68 LAWS AGAINST DUELLING. [CHAP. XXIV. 



in another. In the Congress at Washington I had 

 seen one of the representatives of this State, the 

 worse for liquor, on his legs in the House, and I 

 afterwards heard of his being killed in a brawl in 

 Alabama; yet every one here speaks of the great 

 reform which the Temperance movement has made, 

 it being no longer an offence to decline taking a 

 dram with your host. 



When the conversation at Macon turned on duel 

 ling, I remarked to one of the lawyers, that a new 

 bill had just been passed by the State of Mississippi, 

 inflicting political disfranchisement as a penalty on 

 every one concerned, whether as first or second, in a 

 duel. He laughed, and said, &quot; We have a similar 

 statute here, but it is nugatory, for the forfeited rights 

 are always restored by the Legislature, as a matter of 

 course, if the offenders can prove that there was no 

 unfair play in the fight.&quot; Notwithstanding this 

 assertion, such enactments are not without their sig 

 nificance, and I believe that the example of New 

 England and the progress of civilisation is rapidly 

 changing the tone of public opinion in regard to this 

 barbarous practice. Soon after I left Macon, the 

 news reached us of a fatal duel at Richmond, in 

 Virginia, between two newspaper editors, one of 

 whom, in the prime of life, and leaving a family de 

 pendent on him, was killed ; and where the coroner s 

 jury had given a verdict of murder, although the 

 survivor was afterwards acquitted. The newspaper 

 comments on this tragedy, even in some of the 

 Southern States, were admirable. The following ex 

 tract may be taken as an example : &quot; Mr. P , 



