CHAP. XXIV.] JEALOUSY OF WEALTH. 61 



offenders can prove that there was no unfair play in the fight.&quot; 

 Notwithstanding this assertion, such enactments are not without 

 their significance, and I believe that the example of New En 

 gland and the progress of civilization 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 dependent on 

 him, was killed ; and where the coroner s jury had given a ver 

 dict of murder, although the survivor was afterward acquitted. 

 The newspaper comments on this tragedy, even in some of the 

 southern states, were admirable. The following extract may 



be taken as an example : &quot; Mr. P , a man of fifty years 



experience, had been called a coward by a young man, Mr. 

 Thomas R . This touched his honor, which must be vin 

 dicated by putting his duty as a son, a father, a citizen, a Chris 

 tian, and a man at stake. The point to be proved by being mur 

 dered, was that Tom R s opinion was incorrect, and that 



Mr. P was a man of honor and of courage. Mr. P 



is dead. Did his conduct prove that he was a brave or wise 

 man ? Is his reputation better, or is it worse for all this ? If 

 he could rise from the dead, and appear again in the streets of 

 Richmond, would he be counted more a man of courage or honor, 



than if he had never taken the least notice of T. R or his 



opinion ? Mr. R lives and has his opinion still, and other 



people have also their opinion of him,&quot; &c. 



I heard many anecdotes, when associating with small proprie 

 tors in Alabama, which convinced me that envy has a much 

 ranker growth among the aristocratic democracy of a newly set 

 tled slave state than in any part of New England which I visit 

 ed. I can scarcely conceive the ostracism of wealth or superior 

 attainments being carried farther. Let a gentleman who has 

 made a fortune at the bar, in Mobile or elsewhere, settle in some 

 retired part of the newly cleared country, his fences are pulled 

 down, and his cattle left to stray in the woods, and various 

 depredations committed, not by thieves, for none of his property 

 is carried away, but by neighbors who, knowing nothing of 



