced that the citizens of these States 
 have neglected an important duty by not resisting, in 
 their individual capacities, the atrocious crime ot du- 
 elling ; and without an anxious desire to see the re- 
 medy proposed by Mr. Beecher put under a course 
 of fair experiment. Should it ultimately succeed, as 
 there is reason to hope it w ill, the blessing of the pre- 
 sent and of future generations will rest on the head 
 and the memory of a man, who, by first pointing out 
 and urging an effectual expedient for effacing one of 
 the foulest blots on our national character, will have 
 pre-eminently deserved well of his country. 
 
 JOHN RODGERS, D.D. SAMUEL MILLER, D. D. 
 
 J. H. LIVINGSTON, D. D. JOHN B. ROMEYN, D. D. 
 
 J. M. MASON, D. D. PH. MILLEDOLER, D. D. 
 
 ALEXr. Mc LEOD, D. D. Hon. JOHN BROOME. 
 
 Nexv-York, November, 1809. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 1 HE General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, at their 
 Session of .1805, "having taken into consideration the unhappy 
 " prevalence of Duelling in the United States, and being anxious- 
 « ly desirous of contributing what may be in their power, consis- 
 " tently with their character and situation, to discountenance and 
 ** abolish this practice, 
 
 " Resolved unanimously^ that they do, in the most unequivocal 
 " manner, declare their utter abhorrence of the practice of duel- 
 " ling, and of all measures tending thereto, as originating from 
 " the malevolent dispositions of the human heart, and a false sense 
 •^' of honour ; as a remnant of Gothic barbarism ; as implying a 
 " presumptuous and highly criminal appeal to God, as the Sove- 
 " reign Judge ; as utterly inconsistent with every just principle of 
 " moral conduct; as a direct violation of the sixth commandment, 
 " and destructive of the peace and happiness of families. And 
 " the Assembly do hereby recommend it to the ministers in their 
 " connexion, to discountenance, by all proper means in their pow- 
 " er, this scandalous practice. 
 
 " Resolved also, that it be recommended to all the ministers un- 
 " der the care of the Assembly, that they scrupulously refuse to at- 
 " tend the funeral of any person who shall have fallen in a duel; 
 " and that they admit no person, who shall have fought a duel, 
 " given or accepted a challenge, or been accessary thereto, unto 
 " the distinguishing privileges of the church, until he manifest a 
 " jusi sense of his guiit, and give satisfactory evidence of repen- 
 *' tance." 
 
 The writer of this dibcourse had long viewed, with anxiety, the 
 prevalence of duelling in our country, and particularly in this state. 
 He had witited, but hud waited in vain, for the interposition of law ; 
 and had ceased to expect a remedy, from that source. He had 
 witnessed the facility with which the law could be evaded, and he , 
 had learned the cause. 
 
 When the above recommendation of the General Assembly to 
 ministers in their connexion, to discountenance, by all proper means 
 in their power, the scandalous practice of duelling, came to hand, he 
 was led to inquire whether the evil did really admit a remedy ? 
 
 ivi;soa'?ia 
 
what that remedy might be, and in what manner, as an individual, 
 he might exert himself with effect? The ensuing discourse, de- 
 livered first to the people of his own charge, and afterwards before 
 the presbytery, is the result of this investigation. The efficacy of 
 the proposed remedy, if applied, he cannot question ; and that in 
 the mass of community there is yet remaining a sufficient abhor- 
 rence of the crime to effect its extinction, he can no more question. 
 Whether the public mind can be so generally awakened to the 
 subject, and engaged to act with such decision as to counteract the 
 influence of sophistry, political prejudice, and other causes, time 
 alone can determine. The Presbytery, however, were disposed 
 to make the experiment, so far as the distribution of this dis- 
 course, seconded by their own efforts and the co-operation of their 
 churches, might have influence ; hoping that this small begin- 
 ning might awaken a more extensive attention to the subject, and 
 issue in a general combination of all good men and real patriots, 
 to cleanse the land from blood. 
 
 ISAIAH, Lix. 14, 15. 
 
 A7id Judgment is turned axvay backward, and Justice 
 standeth afar off ; for Truth is fallen in the streets^ 
 and Equity cannot enter, 
 
 1 HE people of Israel, when tliis passage was written, liad 
 become exceedin2:ly corrupt, and were sinking under the 
 pressure of awful judgments. 
 
 But although hardened in sin, they are not insensible to 
 misery ; and though regardless of God as their benefactor, 
 they murmur and tremble before him as the author of their 
 calamities. 
 
 They admit, indeed, their sin ; but suppose that they 
 have made already a sufficient atonement. It is not for 
 sending judgments that they impeach the Almighty, but 
 for continuing them. Not because he is just, but because 
 he hath no mercy. " Wherefore have we fasted, (say 
 they,) and thou seest not — wherefore have we afflicted our 
 soul, and thou takest no knowledge." 
 
Tlie majesty of heaven condescends to reply. He de- 
 clares their sin to be the cause of his judgments; their 
 iiypocrisy and impenitence the ground of their continuance. 
 
 The sins which brought down the judgments of heaven, 
 it appears, were national sins. As individuals, the people 
 are guilty, and each has contributed to augment the na- 
 tional stock. But of all classes their rulers and their great 
 men had been the most liberal contributor's. Their pri- 
 vate characters are abominable. Their public characters 
 are no better. Tlicy pervert justice — their feet run to evil 
 — their hands are defiled with blood. Their thoughts are 
 thoughts of iniquity ; wasting and destruction are in their 
 patlis. 
 
 The profligate example of rulers has at all times a most 
 pernicious influence. It had in this case. Conspicuous 
 by its elevation and surrounded by the fascinations of hon- 
 our, it ensnared the young, eml)oldened the timid, and cal- 
 led hardened villains from their dark retreats. A tremen- 
 dous scene ensues — a scene of impurity, intrigue, jealousy, 
 violence, and murder. And there is none to help. All 
 bonds are sundered — the foundations are destroyed. *« None 
 calleth for justice." The oppressed call not, because they 
 despair of her aid ; and the v\icked, because too guilty to 
 trust to her decisions. 
 
 Doubtless, in the humble walks of life there were many 
 who had escaped the contagion of example, and who, had 
 they been united and courageous, might have set bounds to 
 these evils; but they neglected to make exertion — they 
 were dismayed, and gave up the cause of God without a 
 struggle. 
 
 I have no conception that this state of the Jewish na- 
 tion is in general a correct portrait of our own. But are 
 there no points of resemblance? I allude to such of our 
 rulers and great men as denominate themselves men of hon- 
 our ; and ^^ ho, despising the laws of their countiy and their 
 God, adjust with weapons of death then own pri^•ate quar- 
 rels. To such the character ascribed to the Jewish rulers, 
 is afl'ectingly applicable. Their hands arc full of blood i 
 wasting and destruction arc in their paths. 
 
4i 
 
 1 allude also to the impunity with which /ill a christian 
 land and under the eye of the law, these deeds of violence 
 are committed. With respect to the punishment of even 
 mifrder, committed in a duel, " judo^raent is turned away 
 backward, and jusiice standeth afar off; truth has fallen in 
 the streets, and equity cannot enter." 
 
 It may be added, that, as among the Jews, the people^ 
 who by union and exertion might have limited the evils of 
 their day, remained inactive, so the great body of the na- 
 tion, although they a])hor the crime of duelling, remain in- 
 dolent spectators of the wide-wasting evil. 
 
 But it will be demanded, how are we, the common peo- 
 ple, to prevent duelling ? We have caused laws to be en- 
 acted, and severe penalties to be annexed ; besides this 
 %vhat can we do ? We can rescue these laws from contempt, 
 and insure their prompt execution. Do you incjuire how? 
 By withholding your suffrages from every man whose 
 hands are stamed with blood, and by intrusting to men of 
 fair character and moral principle the making and execu- 
 tion of your laws. 
 
 It will therefore be the object of the ensuing discourse 
 to exhibit and illustrate the reasons that should induce ev- 
 ery man to withhold bis vote from any person who has 
 fought or aided in fighting a duel. And, 
 
 1. The elevation of duellists to power, is an act directly 
 opposed to the precepts of religion. 
 
 Civil government is a divine ordinance. The particular 
 foim is left to the discretion of men, but the character of ru- 
 lers God has himself prescribed. They must he just rnen^ 
 Such SLsfear God — a terror to evil doers ^ ami a praise to them 
 that do luell. Do duellists answer to this description ? Are 
 they just men? Do they fear God? Look at their law. It 
 constitutes the party, judge in his own cause, and executor 
 of his own sentence. Its precepts, like those of Draco, are 
 written in blood. Death, or exposure to it, is its lightest 
 penalty, and this with unrelenting severity is inflicted for 
 the most trifling offence, as for the most enormous crime ; 
 
 ^d as often perhaps up«6ifi: the innocent as upon the guiltv, 
 •t'\ ■ 
 
When arrested by tlie fatal cliallensje, no plea of rever- 
 ence for God, of respect to human law, of conscience, of 
 innocency, absence of anger, actual friendship, afiection to 
 parents, wife or children, the hope of heaven or fear of 
 hell, is for one moment admitted. All obligations are can- 
 celled, all ties are burst asunder, all consequences disre- 
 garded. " Nor justice nor mercy may interpose to mitigate 
 <« the riccors of the controversy. The peaceable must fight 
 <' the quarrelsome — the rich man, the bankrupt — the father 
 *' of a family, the libertine — the son of many hopes, the 
 <' worthless prodigal." It is a law which inculcates no vir- 
 tue, and which prohibits no crime, if it be honourably com- 
 mitted. It tolerates adultery, blasphemy, intemperence, re- 
 venge, and murder. Thou shalt kill, is its first and 
 great command, and too much conscience to obey is the on- 
 ly mipardonable sin. The obedient subjects of a law so 
 impious, so unmerciful and unjust, God hath denomiced as 
 unfit to govern men. They are disfranchised by heaven. 
 But, 
 
 2. The duellist is a murderer ; and were there no exclu- 
 dino: sentence in the word of God, our own abhorrence of 
 the crime should exclude from confidence tliese men of blood. 
 
 *< Murder, (says Blackstone,) is committed when a person 
 " of sound memory and discretion killeth any reasonable 
 " creature in being, with malice aforethought, either ex- 
 '* press or implied. Express malice is when one ^vith a se- 
 *' date deliberate mmd, and formed design, doth kill an- 
 «' other. This takes in the case of deliberate duelling, 
 " where both parties meet avowedly with an intent to mur- 
 <« der.'* And a greater than Blackstone hath said, " If a 
 " man smite his neighbour with an instrument of iron, so 
 " that he die, he is a murderer. And If he smite him with 
 « a hand weapon of wood, wherewith he may die, and he 
 " die, he is a murderer. And if he thrust him of hatred, or 
 « hmi at him by lying of wait that he die, or in enmity 
 « smite him with his hand that he die, he that smote him 
 " shall surely be put to death, for he is a murderer." The 
 Uw of tliis state hath also spoken on this subject, and iA 
 
perfect accoidance with reason and the word of God, dc* 
 dares tlie taking of life in a duel to be murder. The appoint- 
 ed punishment of murder is death. God, who defines the 
 crime, has hiaiself specified the penalty. " Whoso shed- 
 " deth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. The 
 *' murderer shall surely be put to death. The avenger of 
 '^' blood himself shall slay the murderer. Moreover, ye shall 
 " take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer which is 
 " guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. He 
 *^ shall flee to the pit; let no man stay him." 
 
 These denunciations of the word of God are peremptory, 
 and are to this moment in full force. The law violated by 
 the murderer is a moral law. The cancelling of Jewish 
 ceremonies has not afiected it. The penalty is the penalty 
 of a moral law, and the obligation to inflict it universal and 
 immutable. Shall we then dare to rise up in the face of 
 heaven, and turn judgment away backward? Shall we 
 snatch from the dungeon and the gallows the victims of 
 justice, to invest them with power and adorn them with 
 dignity and honour ? 
 
 But every duellist, it will be said, is not a murderer, inas- 
 much as death is not always the consequence of fighting. 
 The death of the ^ ictim is, I know, necessary to justify the 
 infliction of the penalty in its full extent. But is a crime 
 never committed until it becomes so palpable that the law 
 can take hold of it? I hesitate not to say that eveiy duel- 
 list is a murderer, for he hath said so himself. He professes 
 as his own, principles of murder ; he tells you that if occa- 
 sion calls, and his skill be sufficient, he will murder. And 
 when insulted or challenged he hath stood forth in the field 
 of combat, aimed the deadly weapon, and through want of 
 skill only, or through fear, has failed to prostrate his vic- 
 tim ; is he therefore not a murderer ? Is the professed rob- 
 ber who fails in his attempt, therefore not a robber ? Is the 
 assassin, because his thrust was not deadly, therefore not an 
 assassin ? 
 
 3. A regard to our own safety, as well as respect to tlie 
 authority of God, and an abhorrence of murder, should 
 withhold our sufTiajre from the duellist. 
 
When we trust life, and liberty, and property, in the hands ^ 
 X)f men, we desire some pledge of their fidelity. But what 
 pledge can the duellist give ? His religious principle is no- 
 thing — his moral principle is nothing. His honour is your 
 only security. But is this sufficient ? Are the temptations 
 of power so feeble ; is the public and private interest so 
 inseparable; are the opportunities of fraud so few, that a- 
 mid the projects of ambition, the cravings of avarice, and 
 the conflicts of party, there is no need of conscience to guar- 
 antee the integrity of rulers ? The law of honour, were its 
 maxims obeyed perfectly, would ailbrd no security. " It is 
 " a system of rules constructed by people of fashion, and 
 « calculated to facilitate their intercourse with one another:, 
 " and for no other purpose =^." It is the guardian of honour- 
 able men only. The public good is out of the question — 
 right and wrong are terms unknown in this code. Its sole 
 object is to enable imprincipled men to live together with 
 politeness and good humour — Men, whom neither the laws 
 of their country nor the retributions of eternity can restrain 
 from acts of mutual outrage ; who, by the expectation of 
 instant death, by the pistol at the breast only, are restrain- 
 ed from unchristian provocation, and drilled into good be- 
 haviour. It is for the interest of tliis noble portion of the hu- 
 man race that honour legislates. But for you, the commonly 
 people, the igimhle vulgar, it has no concern. 
 
 Hence the honom' of a duelling legislator does not restrain 
 him in the least from imiumerable crimes, which affect most 
 sensibly the peace of society. He may contemn the Saviour 
 of men, and hate and oppose the ieligion of his conntry. 
 He may be a Julian in bitterness, and by swearing cause the 
 earth to mourn. — In passion a whirlwind — in cruelty to ten- 
 ants, to servants and to his family, a tiger. He may be a 
 gambler, a prodigal, a fornicator, an adulterer, a drunkard, 
 a murderer, and not \-iolate the laws of honour. Nay, hon- 
 our not only tolerates, but in many instances it is the di- 
 rect and only temptation to crime. 
 
 What l»s toxu yonder wretches from the embraces oi 
 
 * Pavley's POwsonhy 
 
8 
 
 their wives anHI tlicir cliildren, and hurried thera to the 
 field oi hlood— to the confines of licll ? Look ! wliat nerves 
 tliose arms, risina: to sport with life and lieaven? It is lion- 
 our — the plc-dc^e of patriotLsm — the evidence of rectitude! 
 Ah, it is done ! The h>lood streams. The victim welters on 
 t})e ground. And see, the victor savage running from the 
 field, and hasting to the embraces of his country, to offer Ms 
 services, and to pledge Ms homur, that ;/OMr Jives and yowr 
 rights sliali be safe in his hand! Nor is this the only case 
 whrre honour ]3ecomcs the temptation to crime; it operates 
 ill all cases where the maxims of this infernal combination 
 liave attached disgrace to the performance of duty, and 
 honour to the p^jrpetration of iniciuity. And beside the 
 crimes which honour tolerates, and the scarcely inferior 
 number whicli it enjoins, there are a variety of cases where 
 it will not restrain from treacheries confessedly dishonoura- 
 ble. 
 
 What security can a mere man of honour give that he 
 will not betray your interest, in every case where it can l)e 
 done without detection ? Wliat shall secure you when the 
 price of perfidy is so high as to compensate for the disgrace 
 of an homurahte sale* ? What, where attachment to the pub- 
 lic good would sacrifice popularity ? For in this case the 
 more tender liis regard to reputation and dread of disgrace, 
 the more certainly will he abandon the public good and 
 pursue his private interest. What also, wlien he may fol- 
 low a multitude to do e\ il, and anniJiilati ng his disgrace 
 by dividing it udth many? Wliat, when his reputation is 
 already gone, before his i^m of service or his ability to 
 do mischief expires? Wliat, in those numherless cases where 
 imagined ingratitude on the part of the people shall impel 
 wounded pride to an honourable laycw^a ? What, wliere 
 the disgrace of poverty, as often happens, is more dreaded 
 V than the disgrace of a dishonest act ? 
 
 • A prime minister of Enj^land, after mucli experience, said that every 
 man had his price, and applied to men who have no fear of God before 
 them — who have no pledge of rectitude but " What will the world think 
 of me ?'* I doubt not at all the justice of his opinion. 
 
It is said, I know, that a man's principles and Ms private 
 ^haracler are nothing to us. If liis ability be adequate, 
 and his politics correct, and his public conduct as yet irre- 
 proachable, this is sufficient. But are you prepared to be 
 the dupes of such wild al^surdity ? According to this sen- 
 timent, a man may set his mouth against the heavens — he 
 may be a drunkard in the intervals of oflicial duty, a prodi- 
 gal, a tyrant, a mere savage in his family ; and still be trum- 
 peted by unprincipled politicians and electioneering hand- 
 bills, as the great champion of liberty, the veiy Atlas on 
 whose shoulders rests the destiny of his country. 
 
 But what is a man's political creed — what is his past con- 
 formity to your wishes, when his profligate private life de- 
 monstrates that he is prepared to betray you the first mo-- . 
 ment he shall find it for his interest? Dispense with moral 
 principle and private virtue, and all is gone. You can 
 find no substitute ; honour is a cobweb, and patriotism an 
 empty name, in the hour of trial. The single circumstance 
 that neither the interest nor the reputation of the duellist 
 will come in competition with your interest, is your only 
 security that, if able, he Avill not sport with your liberties 
 as wantonly as he has sported, or is prepared to sport, with ^. 
 the life of his neigh])our. 
 
 Admit that there are instances in whicli men destitute 
 of principle have acted with integrity in pa})lic stations ; 
 can you tell me hovo many thousands have betrayed their trust 
 for want of it ? These are exempt cases. The persons did 
 not happen to be templed. Bat do you desire no bettet 
 pledge of rectitude than the mere absence of temptation ? — 
 Will you confide in thieves and swindlers to legislate, be- 
 cause two in a thousand, though utterly unprincipled, have 
 found it for their interest not to cheat 5^ou? 
 
 It is in trying emergencies, when the price of perfidy is 
 liigh, and temptation imperious, that unprmcipled men are 
 weighed in the balance and found wanting. And will you 
 appoint cowards or traitors to command your armies, be- 
 cause thev might aus^ver in time of pe^cc ? Or iutrust your 
 B 
 
10 
 
 Jives to quacks in medicine, because, under slight indispo- 
 sitions, they might suffice to administer herb-drink ? 
 
 Why does this lingering confidence in the duellist still 
 sur>ive the extinction of moral principle? One crime of e- 
 qual magnitude in any other case, would decide his fate for 
 ever. The failing merchant, convicted of dishonesty, is re- 
 corded a knave ; the receipt of a bribe is irreA^^ocable infamy ; 
 perjuiy cancels for ever all confidence ; the thief solicits in 
 vain the public suffrage ; the highway robber can find none 
 to exercise charity, none to palliate his crime ; and the com- 
 mon murderer, might he live, would be doomed to linger 
 out a life of disgusting infamy. But the duellist, who, in 
 cold blood, or with bitter malice and burning rage, murders 
 his neighbour, can find enough to exercise charity and pal- 
 liate his crime ; a whole state, a whole nation to testify by 
 their votes that they consider it nothing. 
 
 But, alas ! the duellist, frail man, is overcome by tempta* 
 lion. He has peculiar sensibilities, habits of education, 
 and modes of thinking, which in this one case lead him a- 
 stray, without inferring at all a general deficiency of prui- , 
 ciple, religious or moral. 
 
 In plain language, because the duellist is educated a du^ 
 ellist, the crime of wilful murder in him is very small, and 
 is consistent with religious and moral principle. If men, 
 then, are only educated to thieving, assassination, and.^rob- 
 bery — if, by habit and false reasoning, they are so familiar- 
 iirx3d to crime as to rob, and steal, and destroy life without 
 much consciousness of guilt, then^ indeed, they are very hon- 
 est ?nen, and are fit to superintend the affairs of the nation. 
 
 But were it admitted, did we even know that some one 
 duellist was in fact a man of principle, and overcome by 
 stress of temptation only, would it be proper to confide in 
 him as a legislator ? Would you, had his crime been com- 
 mon murder, an act of robbery or perjuiy, though you 
 knew he had been surprised or thrust into it by powerful 
 temptation ? Would it not manifest him, if not unprinci- 
 pled, at least too feeble and flexible to stand before the nu- 
 
11 
 
 merous and powerful temptations to which his situation 
 would expose him. A coward may be an honest man, but 
 certainly a coward should not be intrusted with the com- 
 mand of armies. Beside this lightly passing^ over crimes of 
 the deepest dye, I may even say this rewarding them with 
 the profits and honours of the state, confounds in the pub- 
 lic mind the distinctions between virtue and vice, and 
 weakens that abliorrence of crime which is the guardian of 
 public morality. Elevate swindlers to office, and who shall 
 guarantee the integrity of the common people? Elevate 
 adulterers, and who punish incontinence ? Elevate murtier- 
 ers, and who will be the avengers of blood? 
 
 But, waving all moral considerations, what security have 
 we that the duellist will not, if intiusted with our liberties, 
 desert us in the hour of danger ? What security can we 
 have, when it is in the power of every factious rival who 
 can shoot strait, to compel him to the field ; and by des- 
 troying his life, to derange, perhaps to annihilate, our go- 
 vernment ? What if Washington, in the crisis of our fate, 
 had fallen in a duel? What, if our Governor^ our Senators, 
 our Judges, were so infatuated with the madness of honour, 
 that in the moment of peril they could give us no security 
 of their constancy, but that no person would tempt them 
 to hazard their lives and jeopardy their country ? 
 
 4. The system of duelling is a system of absolute des- 
 potism, tending directly and powerfully to the destruction 
 of civil liberty. 
 
 A free government is a government of laws, made by 
 the people for the protection of life, property, and reputa,- 
 tion. A despotic government is where life and all its 
 blessings are subject to the caprice of an individual. Those 
 maxims and practices, therefore, wliich remove life, repu- 
 tation, &c. from under the protection of law, and subject 
 them to the caprice of an individual, are tlie veiy essence 
 of despotism. — Nor is it material whether this is done by 
 open violence, or by the application of unlawful motives, 
 which as effectually answer the purpose. Every maii 
 
12 
 
 conforming to the laws of Lis countty, has a riglit to the 
 peaceable enjoyment of life and all its immunities. Nor 
 has any individual a ris^ht, directly or mdirectly, to inter- 
 rupt this enjoyment. No man has a right to tempt his 
 neighbour to renounce the protection of law, and much 
 less to punish him with heavy penalties for refusing to do 
 it=^. But this is precisely the despotic privilege which 
 duellists have arrogated to themselves. The man who re- 
 fuses a challenge, so far as their accursed influence ex- 
 tends, is out-lawed — is brandedwith infamy, and exposed to 
 perpetual insult. But what has he done? He has feared 
 to offend his God ; and under trying temptations to the 
 contrary, has bowed submissive to the laws of his country ! 
 And for tins he is punished — substantially punished, in a 
 free country, without trial, without law, in spite of law ! 
 
 If the despotic principles of duelling, however, termi- 
 nated in theory, they might excite our compassion as mere 
 distempers of the brain; but their practical influence is 
 powerful and fatal, as inimical to our rights in fact as it is 
 in theory, tending directly and powerfully to the destruc- 
 tion of civil liberty. These tendencies, in a few particulars, 
 jiermit me to notice — And, 
 
 (1.) Equal laws are essential to civil liberty, but equal 
 laws are far from satisfying the elevated claims of duellists. 
 That protection which the law affords to them in common 
 with others, they despise. They must have more — a right 
 to decide upon and to redress their own grievances. When 
 we please, (say they,) we will avail ourselves of the law ; 
 and when we please we will legislate for ourselves. For 
 the plodding vulgar, the dull forms of law may sufiice ; 
 but for a reputation so sacred as ours, and for feelings so 
 refilled, they are vastly inadequate. Nor shall they restrain 
 our hand from the ^ indication of our honour, or protect the 
 wretch wlio shall presume to impeach it. Is thi§ liberty 
 and equality? Are these gentlemen, indeed, so greatly 
 
 . * Hence the mere sending of a challenge is punishable by law. 
 
13 
 
 superior to tlie people ? Is their reputation so niucli more 
 important? Are their feelings so mucJi more sacred? Is 
 pain more painful to them? Must we bear all m juried 
 wliich the law cannot redress ? Must we stifle our resent- 
 ments, or if we vent them in acts of murder, swing upon 
 the gallows, while they with impunity express their indig- 
 nation, and satiate with blood their revengeful spirits ? 
 
 But education, it is said, has inspired these men with 
 sensibilities peculiar to themselves, for which tlie cold pro- 
 cess of law has made no provision. So has the education 
 of the savage given him peculiar feelings, for the gratifica- 
 tion of which the dilatory forms of law are equally inade- 
 quate. But will you let loose the relentless savage, with 
 tomahawk and scalpmg-knife, because educational feelings 
 can find no consolation in the regular administration of jus- 
 tice ? The feelings for wliich the law makes no provision, 
 are feelings for which it ought not to provide — ungodly — 
 sensations of haughty pride and relentless revenge ; and 
 which, instead of a dispensation for indulgence, deserve 
 the chastisement of scorpions. To reduce such unruly 
 spirits, the law should brandish its glittering sword, and 
 utter all its thunders. Nothing is needful to make legal 
 redress as adequate to them as to us, but habits of self-go- 
 vernment. And are they not under the same obligation 
 that we are, to acquire these liabits ? And if they will not 
 take the trouble to govern their tempers — if they will not 
 encounter that self-denial which the laws of God and man 
 inculcate — if they will be savages in a civilized land, let 
 them be treated as savages. And when they murder, ele- 
 vate them not to posts of honour, but to the gallows. 
 
 (2.) The administration of justice ought, above all things, 
 to be impartial ; the rich and the honourable to be equal- 
 ly liable to punishment for their crimes with the poor, and, 
 according to their desert, pmiished with equal severity. 
 But while duellists bear sway, this can never be. It is a 
 fact in this state, at the present moment, that the man who 
 steals a sliilling is more liable to detection, and more sure 
 
to be punished, and to experience a heavy penalty, than 
 the man who, in a duel, murders liis neisrhbour. Is this 
 equal ? Shall petty thefts excite our indignation, and be 
 punished with exemplary severity, while murderers, with 
 bold impunity, walk on every side ? 
 
 (3.) A sacred rea^ard to law is indispensable to the existence 
 of a mild govern'nent. In proportion as obedience ceases 
 to be voluntary, and the contempt of law becomes common, 
 must the ner^ es of government be strengthen! d, until it 
 approach in essence, if not in name, to a monarch}^. We 
 must have protection ; and the more numerous and daring 
 the enemy, the more poA^er must be delegated to subdue 
 and control them. That contempt of law, therefore, which 
 is manifested by the duellist, is a blow at the vitals of liber- 
 ty. It is the more deadly, because, from the genius of our 
 govenmient, the example has a peculiar influence. In 
 despotic governments the example of the legislator may 
 not be so efficacious. Chains, dungeons, racks, and gibbets, 
 may keep the people in their place, although their rulers 
 should give themselves a license ♦o sin. Viewed at such 
 an abject distance, the example loses also much of its in- 
 fluence. But under the mild government of a republic, 
 there is no such immense distance between the rulers and 
 the ruled, and no such terrific restraints to deter from the 
 imitation of their example. To elevate to office, therefore, 
 duellists, those deliberate contemners of law, is to place 
 their example in the most conspicuous pomt of view, and 
 to clothe it with most woful efftcacy to destroy public vir- 
 tue. Select for your rulers, men of proflfp ate example, who 
 contemn the religion and despise the laws of their country, 
 and they need not conspire to introduce despotism ; you 
 will yourselves introduce it — you will flee to it as the dam- 
 ned will to rocks and mountains, to shield you from the 
 operation of more intolerable evils. 
 
 (4.) The tendency of duelling to restrain liberty of speech 
 and of the press, is certainly direct and powerful. The 
 people have a right to iJl^'estigate the conduct of rulers, 
 
15 
 
 and to scrutinize the character of candidates for office ; and 
 as (he private moral character of a man is the truest index, 
 it becomes them to be particular on this point. But who 
 will speak on this subject ? Who will publish, when the 
 duellist stands before him with pistol at the breast ? If a 
 few, duellists themselves and mad with ambition, will brave 
 the danger, how many are there who will not ? And what 
 aggravates the restraint, the more unprincipled and vilo 
 the man, and the greater the need of speaking, the greater 
 the danger of unveiling his enormity ; while bent upon 
 promotion, aivi desperate in his course, he is prepared to 
 ieal in death the lip that shall publish his infamy. What 
 should we think of a law that forbade to publish the immo- 
 ralities of candidates for office — whicli made death the 
 penalty of transgression, and which produced annually as 
 many deaths as this nefarious system of duelling? We 
 should not endure it a moment. If Congress were to sanc- 
 tion by a law the maxims of duelling, it would produce a 
 revolution. And will you bear encroachments upon liberty 
 from lawless individuals which you would not bear a mo* 
 ment from the government itself? Would you spurn from 
 your confidence legislators who should make such laws; 
 and will you, by your votes, clothe with legislative power, 
 individuals who, in contempt of law, do the same thing? 
 
 Nor let any imagine that the influence of this engine of 
 despotism is small; it is powerful already, and is every 
 year becoming more so, as duelling increases ; and God on- 
 ly knows where its influence will end. The actual en- 
 croachments of Britain, when we first began to resist thenx, 
 were not one half so alarming as the encroachments of du- 
 ellists. To have been parallel she must have executed 
 wantonly, without judge or jury, as many as have fallen in 
 duels. What sensations would such conduct have excited? 
 Had it depended on oiir \ otes merely, would England have 
 continued to legislate ? And shall lawless despots at tliis 
 day perform what all the fleets and armies of Englan<i 
 could not? 
 
16 
 
 (5.) Duelling*, in its operation, exposes to additional risk, 
 and danger, those wlio would rise to usefulness and fame in 
 civil life. With what views can a christian parent look to 
 the law as a profession for his son, where, if he rise to fame, 
 he must join the phalanx of murder — or if he refuse, ex- 
 perience their united influence against him? If the road 
 to Albany or to Washington Avas beset with robbers — if 
 they sacrificed yearly as many as are now slain in duels, 
 could the wretches live unmolested? Their crimes noto- 
 rious, could they mingle in society ? Could they boast of 
 their prowess, and glory in their shame ? Could they en- 
 joy your confidence, receive your suiTrage, and be elected 
 the guardians of civil liberty ? 
 
 4. The inconsistency of voting for duellists is most glar- 
 ing. 
 
 To profess attachment to liberty and vote for men whose 
 prmciples and whose practice are alike hostile to liberty — 
 to contend for equal laws and clothe with legislative pow- '' 
 er those who despise them — to enact laws, and intrust their 
 execution to men who are the first to break them, is a farce 
 too ridiculous to be acted by freemeir. In voting for the 
 duellist, you patronize a criminal whom, in 3^our law, you 
 have doomed to die. With one hand you erect the gallows, 
 and with the other rescue the victim. At one breath de- 
 clare him unfit to live, and the next constitute him the 
 guardian of your rights. Cancel, I beseech you, the law 
 against duellmg — annihilate your criminal code — level to 
 the ground your prisons, and restore to the sweets of socie- 
 ty, and embraces of charity, their more innocent victims. 
 Be consistent. If you tolerate one set of villains, tolerate 
 them all. If murder does not stagger your confidence, let 
 it not waver at inferior crimes. 
 
 In your prayers, also, you entreat that God would bestow 
 upon you good rulers ; and you always pray, in reference to 
 their moral character, that they may be just meny ruliiig in 
 the fear of God. But by voting for duellists you demon- 
 stirate the hypocrisy of these prayers — for whenj by the 
 
17 
 
 providence of God, it is left to your choice whom you will 
 have, you vote for murderers. Unless, therefo«i&, you 
 ' would continue to mock God, you must cease piayiuj^ for 
 good men, or you must cease to patronize men of blood. 
 
 Do you not pray also for the preservation of liberty and 
 the continuance of national prosperity ? And do you not 
 know that good rulers are the instruments of the di\ ine 
 blessing ; and that when God would chastise a people, un- 
 principled rulers are the rod of his anger ? When, therefore, 
 the selection of rulers is left to yourselves, will you disre- 
 gard liis chosen instruments of mercy, and expect his bles- 
 sing? Will you put into his hand the rod of his anger, and 
 expect to escape chastisement ? 
 
 5. To vote for the duellist is to assist in the prostration 
 of justice, and indirectly to encourage the crime. 
 
 Laws in republics depend, for their prompt execution, 
 upon the spirit of the people. The highway robber need 
 not to publish his daring exploits in a newspaper, to attract 
 notice. A common indignation glows in the public mind 
 — in all directions the murderer is pursued, and when ar- 
 rested and convicted, is sure to die. In several districts of 
 the United States, a murder, committed in a duel, would ex- 
 cite equal exertion to detect the murderer, who, on detec- 
 tion, would be equally sine to die. The great officers of 
 government, and other influential characters, dare not, if 
 disposed, connive at the crime. The public indignation, 
 like a high swollen river, would sweep as a besom of des- 
 truction, any one who should presume to turn aside, or ob- 
 struct its coui*se. But in this state, the frequency of the 
 crime, and its immemorial impunity, has deadened the pub*- 
 lic feeling. W"e disapprove, but we do not sufficiently ab- 
 hor — we are sorn/, but we are not indignant — we zvish the 
 officers of government would execute the law, but we do 
 not compel them. Our rulers and great men know perfect- 
 ly our debilitated state, and are therefore not afraid to con- 
 travene our feeble will. It is not a torrent unmanageable 
 and dreadful, but a puny stream which they dare to oppi>se. 
 and which they have learned to manage; 
 C 
 
18 
 
 When, tlierefore, a murder Is committed in a duel, im- 
 mediately a !2:reat bus'le is made. The culprit is arrested, 
 or is to be arrested — but, alas ! he caiuiot be found ; or if 
 found, alas ! there are no witnesses — or if there are witness- 
 es, alas ! the Indictment is defective, and this is the last we 
 Jiear of it. The first effect of our indignation is a little fear- 
 ed. Justice may not as yet be " turned Imckward," with- 
 out some little manoeu^^ering ; and this blustering is ];nade 
 JQst to amuse, until the first emotion subsides; and when 
 the danger is over, the sword of justice, drawn only to de- 
 ceive, is returned to its scabbard. The criminal creeps 
 from his hiding place, triumphs in his guilt, and if insulted, 
 fights again. We blame our rulers, but I^y whom are such 
 men made rulers, and by wliose negligence are they embol- 
 dened to wink at this most accursed sin ? Were the officers 
 of government, from the governor to the justice and grand 
 juror, men of moral principle, who really abhorred duelling 
 and desired to put a stop to it, would the laAVs be thus in- 
 efficacious? Would it be so difficult to make a law that 
 sliould fasten upon the culprit — so difficult to arrest, con- 
 vict, and execute ? Is there any such difficulty in bringing 
 to justice the thief, the robber, and the common murderer ? 
 I tell you, nay. The traitor is in the citadel ; we have our- 
 selves put him there, knowing also that he would let the 
 criminal go ; of course we are accessory to his escape, and 
 to the prostration of justice, as really as if with our own 
 hands we unbaiTcd and threw open the gates of his prison. 
 Indeed, by removing the only restraints which duellists can 
 feel, we indirectly encourage the crime. By appointing 
 them to legislate, you remove all fear of legal punishment 
 — all fear of pecuniary loss — all fear of disgrace. You say to 
 the aspiring politician, " Be of good courage, and avenge 
 " yourself ; it shall be no stain upon your character, no im- 
 " pediment to your promotion. We have made a law, in- 
 " deed, but we mean nothing by it. lijow please not to de- 
 " stroy your fellow^ men, we shall be glad ; but if joudo please 
 '' to destroy them, it shall not have the weight of a straw 
 ** to prevent your elevation." By removing, iu this way, all 
 
19 
 
 lestrainls from the commission of the crime, you encourage 
 it, though indirectly, yet really and eflectually, as if you re- 
 warded the culprit from the public treasury. Nay, l^y de- 
 rating to important stations men whose hands are stained 
 with blood, you do little less than reward them for their 
 crimes ; and it has been asserted, and by men long- conver- 
 sant in the affairs of the state, that the fighting of a duel is 
 at this moment a passport to honour. 
 
 6. The contempt with which duellists treat the opinions 
 and feelings of the community, is a reason why we should 
 cease to confide in them. 
 
 The people, whatever men of honour may think of them, 
 constitute the strength, the virtue, and glory of the nation; 
 and their opinions and wishes demand respect from those 
 who legislate for them. The feelings of the great body of 
 the people are decidedly opposed to duelling. This is 
 manifest from their law on this subject, and from the fact 
 that the mass of the people discard those notions of Gothic 
 honour, resting satisfied with that protection and redress 
 which the law can afford. It is but a handful of men only, 
 compared with the whole, that uphold this bloody system. 
 That which by duellists is denominated public opinion, 
 and which constitutes the dire necessity of spilling each 
 other's blood, is the opinion of duellists only — the opinion 
 of not more than one in a thousand of the inhabitants of 
 the state. But the opinion of this handful is, by those 
 who compose it, deemed of far greater consequence, than 
 the opinion and feelings of the great mass of the people. 
 Duellists well know your aversion to their crimes, your 
 grief at their conduct, and your desires to wipe oil' this dis- 
 grace of a christian land. But little do the}^ care for your 
 bpinions or your feelings. They move in a sphere too 
 much above you, to let themselves down to the standard of 
 your conceptions, or to gi\ e themselves concern about your 
 petty pains. When an election is depending — when they 
 need your votes to gratify their ambition or satiate their 
 avarice, then indeed they sympathize most tenderly with 
 the people. The people are every thing; their ^dshes 
 
^9 
 
 ar^ sacred, and their voice is tlie voice of God, But let 
 t]iis end be accomplislied, and a challeng-e or an insult be- 
 c:i^ en, and neither liberty nor patriotism, nor the voice of 
 the people, nor the voice of God, can avail to deter them 
 from deeds the most barT)arous and despotic. Will you then 
 ^ ote for men who treat with contempt your opinions and 
 your feelings — who basely prostrate your laws, when you 
 ha^ e no thins: to bestow ; and ^\ ho again creep through all 
 the dirty windins^s of hypocrisy, when their promotion de- 
 pends on your will ? What are all tJieir professions of patri- 
 otism, contradicted by tJieir conduct? And shall they de- 
 ceive you still? Let them plead for libert}^ with the tons^ue 
 of men and anci^els, and adore ha* cause with the fervour of 
 seraplis, they are hypocrites — mere sounding brass and tink- 
 liug cymbals. 
 
 7. Withhold your suliraj^e from the duellist, and the 
 practice of fighting duels will speedily cease. 
 
 Two causes will ensure this effect. 
 
 (1.) When duellists are expelled from all legislative in- 
 fluence the law against tliis crime will be promptly execut- 
 ed. Duelling does not prevail now, because the penalty of 
 law is inadequate, but because it is never inflicted ; and 
 so long as duellists retain the confidence of the people, and 
 are clothed witli power, it never ^vill be inflicted. We 
 might as reasonably expect horse-jockies, gamblers, and 
 thieves, if intrusted with government, to execute the 
 laws against themselves, as that duellists in oflice Avill give 
 cfilcacy to the law against duelling. 
 
 But let men who, in this respect, betray the confidence 
 reposed in them — who not only fight duels themselves, but 
 have pleasure in those that do the same, be driven from 
 their stations, and their places supplied with men of firm- 
 ness and principle, and the end is accomplished. The 
 penalties of the law, uniformly and faithfully applied, will 
 prevent duelling ; and to ensure this, nothing is necessaiy 
 but to expel traitors, and substitute rulers of a decided 
 character— men who, partaking of the public sentiment, 
 will attempt in earnest to give to that se;^itiment, as ex,- 
 pressed in the law, its entire efficacy. 
 
21 
 
 (2.) Tlie withhold iiiJ^ our suffrage from duellists, will 
 tend to anniJiilate the practice, by arraying tlie public 
 opinion a^o^ainst it in such a manner, that tlie real un- 
 a\'()idable disq^race of fighting, will }yc greater than that of 
 refusing to fight. '^ 
 
 The reason why men of honour, (falsely so called,) pay 
 homage to the law of honour, is because the maxims of 
 this ghastly code are, ainong a certain class of men, assum- 
 ed as their opinion ; which opinion is made to affect, in a 
 sensible manner, those who presume to disregard it. The 
 opinion of the great mass of the people is also just as well 
 known ; but with this important difference, that it inflicts 
 no penalty on those who disregard it. It is vague, feeble, 
 and inefiicacious. But let the opinion of society, on the 
 sul>ject of duelling, be collected, combined, and expressed 
 in the votes of the people, and it will operate most sensi- 
 bly upon that class of men who now most despise it. It 
 will involve a penalty which they cannot but feel, and 
 ivhich they evade. No defect in the la^r — no absconding 
 of witnesses — no flaw in tlie indictment — no connivance 
 of the great, can come to their assistance in tliis dilemma. 
 If they will violate our laws, they shall not be intrusted 
 with power. If they will murder, we will invest with 
 power men who will punish them. In this way we cut 
 the sinews of duelling, and bind to good bella^ iour by 
 tlie motive which before impelled to the crime. The 
 opinion of the people, that which is in fact public opinion, 
 becomes prominent, assumes influence, and overwhelms the 
 absurd opinions of bloody men. 
 
 Motives of compassion, and of justice, both demand this 
 expression of the public mind. These honourable men ad- 
 mit the sin and the folly of their deeds. They disclaim all 
 motives of revenge or hatred. Their only plea is necessity ; 
 and the only jiecessity is the imperious mandate of public 
 opinion. They even lament such a state of things should 
 exist ; but while it does exist they must fight or encounter 
 disgrace. Is it not oui" duty to undeceive these deluded 
 men — to rescue from death the reluctant martyrs of honour ? 
 Alust they be haunted all their days, and be drixen to des- 
 
pel at ion, by a mere spectre of the imagination — by a pub- 
 lic opinion which has no being ? Are we not bound to 
 teach them their mistake, if it be such — to wrest from their 
 hands this mere pretence, if it be no more ? 
 
 8. Withholding the public suffrage from duellists is the 
 only method in which there is the least prospect of arrest- 
 ing the practice of duelling. 
 
 We may reason, and ridicule, and lament, and remon- 
 strate, and threaten, and legislate, and multiply penalties, 
 and the evil will still progress. Environed by the subtil- 
 ties of law, and shielded by the perverted patronage of men 
 in office, regardless of your grief, and fearless of your indig- 
 nation, they will laugh at your zeal and defy your efforts. 
 There is no way to deal with these men but to make them 
 feel their dependence on the people, and no way to effect 
 this but to take the punishment of their crimes into our 
 own hands. Our conscience must be the judge, and we 
 must ourselves convict, and fine, and disgrace them at the 
 polls. Here, and no where beside, will our voice be heard, 
 and our will become law. 
 
 9. The evils justly to be apprehended from the continu- 
 ance of duelling, call loudly upon us to awake in earnest 
 to this subject, and apply with vigour the proposed remedy. 
 
 It every year robs our country of men qualified, (this 
 epidemic madness excepted,) for extensive usefulness. It 
 cuts down our young men, and fills the land with widows 
 and with orphans. The tax is too heavy ; the victims offered 
 to Moloch are too numerous. Might the evil, however, be 
 confined to its present limits, it would be less intolerable ; 
 but we have no ground to indulge such a hope. 
 
 In Europe, where duelling originated, the great inequali- 
 ■y of rank has prevented usually the practice from descend- 
 ing to the common v/alks of life. It is there the unenvied ' 
 privilege of great men to kill one another. But in our 
 own country there is no such barrier. The genius of our 
 government has inspired every man with a spirit of inde- 
 pendence and self-importance — a spirit desirable, when 
 duly regulated, but dreadful when perverted; and in young 
 
2S 
 
 men, especially, very liable to be perverted. We are all 
 honourable men ; and if the laws of the land are insuffici- 
 ent to protect the reputation of one man, they are equally 
 defective to all. If the military officer, the civil officer, 
 and the lawyer, must take the protection of their reputation 
 into their own hands, so may the merchant, the merchant's 
 clerk, the gentleman, and the gentleman's son ; so may the 
 mechanic, the farmer, and the planter. And they not on- 
 ly may, but they will do it, if an end be not put to this 
 lawless practice. The horrid evil will not be confined to 
 cities; it will break out in the country. It will stalk 
 through our towns, and desolate our villages. Let not 
 these anticipations be deemed chimerical ; they are legiti- 
 mate inferences from the known principles of the human 
 mind, and the peculiar situation of our country ; and they 
 are justified also by experience. The mad example of 
 Charles V. and Francis I. king of France, descended like a 
 mighty torrent from the highest elevations of rank, down 
 to the humble vale of private life. Through all Europe 
 the pulse of honom' began to throb, and all orders of men 
 caught the fever. The nobleman, and the nobleman's 
 servant ; the general, and the common soldier ; the lawyer, 
 the merchant, the tailor, and the hair-dresser, became sudden- 
 ly inflated with the inspirations of honour. The forms of 
 law were disregarded — every man became his own judge, 
 his own protector and avenger, until in this crusade of ho- 
 nour, the earth smoked With the blood of its miserable in- 
 habitants. " Much of the best blood in Christendom was 
 shed ; many useful lives sacrificed, and, at some periods, 
 war itself hath hardly been more destructive, than these 
 private contests of honour*." 
 
 In our own country, and by a similar infatuation, duel- 
 ling is steadily progressing ; the example of great men and 
 rulers is' sweeping all before it, and is bending its destroy- 
 ing course to the vale of common life. Several instances 
 have come recently to my knowledge, of challenges given 
 by those whom our grandfathers would have called boys, 
 
 "* Modern Europe 
 
24 
 
 to adjust by weapons of death their hasty disputes. Al- 
 ready, and far remote from eities, does the \apour of honour 
 begin to swell, with fancied importance, many a stripling — 
 leading him to threaten what as yet he has not courage to 
 perform. This shows what eifect the frequency of the 
 crime, and the impunity attending it, is beginning to have 
 upon youthful minds. The leaven has begun to operate ; 
 and if no stop be put to it, the time is not distant when 
 every petty quarrel of hot-headed young men, must be ad- 
 justed by powder and ball. In the southern and western 
 states such events are already frequent. The youth exten- 
 sively are enrolled on the list of honour, and are bound to 
 attack and defend according to its rules. Expertness in 
 firing the pistol is a qualification of indispensable attain- 
 ment, and the sabbath is often devoted to the most chris- 
 tian employment of learning to shoot expertly. 
 
 The genius of our government fav^ours, also, not only the 
 descent of the practice, but it multiplies exceedingly, and 
 to an unlimited extent, the occasions of duelling. Politi- 
 cal disputes are the usual provocation. These display their 
 influence througli every grade of society. As our country 
 populates, and increases in wealth, luxury, and vice ; as par- 
 ties multiply and become ardent, these controversies will 
 naturally become more keen and vindictive, until duelling, 
 in spite of us, will become a common alternative ; mitil e- 
 lections will turn often, not on the merits of the candidate, 
 but on his superior skill in aiming the pistol to destroy his 
 competitor. Already, in certain parts of the union, I have 
 been assured that duelling is not an unknown expedient to 
 secure an election, by removing out of the way a rival can- 
 didate. Indeed, in the city of New-York, and in a public 
 paper, it has been declared that at a certain period there 
 was a systematic scheme formed to take oH', by duelling, 
 certain leading characters, who were likely to impede the 
 projects at tliat time in contemplation. The fact asserted 
 is in itself by no means incredible — it is a natural conse- 
 quence of duelling ; just what might be expected — and the 
 duels which took place about that time, and the characters 
 engaged, clothe th^ subject with an air of high probability. 
 
25 
 
 Nor are the immediate effects of duelling' the only con- 
 sequences to be dreaded. The impunity attending the 
 crime, the confidence reposed in duellists, and the honours 
 bestowed upon them, contribute to diminish in the public 
 mind, the guilt of crimes generally. There is a relation- 
 ship in crimes which renders familiarity with one, a har- 
 binger to familiarity with another. The wretch who has 
 destroyed two or three fellow-creatures in a duel, will feel 
 little compunction at any crime. Nor can the moral sensi- 
 bilities of a people familiarized to murder in duels, and ac- 
 customed to look upon criminals of this description with 
 confidence and respect, be preserved in full strength in re- 
 ference to other crimes. Duelling, therefore, while it de- 
 stroys directly its thousands, destroys by its depraving in- 
 fluence its tens of thousands. I would, therefore, again 
 urge an immediate and vigorous exertion to suppress this 
 evil, 
 
 10. From the consideration that the present is perhaps 
 the only time. 
 
 The practice of duelling is rapidly progressing^ — dissemi- 
 nating its infection, and deadening the public sensibility- 
 The effect already is great and alarming. If not, why does 
 the crime shrink before the stern justice of New-England, 
 and rear its guilty head in New-York, and stalk with bold- 
 er front as you pass onward to the south ? If the effect is 
 not great, why tliis distinction in crimes of the same grade 
 — why so alive to the guilt of robbery, assassination, and mur- 
 der of one kind, and so dead to the guilt of duelling ? If 
 the effect of duelling upon the public mind is not great, 
 why is it that murder can be committal in open day ? the 
 crime notorious, nay, detailed in the newspaper, and the 
 murderer remain unmolested in his dwelling ? Why does 
 he not flee ? Why is he not advertised ? Why are not re- 
 wards offered by those autJiorized by the laws, and express* 
 es hastened in all directions, to arrest and bring to justice 
 the guilty fugiti\'e ? Because no one is enough shocked at 
 his crime to make these aiTangemcnts. Because, if such 
 measures were taken, the public mind would awake jEroci i^ 
 D 
 
S6 
 
 torpor — duelling- would become a disgraceful crime, anU 
 tlie criminal would be lost to himself and to bis countiy. 
 He could neither be Governor^ nor Setiator^ nor Judge. He 
 would be exiled from iiublic fa\ our, inmiured in a dungeon, 
 transported to the gallows, and launched into eternity. If 
 the pre\ alence of duelling has not, and to an awful degree, 
 affected the public mind, why such a number of half apolo- 
 gists for the crime ; and how can we so patiently hear and 
 candidly weigh, and almost admit their arguments? Could 
 you hear, with equal patience, assassination justified, though 
 (as it well might be) by arguments equally conclusive? — ' 
 Why is it, if this deadly evil has not already palsied the 
 feelings of the community, that even the mem])ers of our 
 churches have heretofore, with so little hesitation, voted 
 for men of blood? Is Christianity compatible with murder? 
 Can you patronize the murderer by granting him your suf- 
 frage, and not become a partaker in his sin ? Admit as the 
 mildest, and as in general the true construction, that this 
 has been done by christians ignorantly, not knowing often 
 that those for whom they voted were duellists, or inconsi- 
 derately not realizing tlie enormity of the crime — why did 
 they not know— why did tliey not consider ? The reason 
 ii? obvious— 
 
 " Vice Is a raon^ei' of so frightful mein, 
 " As to be hated needs but to be seen ; 
 " Yet, seen too oft, familiar with her face, 
 *' We lii'st endure, then pity, then embrace^* 
 
 This is precisely our alarming state. We have sunk 
 through all these grades of moral degradation. We en- 
 dure, we pity, we embrace mirrderers. And ^vdiat will be 
 next? A total apathy to crime. 
 
 What is done, therefore, must be done quickly. — Let the 
 maxims of duelling once break out, and spread in the coun- 
 try, and infect the rising generation ; let the just abhor- 
 rence of the community be a little more effaced by the 
 growing frequency of the crime, and we are undone. There 
 is no place to make a stand. Our liberties are gone — our 
 bands are brass, and our fetters iron — no man's life is saix^-— 
 
the laVs of the land are a nullity — every matt must tlem* 
 ble, and walk softly, and speak softly; lest he implicate his 
 Jicis^libour's honour, and jeopardy liis oavh life. Duelling 
 will become as common, as irremediable, and as little thought' 
 of, as assassination is in Spain, in Italy, in South- America. 
 
 Then, indeed, will tlie descriptions of the prophet be hor^ 
 tibly realized. " Judgment will be turned away backward 
 " — justice will stand afar off — truth will fail in the streets, 
 " and equity be unable to enter. Yea, truth \rill fail, and 
 " he tliat departeth from evil, will make hiinself a prey." 
 None will call for justice — Revenue and muraer will be the 
 order of the day. '* We sliall J^rope for the wall as the 
 blind — we sTiall sttim!)le at noon day, as in the ni^ht — we 
 shall be in desolate places as dead men!'* 
 
 Can you sit and calmly await the approach of these evils? 
 Will you bow your necks to the yoke? Will you thrust 
 Jour hands into the manacles preparing for them? What if 
 these evils may not be realized in yom* day — haA^e you no 
 rej^ard to posterity ? What if never, every man, woman and 
 cliiid will fall in a duel — is there nought to be dreaded hi 
 the SAvord, or pestilence, or famine, I)ecau3e they do not extir- 
 pate our race ? 
 
 11, The facility with wliich this evil may be suppressed 
 in the way proposed, vvill render us for ever inexcusable — 
 Will constitute us partakers in the sin, if we do not make 
 the attempt* 
 
 There are, indeed, many duellists in our land, and many 
 half-apologists for the crime, from whom no aid is to be ex- 
 pected. Tliere are many, too unprincipled, and others too 
 indolent, to be euTcg' d b}^ considerations of duty : and 
 there are some, and even professors of religion, wliose 
 strong party prejudices, and political attachments to such 
 ]nen, will be liable to steel them against conviction, or im- 
 pel them to make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience. 
 But after all tliese deductions, there are yet remaining mul- 
 titudes, thousands and thousands, whose abhorrence of du- 
 elling, though diminished by the frequency of the crime, 
 is still sufiicient to overwhelm its abet tore with infamy .—»' 
 
28 
 
 Nothino;" is necessary to awaken and embody in one formida-' 
 hie plialanx of opposition, a vast majority of the state, the 
 great mass of our plain and honest people, bnt to place the 
 crime in its horrid aspect, and fearful connexions, full before 
 them. Only let them see, and they will feel — Let them 
 feel, and they will act — will hurl india^nant every duellist 
 whom they have elevated, from his eminence, and consii^a 
 to merited infamy every one who shall solicit their favour. 
 Nor is it impracticable thus to exhibit the subject. Minis- 
 ters of different denominations, all united, would be able to 
 eiiect it perfectly. Let each, in his appointed sphere, make 
 due exertion to enlii^hten his flock, and the fire of indigna- 
 tion will soon begin to blaze through all the state. And if 
 beside such exertions farther efforts should be needful, the 
 newspaper, the magazine, and the distribution of small 
 tracts on the subject, may be enlisted as auxiliaries. 
 
 Nor can any reasonably object to such conduct on the 
 part of ministers ; nor will any one probably attemj)t it, 
 who does not for himself or some fa^^ourite, fear the conse- 
 quences. Our obligations are most solemn to lift up our 
 voice, and to put forth our exertions against this sin. Our 
 God calls to us from heaven — The damned call to us from 
 }iell — The blood of murdered victims, from the ground lifts 
 up its voice, and mingles with the cry of the widow and the 
 fatherless — the prophets, by their example ; our saviour, by 
 his ; and the apostles by theirs, forbid us to be silent, or 
 inactiv^e. 
 
 It is in vain to cry out " priest-craft" — or " political 
 preaching." These watch-words will not answer here. 
 The crime we oppose is peculiar to no party ; it is common 
 to all. It is a crime too horrid to be palliated ; too threat- 
 ening, to be longer endured in officers of government. Any 
 political effect of such exertion on our part, will be a con- 
 sequence merely, and not the object of our exertions ; small 
 also and momentary : and were it to be great, it vrould not 
 be our fault, or alter the course of our duty. If ^ve may 
 not denounce duelling, because men of political eminence 
 are guilty of the crime ; because the enlightening of yoi^ 
 
so 
 
 consciences would affect an election; every crime, wili 
 soon find a sanctuary, in the example of some great politi- 
 cian. Our mouths will be sliut — we may not whisper the 
 guilt of crimes ; lest, awakening your consciences, it should 
 produce some political effect. 
 
 It is practicable then, and it is the duty of ministers, to 
 awaken the attention of their people, and arouse their 
 just indignation, against criminals of this description. Nor 
 will it be difficult for the people, once awake and engaged, 
 to effect their purpose. 
 
 If only the members of christian churches become de- 
 eided in their opposition to duelling, it will produce a sen- 
 sation through the state. The votes of prpfessing Chris- 
 tians, of different denonunations, are too numerous and im- 
 portant to be thrown away. And will not the churches 
 awake ? Will professors of religion, a religion command- 
 ing, *' Love your enemies," and breathing " peace on 
 earth, good will to man;'* uphold deliberately, and encou- 
 rage by their suffrage, the practice of duelling ? On this 
 ground, only, a formidable stand -may be made. 
 
 But the churches will not be left to stand alone. In 
 every district of the state, there are multitudes both con- 
 scientious and patriotic, whose zealous co-operation may be 
 expected. Voluntary associations may take place ; corres- 
 pondences be esta])lished ; and a concert of action formed. 
 Representatives may be chosen in reference to this thing ; 
 as they have often been for points of far less moment. 
 And from such a legislature, may emanate a council of ap- 
 pointment, breathing the spirit of the people; and pre- 
 pared with stern justice to exclude from the honours and 
 profits of office, those who now, by connixance and artifice, 
 evade the law : and even should the contest be more ar- 
 duous. If, in the tempest of an election, all these arrange- 
 ments should seem to be swept away ; and religion, and 
 conscience, and patriotism, to be lost in the delirium of 
 passion ; are there not in e\'eiy church, and in every con- 
 gregation, a chosen few, who would brave the storm? 
 "Whom no sophistry oould deceive — no influence bend, and 
 
30 
 
 ilo passion move from tlieiu purpose ? Ai'e tJiere not in 
 every parisli, at least ten lii^liteoiis pei-sons, to avert the 
 curse of heaven and commence a reformation ? But ten 
 persons, in every conc^regation in the state, would consti- 
 tute a wci2:ht of influence ultimately decisive. In a go- 
 vernment like ours, where a state is often almost equally 
 di^dded, a few thousand votes are too precious to be lost. 
 When, therefore, it comes once to be known that the fight- 
 itig of a duel is a serious blot upon the character of a candi-^ 
 date; and that in every district and in every town, there 
 are considerate and conscientious people who will not vote 
 for him ; parties will not risk their cause upon the should 
 ders of such men. DuellisJs will become unpopular can- 
 didates, and such men will be selected as shall merit, and 
 iiisure your suffrage. 
 
 Even the county of Suffolk, is able, if disposed, to throw 
 iilto the scales an important weight of influence against 
 duelling. It is one of the oldest counties in tlie state — ex^ 
 tensive, populous, united, and distinguished by its venera- 
 tion for religion, its strong attachment to liberty, and the; 
 honest and peaceable deportment of its inhabitants. It 
 embraces few, if any duellists, or friends of duelling. Mi^ 
 llisters, magistrates, and people, all, it is presumed, think 
 alike on this subjects And beside these advantages, it has 
 often, in contested elections, been looked to, and may of- 
 ten again be, as holding in some measure the balance of 
 the state* With these advantages, it may speak and be 
 heard. Let it be known that even one county will not 
 Uphold despotism and murder, and the names of despots 
 and MURDERERS will no longer disgrace your tickets of 
 sufl'rage. The fighting of a duel will become a disgrace, 
 a millstone about the neck of aspiring ambition. 
 
 You have often lamented the prevalence of duelling, but 
 have not known how, as individuals, to do any thing to ar^ 
 test the evil. Now, you percei\^e what you can do. The 
 remedy is before you. It is simple, and easy, and certain* 
 And if you do not apply it ; if you continue to vote for du-^ 
 ^llists, and thus to uphold the crime ; you are partakers iti 
 
31 
 
 :iie sill, and accountahle for all the evils wliicli will ensut, 
 1 1 id wliich you iiay now so easily prevent. 
 
 Finally, llic appoint'ncnt of duellists to office, Avill justlj^ 
 icense the Most High, and assuredly call down the judg- 
 ments ef lieaven. 
 
 Duelling is a great national sin. With the exception of 
 a squall section of the union, the whole land is defiled 
 with blood. From the lakes of the north, to the plains of 
 Georgia, is heard the ^oicc of lamentation and ^vo ; the 
 cries of the widow and the fatherless. This work of desola^ 
 tion is performed often by men in office ; by the appointed 
 guardians of life and liberty. On the floor of Congress, 
 challenges have been threatened if not actually given, and 
 thus powder and ])all have been introduced, the auxiliaries 
 of deliberation and argument. Oh, tell it not in Gath— 
 publish it not in the streets of Askelon ! Alas ! it is too late 
 to conceal our infamy. The sun hath shined on our guilt, 
 and the eye of God with brighter beams surveyed the whole. 
 He hath survej^ed, and he will punish. His qui\ er is full 
 of arrows, his sword impatient of confinement. Ten thousand 
 plagues stand ready to execute his wrath. Conflagration* 
 tempest, earthquake, war, famine, and pestilence, wait his 
 command only, to cleanse the land from blood ; to involve 
 in one common ruin, both the murderer and those who to- 
 lerate his crimes. Atheists may scoff ; but there is a God ; 
 a God who governs — an avenger of crimes — the supported 
 and the destroyer of nations. And as clay in the hand of the 
 potter, so are the nations in the hand of God. At what 
 instant he speaks concerning a nation, to pluck up, to pull 
 down, and destroy it ; if that nation repent, God will avert 
 the impending judgment. And at what instant he shall 
 «peak concerning a nation, to build, and to plant it ; if it do 
 evil in his s^ht, he Avill arrest the intended blessing, and 
 sen^ forth judgments in its stead. Be not deceived — The 
 greater our present mercies and seeming security, the great- 
 er is the guilt of our rebellion, and the more certain, swift, 
 and awful, will be our calamity. We are murderers, a na- 
 tion of murderers, while we tolerate and reward tjie perpe-f 
 
trators of tlie crime. And shall I not visit fot these things, 
 saith the Lord ? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a 
 nation as this ? 
 
 But it will be said, especially in cases of contested elec- 
 tions, if you refuse to vote for this man, though a duellist^ 
 his opponent, a worse man, will come in. 
 
 A worse man cannot come in. The duellist is a murder- 
 er ; and is a man's difference from you in political opinion, 
 more criminal than murder? And will you vote for a mur- 
 derer, a despot, proud, haughty, and revengeful, to keep 
 out another man, perhaps equally qualified, and of a fair 
 fame, merely because he thinks not in politics exactly as 
 you do ? To what will such bigotry lead ? There will soon 
 be no crime too gross to be overlooked by party men ; and 
 no criminal too loathsome and desperate, to float into office 
 on the tide of party. When the violence of competition 
 rises so high in our country, as to lead parties, in their 
 struggles for victory, to tread down the laws of God, disre- 
 garding entirely the moral characters of candidates for of- 
 fice ; if their being on our side, w ill sanctify their crimes^ 
 and push them into office, reeking in blood ; the time is 
 not distant When we shall have no liberties to protect. — 
 Such a people are too wicked to be free, and God will curse 
 them by leaving them to eat of the fruit of their way. 
 
 But suppose the opponent of the duellist, beside his po- 
 Jfitical heresy, to be a bad man also, and guilty of the same 
 crime : if I do not vote for the man on ray side in politics., 
 ^vill not this be helping his antagonist — and will not this 
 be as bad as if I voted directly? No. You are accountable 
 for your own conduct only. If other people put into office 
 a bad man whom you could not keep out ])y voting for one 
 equally bad, for their conduct you are not accountable. It 
 is certainly different, whether a vile man comes into power 
 Inj your agency directly, or wdiether he comes in, in spite of 
 you. 
 
 But suppose the duellist in all respects, excepting this 
 ^rime, is a better man than his opponent ; of two evils may 
 we not choose the least ? Yes, of two natiual evils you may. 
 
as 
 
 If you must lose a finger or an arm, cut off the finger. But 
 of two sinful things, you may choose neither — and there- 
 fore, you may not vote for one bad man, a murderer, to 
 keep out another Uad man, though even a worse one. It is 
 to do evil, that good may come ; and of all who do this the 
 apostle declares, " their damnation is just." What must we 
 do then, in those cases where the character of the candi- 
 dates are such, as that it would be sinful to vote for either of 
 them ? Vote for neither, and the next time you will not be 
 insulted by such candidates for suilrage. Let those who 
 stand behind the curtain, and move the springs, know tliat 
 you have consciences, and that you will be guided by them, 
 and they will take care that you shall not be compelled to 
 thro^v away your votes. 
 
 But perhaps the liberties of our country are at stake. 
 Might we not for once, and for sucJi an object, vote for a 
 duellist? The same song has been sung at every election 
 this twenty years, and by each party. It is an electioneer- 
 ing trick, to excite your fears, to awaken your prejudices, 
 to inflame your passions, to overpower your consciences, and 
 get your vote, wliether right or wrong. 
 
 But suppose your liberties are in danger. If they are so 
 far gone, as to depend on the election of one man, and that 
 man a tyrant, a murderer — they are gone irretrievably. Be- 
 side the absurdity of appointing a murderer to protect life ; 
 and a despot, to protect liberty ; it is to be remembered, that 
 God is our only efficient protector. Men, are merely instru- 
 ments. But will God bless such instruments, selected in 
 contempt of his authority, and rescued from the sword of 
 his justice? All attempts to avert perdition, by means a^t 
 war with the precepts of heaven, will pro\ e abortive. You 
 hatch the cockatrice egg, and Aveave the wel) of the spider. 
 If your liberties are in dajiger, reform, pray, and call to your 
 aid men of rectitude : men of clean hands, whose couii;sels 
 God may be expected to bless. 
 
 " But it is difficult to know in all cases who are good 
 *' men." True ; and will you therefore vote for those, 
 Tvhom you perfectly know to be bad men ? Ptather discard 
 £ 
 
34 
 
 those whom you know to be bad, and scrutinize critically 
 tlie characters of those who profess to be good, and after 
 your utmost care you will be sufficiently exposed to decep- 
 tion. 
 
 But the reply is ever at hand, " If they will fight, let 
 <* them fight and kill each other : the sooner we get rid of 
 " them the better." And are you prepared to intmst your 
 lives and all dear to you, to such men? To men whom you 
 confess to be a nuisance, and whose death would be a pub- 
 lic blessing? Beside, there is no such thing as killing all. 
 The example of the duellist is a wide-spreading contagion. 
 Every duel that is fought, inspires twenty, perhaps an 
 hundred, with the same accursed frenzy ; and the blood of 
 duellists is the seed of duelling, as really as the blood of 
 the martyrs was the seed of the chinch. 
 
 " But why so inv^eterate against duelling in particular?" 
 Because at present it is a great and alarming national sin. 
 Because no other crime, with such shameless effrontery, bids 
 defiance to the laws of God and man. Because no other 
 crime is so palliated, justified, and with such impunity 
 sanctioned by the example of the great ; and of course no 
 other crime has so alarming an aspect upon the principles 
 of our young men, and the moral sensibilities of our country. 
 I may add, no other description of criminals, if they escape 
 with impunity, may publish their crimes, glory in their 
 shame, and still be rewarded with the confidence and hon- 
 ours of their country. The crisis is an awful one ; and 
 this apathy to a crime of the deepest dye, is a prelude of 
 approaching death. But though there is a peculiar reason 
 for attempting to arouse the listless attention of the public 
 to this sin, there are decisive objections to the appointment 
 to office of any immoral man. The prodigal, the drunkard, 
 the prophane, the sabbath-breaker, the adulterer, the gam- 
 bler, are all disqualified to act as legislators : and no man 
 with an enlightened, and a good conscience, can vote for 
 them. 
 
 " But if we are so critical in our scrutiny of character, 
 't we shall never be able tg find men duly qualified to man- 
 
So 
 
 age our affairs.'* Most humiliating confession ! But how has 
 it come to pass (if true) that so many public charactei-s are 
 immoral men? It is because we, the people, have not even 
 requested them to behave better. We have never made it 
 necessary for them to be moral. We have told them, and 
 we have told our youth, who are rising to active life, that 
 private character is a useless thing, as it respects the attain- 
 ment of our suffrage. We have told them that, if they 
 pleased, they might associate for drunkenness and midnight 
 revelry : pour contempt upon the institutioiLS of religion ; 
 neglect the worship of God, and spend the sabJ^ath in 
 gambling and intemperance, and still be esteemed hallow- 
 ed patriots ! If it is so, that a strict scrutiny of character 
 would exile from office many who now fill public stations ; 
 it is our criminal negligence^ that hath brought this to pass. 
 But the inference, tliat setting up moral character as a test, 
 would leave us destitute of proper candidates, is groundless. 
 It is the very way to multiply them. Let it once be made 
 known by the freemen that a fair private character is indis- 
 pensable to the attainment of their suffrage, and reforma- 
 tions will take place. And beside this, our young men will 
 be growing up to habits of virtue under the guardian influ- 
 ence of this restraint. At first, you may encounter a little 
 rjelf-denial, by dismissing men of irregular lives, in whom 
 you have been accustomed to confide. But their places will 
 soon be supplied by an host of men of fair fame, and better 
 qualified to serve their country. 
 
 But, allowing that a proper exercise of suffrage would re- 
 strain from the practice of fighting duels, all actually cou- 
 cerned, or expecting to be concerned, in civil life: how 
 should this reclaim those who ha^e no such expectation, 
 and are no way affected by the votes of the people ? How 
 restrain military and na^ al officers — men usually the most 
 addicted to the crime ? 
 
 Ans, 1. The prospect of success, though an encourage^ 
 ment, is not the chief ground of obligation to withhold our 
 votes from duellists. It is sinful to vote for them, even 
 though withholding would not reclaim an individual. 
 
36 
 
 2. If the metliod proposed would reclaim even men im- 
 mediately concerned in government, or expecting to ])e, the 
 good effect would be great. — Laws do much good, although 
 they do not entirely extinguish crimes. 
 
 3. The example of men in civil life, subtracted from the 
 support of this crime, and arrayed against it, would render 
 the practice dishonourable, among gentlemen of every de- 
 scription. Military officers are citizens as well as officers ; 
 and that conduct which is deemed disgraceful by gentlemen 
 in ci^ il life, will soon he felt to be such, and will be aban- 
 doned by military and naval officers. And were such an 
 effect less certain, it might ]>e made certain, by the exercise 
 of that discretion \rhich the civil ruler possesses in the ap- 
 pointment of officers. Let our legislators cease to fight du- 
 els, and desire to extinguish the practice of duelling, and 
 they would soon fdl the army and the navy with men to 
 command, who would be disposed, and able to second their 
 views. 
 
 And now let me ask you solemnly ; with these conside- 
 rations in view, Avill you persist in your attachmeiit to these 
 guilty men ? Will you any longer, either deliberately or 
 thoughtlessly, vote for them ? Will you renounce allegiance 
 to your maker, and cast the bible behind your back ? Will 
 yon confide in men void of the fear of God and destitute of 
 moral principle? Will you intrust life to murderers — 
 liberty to despots? Are you patriots, and will you con- 
 stitute tliose legislators who despise you, and despise equal 
 laws, and wage war with the eternal principles of justice ? 
 Are you christians, and by upholding duellists will you de- 
 luge the land with blood, and fill it with widows and with 
 orphans? A^ill you aid in the prostration of justice — in the 
 escape of criminals — in the extinction of liberty ? Will you 
 place in the chair of state — in the senate— on the bench of 
 justice, or in tlie assembly, men who, if able, would mur- 
 der you for speaking truth ? Slmll your elections turn on 
 expert shooting, and your deliberati\ e bodies become an 
 host of armed men ? Will you destroy public morality by 
 tolerating, yea, rewarding, the most ii7 famous crimes ? Will 
 
31 
 
 /(Ml teach your cliildien that there is no guiit in murder? 
 —Will you instruct them to think lightly of duelling, 
 and train them up to destroy or be destroyed in the ])loody 
 field ? Will you bestow your suffrage, when you know that 
 by withholding it you may arrest this deadly evil — when 
 this too is the only way in which it can be done, and when, 
 the present is perhaps the only period in which resistance 
 can avail-^when the remedy is so easy, so entirely in your 
 power ; and when God, if you do not punish tliese guilty 
 men, will most inevitably punish you? • 
 , If the widows and the orphans, which this wasting evil 
 has created and is yearly multiplying, might all stand before 
 you, could you witness their tears ; listen to their details of 
 anguish? Should they point to the murderers of their 
 fathers, their hus])ands, and their children, and lift up their 
 voice and implore your aid to arrest an evil which had made 
 them desolate — could you disregard tlieir cry? Before 
 their eyes could you approach the poll and patronize by your 
 vote the destroyers of tlieir peace ? Had you beheld a dy- 
 ing father, conveyed bleeding and agonizing to his distract- 
 ed family ; had you heard their piercing shrieks, and wit- 
 nessed their frantic agony — would you reward the sa^'age 
 man who had plunged them in distress ? Had the duellist 
 destroyed your neighbour — had your own father been killed 
 by the man who solicits your suffrage — had your son been 
 brought to your door, pale in death, and weltering in blood, 
 laid low Ijy his hand — wdtlid you then think the crime a 
 small one ? Would you honour with your confidence, and 
 elevate to power by your vote, the guilty monster ? And 
 what would you think of your neighbours, if, regardless of 
 your agony, they should reward him ? And yet, such scen6-s^ 
 of unutterable anguish, are multiplied every year. Every 
 year the duellist is cutting down the neigli])our of somebody. 
 Every year, and many times in the year, a father is brought 
 dead or dying to his family, or a son laid breathless at the 
 feet of his parents. And every year you are patronizing, by 
 your votes, the men who commit these crimes, and looking 
 with cold indifference upon, and even mocking the sorrows 
 
38 
 
 of your neigliboiir. — ^Iknvare — I adiTioiiisli y6u solemnly to 
 beware, and especially sucli of you as have promisins^ sons 
 preparing for active life, lest, havini? no feeling for the sor- 
 rows of another, you be called to weep for your own sorrow ; 
 lest your sons fall by the hand of the very murderer you vote 
 for, or by the hand of some one whom liis example has 
 trained to the "sv^ork of blood. 
 
 With such considerations before you, why, in the name 
 of heaven, do you wish to vote for such men? What have 
 they done for you — what can they do, that better men cannot 
 as happily accomplish ? And will you incur all this guilt 
 and hazard all these consequences for /nothing? Have you 
 no religion — no conscience — no love to your country ? No 
 attachment to liberty — no humanity — no sympathy — no 
 regard to joiu own welfare in this life ; and no fear of con- 
 sequences in the life to come ? 
 
 Oh, my countrymen, awake .' Awake to crimes which are 
 your disgrace — to miseries ^vdiich know not a limit — to 
 judgments which will make you desolate. 
 
 I shall close, by an address to professing Cliristians of all 
 denominations. 
 
 My brethren, for what purpose are you placed in this 
 world? Why do you sustain the character, and enjoy the 
 pri\ ileges, and anticipate the rewards of the children of 
 God ? Is it that you may stand idle spectators of the sins 
 and miseries of mankind. " Holy and beloved," have you 
 no " bowels of compassion ?" And are tears, and sympa- 
 thy, and prayers, the only labour of love which can be ren- 
 dered, and which you are bound to bestow, to limit the pre- 
 valence of crimes, and mitigate the miseries of man ? Is no 
 intelligence to be exercised ? Are no plans to be adopted ? 
 Is no concert of influence and labour to exist among those 
 who are denominated the light of the world and the salt 
 of the earth ? Can the world be enlightened and the earth 
 preserved, while Christians whirl away life in noise and 
 bustle, or dose away their days in sloth ? Or, divided and 
 subdivided, exext the little influence they possess in watch- 
 ing one the other, and counteracting each other's designs? 
 
39 
 
 Is there no common enemy to combat ? and are there not 
 points enough of common interest and common sentiment, 
 to unite us in one great and vigorous attack ? 
 
 Too long has the world polluted us by its maxims, and 
 occupied us in its worldly schemes. It is high time to awake 
 out of sleep ; and, waving things in which we do hot agree, 
 to contribute our whole influence to promote those great 
 objects in which we are all united. 
 
 It is the gospel which must heal the nations ; and the 
 more the spirit of the gospel can be dilTused, and be made 
 to express itself in the arrangement of society, the more will 
 the world recover from its deadly wound. But, brethren, by 
 our indolence and our divisions, we have lost that influence 
 to bless the world which we might have had, and which 
 we are bound to exert, and for the loss of which we must 
 give account to God. " Divide and conquer," has ever 
 been the maxim of the Devil in warring against the saints. 
 He avails himself fully of the influence of his servants. The 
 influence of the ^vorld is always equal to its numbers. It is 
 Christ only who has cause to complain, " why call ye me 
 Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say ?'* It is Chris- 
 tians alone who ^hrow away their influence. 
 
 While this state of things remains, the church mil con- 
 tinue feeble, and the world miserable. It is by concert on- 
 ly that she can become terrible as an army with baimei-s. 
 
 Who then is on the Lord's side? Arise and stand forth, 
 my brethren, as one man. The object to which your atten- 
 tion is called in this discourse, is one in which you can all 
 unite, and in which, by solemn obligations, you are bound 
 to unite. 
 
 The laws of God and man are violated. The spirit of the 
 gospel is supplanted by the haughty and ferocious spirit of 
 Devils. For years, it hath carried desolation in its 
 course : and for years, we harve sufl'ered the devomhig 
 scourge to pass througli our land unobstructed ; have even 
 focilitated its progress, and multiplied its evils, by bestow- 
 ing our suffrage upon the authors of our calamity. The 
 God of heaven is oiTended. His cars are open to the cry of 
 
40 
 
 biood-T^nd Ms judgments Imve come down, and liis wrath 
 has begun to wax hot against us. Nations shall be punish- 
 ed in this world ; they have no existence in the other, and 
 whatever precautions you may use, repentance and reforma- 
 tion can alone avert the chastising rod. So long as you 
 concur ivith the world in tolerating the duellist, " your 
 hands are full of blood." *' Wash you then, my brethren, 
 and make you clean." Have mercy upon the nation, and 
 *' put away the evil of your doings — cease to do evil, learn 
 to do well — seek judgment — relieve the oppressed — judge 
 the fatherless — plead for the widow." But if you persist in 
 your neglect of duty, and rebel, remember that the retribu- 
 tion of nations Avill not supersede the condemnation of in- 
 dividuals. The time draws near, when all of you must„ die 
 and stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and give an 
 account of all that you have done which you ought not, and 
 of all you have neglected to do, which you ought to have 
 done. Inquisition will be made for blood ; and wo to the 
 man w hose hands are stained with it ! and wo to him, who, 
 by helping the wicked, shall be found to have tempted his 
 God! 
 
 Could all the miserable men whom you might have re- 
 claimed by due exertion, but whom you will have encour- 
 aged to sin, stand around your dying bed with their wea- 
 pons of death, could you look upon them with complacen- 
 cy ; or remember, without alarm, your fellowship in their 
 crimes ? Are such men the companioxis, with whom you 
 would choose to go to judgment ? the friends with whom 
 you would spend the ages of eternity ? Come out then from 
 among them, that ye be not partakers of their plagues. Re- 
 frain from them, pass by them, and turn away ; for he 
 that walketh with the wise, sliall be wiser ; but the com* 
 panion of fools, shall be destroyed. 
 
ANTI-DUELLING ASSOCIATION. 
 
 NciC'York, Aug. 8, 1809. 
 
 ./tlGREEABLY to public notice, a large number of reg* 
 pectable citizens met at the North Dutch Church, this day, 
 to receive the report of a committee appointed at a former 
 meeting, rclativ e to the adoption of measures for the sup* 
 pression of duelling. 
 
 Hon. JOHN BROOME, Esq. in the Chair. 
 Col. LEBBEUS LOOMIS, Secretary. 
 
 The following plan was reported by the committee, and 
 imanimously adopted, viz. 
 
 " WE, whose names are hereunto subscribed, viewing, 
 with alarm, the increase of the practice of Duelling ; desi- 
 rous of opposing to its further prevalence the strongest law- 
 ful resistance ; and persuaded that a proper use of the Right 
 of Suffrage will have a powerful effect in discountenancing 
 and banishing it ; do hereby unite ourselves in an Associa?- 
 tion, to be called the 
 
 ANTI-DUELLING ASSOCIATION OF NEW-YORK: 
 And do, by our signatures hereunto annexed, solemnly 
 pledge ourselves to each other, not to vote at any Election 
 for any man, who, from current fame, or our own private 
 conviction, we shall believe to have sent, accepted, or car- 
 ried a Challenge to light a Duel ; or to have been in any 
 wise concerned in promoting a Duel, or acting as Second or 
 Surgeon therein, after the date hereof. 
 
 " For the better attaining the object of this Association, 
 the affairs tliercof shall be conducted by a Committee of 
 ; with a President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Se- 
 cretary, chosen by themselves, out of theitc own number- 
 
 members shall form a quorum. 
 
 F 
 
43 
 
 «>' Simple subscription to the above agieeinent, without 
 regard of reli2:ious or political connexion, shall constitute 
 membership in this Association. 
 
 " The subscribers shall be convened in general meeting, 
 ^vhenever the committee sliall judge it necessary." 
 
 The committee also reported an Address to the Electors 
 of this State, which was in like mamier agreed to. 
 
 On motion, 
 
 Resolved^ That a committee of twenty-one be appointed to 
 procure subscriptions to the agreement now adopted, to fill 
 up the blanks therein=^, and to prepare a list of persons pro- 
 per to compose the standing committee of the association : 
 and report the same to a meeting of the subscri bing elec- 
 tors as soon as possible. 
 
 Resolved^ That the committee appointed, cause the pro- 
 ceedings of this meeting to be published. 
 
 By order of the Meetings 
 
 JOHN BROOME, Chairman. 
 
 LEBBEUS LOOMIS, Secretary. 
 
 * The 1st blank has been filled by the Committee with fifty, and the 
 2d with tifieen. 
 
X 
 
 4a 
 
 The following is the Address. 
 
 TO THE ELECTORS OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK^ 
 
 A number of your fellow-citizens solicit your attention to 
 a subject of great and common interest. They address you 
 not as adherents to any political or ecclesiastical party ; but 
 as men who abhor that atheism which rejects tlic authority 
 and government of God — as citizens who feel the impor- 
 tance of m^aking the law respected ; and wlio know that the 
 impunity of crime tends to destroy both public order and 
 private happiness, with all the security of property, liberty, 
 and life — as friends, brothers, fathers of families, to whom 
 the social charities are sacred ; and who can never hold 
 cheap the blood of such as are united to them in the ten- 
 derest ties of amity, of nature, and of love. They call upon 
 you to consider and resist the prevalence of a crime which 
 strikes at you in all these relations ; which has hitherto 
 eluded, but too successfully, the several eiforts to suppress 
 it ; and which, emboldened by past impunity, threatens to 
 leave nothing safe of all that is venerable and valuable in 
 human life — the crime of DUELLING. 
 
 They need not pro\e the absurdity and atrocity of a prac- 
 tice which cannot reckon among its advocates a single wise 
 or good man. Few, even of the abandoned, venture to 
 apologize for it upon any other principle than this, that " it 
 is a means, however bad, which the state of society renders 
 necessary for the protection of person and character ; and 
 that if one should not resent an insult by calling out its 
 author, or should decline a challenge from another, he 
 •would become an object of universal contempt, liable to the 
 meanest affronts, and incai3able of retaiiiiug his place among 
 men ofdignity and spirit. Briefly, that PUBLIC OPINION, 
 ■which regulates private honour, is in favour of Duelling, 
 and compels one to sacrifice his reason, his conscience, i\\\(\ 
 Ms wishes, to the respectability of his social standing.'' 
 
44 
 
 Thus the duellist, assuming it as fact, that he is to be 
 rewaixlod with the approbation of the community, flies to 
 Ms weapons of death ; sates his revenge with blood; and 
 produces PUBLIC OPINION as the the warrant for his 
 murders. 
 
 On the morality of this doctrine it would be superfluous 
 to comment. There can be but one judgment pro- 
 nounced upon it by all who recognize the ^^iistinction be- 
 tween right and wrong, as originating in a higher source 
 than human custom. But if the allegation of fact is cor- 
 rect ; if the duellist has rightly estimated the public opin- 
 ion ; if it is true that the American people look with satis- 
 faction upon deeds which fill every virtuous mind with 
 horror and dismay, then is our condition dreadful indeed. 
 
 We camiot submit to such a libel upon the understand- 
 ing and the morals of this nation. Public opinion is mere- 
 ly the collective opinion of indi\ iduals. To be known, it 
 must be expressed. And when, where, how, has it been 
 expressed iu favour of duelling? Let the man be produced 
 who has, from principle, refused either to give or accept a 
 challenge, and bas been pursued bj- public reprobation! 
 
 The true expression of public opinion is to be sought in 
 the religion of the land ; in its laws ; and m the conversa- 
 tion of its inhabitants. 
 
 The religion of the land is decisive; that religion 
 which is received by the people cf the United States as of 
 divine authority, and which has interdicted not only the 
 matured act, but all incitements to the commission of it. 
 
 The laws of the land are decisis e. They speak death to 
 the man who kills another in a duel. They speak degrada- 
 tion and infamy to every one who, in any manner, assists in 
 a duel. But the laws are merciful.— They will not allow 
 of any avoidable risk of punishing the innocent. And the 
 guilty, availing himself of their precaution, and of the 
 facility of escape created by dLfferent jurisdictions, eludes 
 their blow, and in the very act of shrinkmg from this ex- 
 pression of the public will, pleads public opinion in his owjci 
 vindication? 
 
45 
 
 The private circl e is decisive. Go through the State 
 from house to house — number the patrons of duelling ; and 
 wlien you have found them one in a thousand of our inde- 
 pendent electoi-s, begin to speak of their opinion. Shall 
 we, then, hear that our opinions colleciivehj are in diametri- 
 cal contradiction to our opinions separately? And that the 
 public applauds a practice which every one who contri- 
 butes to make up that public, a handful of tlie desperate ex- 
 cepted, pronounces to be senseless and nicked? Yet strong 
 as the facts are ; full, peremptory, solemn and habitual as 
 are the expressions of public opinion against duelling, with- 
 out one solitary expression in its favour, this baneful prac- 
 tice, the offspring of barbarous manners, and bloody pas- 
 sions, is still fathered upon public opinion! And, what is 
 deeply alarming, gains rapidly among our citizens — gains, 
 in opposition to all the expostulations of reason, and all the 
 sane tlons of religion ; in opposition to the rebuke of the 
 law ; to the testimony of the wise and good ; to the pro- 
 testations of common humanity ; to the tears of the widow, 
 and the sorrows of the orphan ; to the agonies of a father's 
 bosom, and the yearnings of a mother's bowels ; to all that 
 is affecting in this world, and all that is tremendous in the 
 world to come! 
 
 Are we fathers ? Are we brothers ? Are we citizens ? Are 
 we men ? And shall we permit a crime, the reproach of our 
 land and the scourge of our peace, to stalk openly and im- 
 pudently through our streets ? Are we to tremble evciy 
 hour of our lives, lest a brother or a son, on v»diom rest our 
 fairest hopes, cross our threshold in the morning to be 
 brought back, at noon, a victim to that Moloch — modern 
 honour ; and as the sword passes through our souls, to be 
 told, that we innted its point, and bribed the assassin, by 
 our own complacency in his character? 
 
 But what shall be done ? Reason has spoken, and she is 
 disregarded. Religion has spoken, and she is mocked. The 
 laws have spoken, and they are defied. Humanity has spo- 
 ken, and' she is insulted. This is uniiappily true. One 
 measure, however, still remains. A measure simple, digni- 
 
4i) 
 
 fied, and probably more effectual than any whicli has been 
 tried hitherto. It is, in the elective franchise. The free- 
 men of this state have only to refuse their coimtenance and 
 their VOTE at the elections to every man xvho shall hereafter 
 he engaged, either as principal or accessary, in a duel, or i?i 
 any attempt to promote one. As the utmost art is used by 
 offenders in this way to frustrate the law by rendering the 
 requisite proof impossible, nothing more is necessary to cut 
 them off from the benefit of their ill-gotten impunity, than 
 to make current report^ or one's private persuasion, by what 
 means soever obtained, the ground of withholding one's 
 vote. 
 
 That the influence of such a determination , if generally 
 adopted and acted upon, would be very great, caimot admit 
 of a doubt. The only plausible objections are the two fol- 
 lo^nng : 
 
 1. That a Judgment founded upon presumptive proof, 
 such as common rumour, or an article in the public prints, 
 might condemn an innocent man ; and 
 
 2. That the measure recommended may interfere with 
 the freedom of elections. 
 
 Upon the first objection it is sufficient to remark, that 
 should the case e^ en occur, that a candidate for office 
 should fail in his election from an unjust suspicion of his 
 having been concerned in a duel, it would be still much 
 better that an individual should be kept out of an office to 
 which he has no right but the people's gift, than that an 
 atrocious crime should go longer without coercion. The 
 injury, if any, would flow, not from the vote, but from the 
 suspicion which existed prior to it, and therefore could be 
 no way occasioned by it. 
 
 But such a case is so extremely improbable, as not to be 
 of any weight in the contemplation of a grand social reform. 
 Among all those to w hom a general and permanent suspi- 
 cion has attached on this subject, it would be difficult, if 
 not impossible, to point out an instance of mistake. And 
 should a mistake happen hereafter, the person accusect\ 
 
4.7 
 
 knowing that tlie cliarge, if believed, is to shut him out 
 from the people's honours, will not be slow in repelling it, 
 -and rescuing his character from unaierited odium. 
 
 With regard to the second objection — Instead of inter- 
 fering wiih the right of election, the expedient proposed is 
 founded upon the broadest and freest exercise of that right. 
 It is the prerogative of every elector to give or to deny his 
 vote to any candidate for any reason which to himself is 
 satisfactory ; or for no other reason than his own choice. 
 He enjoys a control over his own vote which no man 
 nor body of men may question. And as he may give 
 ©r refuse it to whomsoever he pleases at the time of elec- 
 tion, so he is at perfect liberty to declare before hand, what 
 causes shall govern him in its application. 
 
 While the measure proposed does in no manner invade 
 the freedom of election, it is recommended by the most foi^ 
 cible motives of public utility and virtue. 
 
 The class of avowed duellists is too small to impoverish 
 ilie councils or offices of the state by their absence. No- 
 thing will be lost by leaving them out. 
 
 The intended remedy against their inroads upon society, 
 addresses itself to the very principle on which they profess 
 to build their practice — a sense of honour. Close up the a- 
 venues to public confidence ; Let it be heard, and seen, and 
 felt, that Duelling and Duellists are infamous, and their plea 
 is gone. If after this, any of our citizens should persist in 
 the practice, they will convict themselves, in the face of 
 heaven and earth, of fighting from the impulse of ferocious 
 malignity and thirst of blood. 
 
 The political power of the people will be arranged on the 
 side of individual virtue, of domestic happiness, and of 
 public morals. 
 
 Many an unhappy man, ^vho would otherwise be hunied 
 away by notions of false honour, and the dread of open 
 scorn, will be jneserved to himself, his family, and his 
 country. 
 
 The stream of public opinion, thus efficaciously turned 
 agabist a crime of frequent occurrence and the blackest dye. 
 
48 
 
 wiil obliterate the reproach of our name, and prevent the 
 aceinnulation of both ^uilt and suffering-. 
 
 As no retrospect is designed — what is past being- consider- 
 ed as past — an opportunity will be giv^en to such as niav 
 have been unwillingly drawn into duels, to declare them- 
 selves in the cause of their convictions and of truth. 
 
 Such," fellovz-citizens, are the sentiments which have 
 
 g-i^^en rise to the Ajiti-Dmlling Association of New-York, 
 
 You are earnestly entreated to join in a general and jjoleran 
 resolution wevGx to confide the interest of your families and 
 your counti-y to the hands of men, who, by the future com- 
 mission of the crime of duelling, shall prove that they nei- 
 ther fear God nor regard man. Such a resolution will re- 
 fute the slander that your opinions are really favourable to 
 their folly and their violence. It will put away from you, 
 as individuals, if faithfully kept, the guilt of blood. It 
 will be as beneficial to the community as it Avill be consol- 
 atory to yourselves. It wiil speak to offenders in a tone 
 wldch they will not dare to despise. And if this magna- 
 nimods conduct will not furnish an example, no example is 
 over to be furnished in the course of human things, that 
 the voice of the people is the voice of God! 
 
 By order of the Meeti7ig, 
 
 JOHN BROOME, Chairman. 
 
 LEBBEUS LOOMIS, Secretary. 
 
 Nciv-York, August Si Ii, 1B09. 
 
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