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.So strin-gent was Virginia s law that, unlike ordinary libel laws, it sometimes pun-ished fighting words even when they were true. 14 If they were enforced,laws like those would seemingly make it politically disadvantageous toseek public affirmation through dueling.But even these strict laws did not prevent Virginia editors from seek-ing satisfaction through the ritual of honor.The Washington Post reportedon February 22, 1884, that M.Glenman, editor of the Norfolk Virginian,and John W.H.Porter, editor of the Portsmouth Enterprise, were arrestedon the eve of a duel between them.Both, according to the report, wereleading politicians.15Even as the nineteenth century came to a close, Virginia editors werestill struggling with the code of honor.On October 8, 1893, the Washing-ton Post reported that Jefferson Wallace, secretary of the city Democraticcommittee, was arrested for sending a challenge to Joseph Bryan, ownerand editor of the Richmond Times.16 The code of honor remained a threatto journalism as late as the twentieth century.The Washington Post reportedthat in 1903 E.M.Slack, editor of the Abingdon Virginian, received a chal-lenge from a J.W.McBroom, a postal clerk and son of the local postmas-ter.17 In both cases, it was not clear whether a duel was actually fought,but it illustrates that the language of honor was still in the public con-sciousness.Louisiana, with its strong European ties, was also a region inpost Civil War America where the code of honor still held fast.The AtlantaConstitution reported that Col.R.Barnwell Rhett, Jr., editor of the NewOrleans Picayune, fought and killed Judge William A.Cooley in a July 1,1873, duel.About four years earlier, the New Orleans Times reported onJune 3, 1869, that L.Placide Canonge, editor of the Epogue, received achallenge from Paul Alhaisa, one of the managers of an area opera house.The two fought with swords, and Canonge received a minor wound.Thereport said it was expected that he also would duel the other opera housemanager in the following days.18 In a pistol duel, Major H.J.Hearsey, edi-tor of the New Orleans Daily States, and E.A.Burke, state treasurer andone of the proprietors of the Democrat, exchanged two shots before reach-ing an amicable agreement in a bloodless duel.19As in Virginia, dueling continued for Louisiana editors well into thelate nineteenth century.A.B.Roman, editor of the New Orleans Louisianaise,exchanged three shots in a bloodless duel with J.E.Poche.20 After five Seven Decline of Dueling as a Resolution for Defamation 143shots, E.A.Burke was wounded in both thighs on June 8, 1882, in a duelwith C.H.Parker, editor-in-chief of the New-Orleans Picayune.21 As lateas 1891, Louisiana editors were still resorting to ritual violence, accordingto a September 26 account in the Chicago Daily Tribune about NewOrleans: A Captain and twenty policeman patrolled Camp and Natchezstreets this afternoon.They were there to prevent a hostile meeting betweenCol.John C.Wickliffe, editor of the New Delta, and Gen.George W.Dupre, editor of the Evening States.Shortly after, both parties were arrestedon warrants for being about to commit a breach of the peace, and placedunder bonds and the police were withdrawn. 22 Their argument was overthe patronage Dupre was receiving as state printer.23 He was not a strangerto dueling, having been wounded in the jaw in a June 6, 1891, duel withDr.S.R.Oliphant of the Louisiana Board of Health.24As was the case in the antebellum years, some communities after theCivil War still refused to convict duelists, which in turn left the commu-nity newspaper editor a target for ritual violence.Such was the casein Charleston, South Carolina, when Colonel E.B.C.Cash goadedW.M.Shannon into a duel on July 5, 1880.Shannon, a plaintiff attorneyin a lawsuit which involved Cash s wife and her brother, was killed inthe affair.25 Only the second duelist in the history of the state to be puton trial for murder, Cash was acquitted after an initial mistrial.26 Beforeand during the trial, the Colonel s son, W.B.Cash, went on what the NewYork Times described as a crusade against newspaper editors. 27 The NewYork Times wrote: The editors of the News and Courier treated Cash sdemand that adverse criticisms must cease from date with dignified con-tempt, but two of their correspondents, who live on the spot, seemed moreseriously impressed with the situation.One publicly retracted all he eversaid, and seems ready to affirm, under oath, that no duel occurred; theother took refuge behind the worn out excuse typographical blun-ders. 28The threat of ritual violence was not a hollow threat, as the editor ofthe Cheraw Sun, a nearby newspaper, soon found out.According to theWashington Post, when the editor, Mr.Pegues (first name not given),denounced the duel in his newspaper, both the elder Cash and his sonattacked him with drawn pistols.The report said, Pegues was only savedby being thrust by his friends into an open doorway where he was lockedup. 29 It was also evident by the report that Cash felt validated by the codeof honor to suppress negative comments written about him in the press: It is the avowed intention of this pair of brutal bullies to regulate the pressof South Carolina.There must be no unpleasant allusions to the recent 144 Pistols, Politics and the Pressmurder.Col.Cash must be treated as a man of unsullied honor, or he andhis son, armed to the teeth, will fall on any editor who offends, and shoothim down like a dog.The code has had its day, and even in its zenithit was never intended to shield such fellows as these Cashes from the blowsof outraged law. 30 No arrests were made in this incident.31 In addition,the Washington Post reported, under the headline Political Ethics of Duel-ing, that by 1883, newspapers such as the National Republican were doingall that could be done to elect Cash to a seat in Congress.32In areas in the South, it was not uncommon for journalists to crossover state lines, as they had before the Civil War, to avoid arrest in theirown state for dueling.For instance, the Atlanta Constitution described aplace called Sand Bar Ferry, located along the state line, as still a favoriteresort for belligerent parties from the States of Georgia and South Car-olina. 33 Two South Carolina editors, J.T.Heyward, editor of the Orange-burg Times, and Malcom J.Browning, editor of the Orangeburg News,exchanged two shots there in a bloodless duel on December 8, 1873.34Georgia duelists would duel on the South Carolina side, and South Car-olinians would duel on the Georgia side, thus avoiding the jurisdiction oftheir local authority.35Journalists in the post Civil War era would go to great lengths to duelwithout interference by the authorities.When E.W.Carmack of the Mem-phis Commercial and W.A.Connolly, editor pro tem of the MemphisAppeal-Avalanche, feared arrest in Tennessee before they could duel, theydecided to travel to Holly Springs, Mississippi, to evade the authorities.The Washington Post reported on May 7, 1893, that the authorities caughtup with them before they reached their destination.36 The Washington Postwrote:In arranging to have the meeting at a point seventy or eighty miles distant,the seconds invited the incredulity of every rational human being.Bygoing to Holly Springs they simply quadrupled the difficulties of the caseand in a corresponding ratio diminished the probability of a fight [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.So strin-gent was Virginia s law that, unlike ordinary libel laws, it sometimes pun-ished fighting words even when they were true. 14 If they were enforced,laws like those would seemingly make it politically disadvantageous toseek public affirmation through dueling.But even these strict laws did not prevent Virginia editors from seek-ing satisfaction through the ritual of honor.The Washington Post reportedon February 22, 1884, that M.Glenman, editor of the Norfolk Virginian,and John W.H.Porter, editor of the Portsmouth Enterprise, were arrestedon the eve of a duel between them.Both, according to the report, wereleading politicians.15Even as the nineteenth century came to a close, Virginia editors werestill struggling with the code of honor.On October 8, 1893, the Washing-ton Post reported that Jefferson Wallace, secretary of the city Democraticcommittee, was arrested for sending a challenge to Joseph Bryan, ownerand editor of the Richmond Times.16 The code of honor remained a threatto journalism as late as the twentieth century.The Washington Post reportedthat in 1903 E.M.Slack, editor of the Abingdon Virginian, received a chal-lenge from a J.W.McBroom, a postal clerk and son of the local postmas-ter.17 In both cases, it was not clear whether a duel was actually fought,but it illustrates that the language of honor was still in the public con-sciousness.Louisiana, with its strong European ties, was also a region inpost Civil War America where the code of honor still held fast.The AtlantaConstitution reported that Col.R.Barnwell Rhett, Jr., editor of the NewOrleans Picayune, fought and killed Judge William A.Cooley in a July 1,1873, duel.About four years earlier, the New Orleans Times reported onJune 3, 1869, that L.Placide Canonge, editor of the Epogue, received achallenge from Paul Alhaisa, one of the managers of an area opera house.The two fought with swords, and Canonge received a minor wound.Thereport said it was expected that he also would duel the other opera housemanager in the following days.18 In a pistol duel, Major H.J.Hearsey, edi-tor of the New Orleans Daily States, and E.A.Burke, state treasurer andone of the proprietors of the Democrat, exchanged two shots before reach-ing an amicable agreement in a bloodless duel.19As in Virginia, dueling continued for Louisiana editors well into thelate nineteenth century.A.B.Roman, editor of the New Orleans Louisianaise,exchanged three shots in a bloodless duel with J.E.Poche.20 After five Seven Decline of Dueling as a Resolution for Defamation 143shots, E.A.Burke was wounded in both thighs on June 8, 1882, in a duelwith C.H.Parker, editor-in-chief of the New-Orleans Picayune.21 As lateas 1891, Louisiana editors were still resorting to ritual violence, accordingto a September 26 account in the Chicago Daily Tribune about NewOrleans: A Captain and twenty policeman patrolled Camp and Natchezstreets this afternoon.They were there to prevent a hostile meeting betweenCol.John C.Wickliffe, editor of the New Delta, and Gen.George W.Dupre, editor of the Evening States.Shortly after, both parties were arrestedon warrants for being about to commit a breach of the peace, and placedunder bonds and the police were withdrawn. 22 Their argument was overthe patronage Dupre was receiving as state printer.23 He was not a strangerto dueling, having been wounded in the jaw in a June 6, 1891, duel withDr.S.R.Oliphant of the Louisiana Board of Health.24As was the case in the antebellum years, some communities after theCivil War still refused to convict duelists, which in turn left the commu-nity newspaper editor a target for ritual violence.Such was the casein Charleston, South Carolina, when Colonel E.B.C.Cash goadedW.M.Shannon into a duel on July 5, 1880.Shannon, a plaintiff attorneyin a lawsuit which involved Cash s wife and her brother, was killed inthe affair.25 Only the second duelist in the history of the state to be puton trial for murder, Cash was acquitted after an initial mistrial.26 Beforeand during the trial, the Colonel s son, W.B.Cash, went on what the NewYork Times described as a crusade against newspaper editors. 27 The NewYork Times wrote: The editors of the News and Courier treated Cash sdemand that adverse criticisms must cease from date with dignified con-tempt, but two of their correspondents, who live on the spot, seemed moreseriously impressed with the situation.One publicly retracted all he eversaid, and seems ready to affirm, under oath, that no duel occurred; theother took refuge behind the worn out excuse typographical blun-ders. 28The threat of ritual violence was not a hollow threat, as the editor ofthe Cheraw Sun, a nearby newspaper, soon found out.According to theWashington Post, when the editor, Mr.Pegues (first name not given),denounced the duel in his newspaper, both the elder Cash and his sonattacked him with drawn pistols.The report said, Pegues was only savedby being thrust by his friends into an open doorway where he was lockedup. 29 It was also evident by the report that Cash felt validated by the codeof honor to suppress negative comments written about him in the press: It is the avowed intention of this pair of brutal bullies to regulate the pressof South Carolina.There must be no unpleasant allusions to the recent 144 Pistols, Politics and the Pressmurder.Col.Cash must be treated as a man of unsullied honor, or he andhis son, armed to the teeth, will fall on any editor who offends, and shoothim down like a dog.The code has had its day, and even in its zenithit was never intended to shield such fellows as these Cashes from the blowsof outraged law. 30 No arrests were made in this incident.31 In addition,the Washington Post reported, under the headline Political Ethics of Duel-ing, that by 1883, newspapers such as the National Republican were doingall that could be done to elect Cash to a seat in Congress.32In areas in the South, it was not uncommon for journalists to crossover state lines, as they had before the Civil War, to avoid arrest in theirown state for dueling.For instance, the Atlanta Constitution described aplace called Sand Bar Ferry, located along the state line, as still a favoriteresort for belligerent parties from the States of Georgia and South Car-olina. 33 Two South Carolina editors, J.T.Heyward, editor of the Orange-burg Times, and Malcom J.Browning, editor of the Orangeburg News,exchanged two shots there in a bloodless duel on December 8, 1873.34Georgia duelists would duel on the South Carolina side, and South Car-olinians would duel on the Georgia side, thus avoiding the jurisdiction oftheir local authority.35Journalists in the post Civil War era would go to great lengths to duelwithout interference by the authorities.When E.W.Carmack of the Mem-phis Commercial and W.A.Connolly, editor pro tem of the MemphisAppeal-Avalanche, feared arrest in Tennessee before they could duel, theydecided to travel to Holly Springs, Mississippi, to evade the authorities.The Washington Post reported on May 7, 1893, that the authorities caughtup with them before they reached their destination.36 The Washington Postwrote:In arranging to have the meeting at a point seventy or eighty miles distant,the seconds invited the incredulity of every rational human being.Bygoing to Holly Springs they simply quadrupled the difficulties of the caseand in a corresponding ratio diminished the probability of a fight [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]