The Lancaster Ledger

MISCELLANEOUS.

CONGRESSIONAL DUELS.

The recent affair of Mr. Brooks of South Carolina, has given an unusual degree of interest to the subject of duelling, and revived the recollections of some of the more celebrated Congressional affairs of honor.

Duels have been fought by members of Congress from the very commencement of our existence as a nation! In the affairs last, generally supposed than is generally supposed. In the course. In fact, a thorough searching that have been sent from the opening of the first Congress in Philadelphia to the affair between Brooks and Sumner, do not exceed twenty-five in number—and not half of that have been fought by members at the British Parliament—

To rate raw make alogue, and they have had about that are the subjects al as or so English in the official zion in this country. They our National Legislature.

The read-will peth. There have been but three in less of years, since the Declaration of Independence The thing finally a member congress a duel was that Edward Burien Cannett and Leland Mele'asudn 1777 The age both of the State s fine gin. Hough Gwinnett oal wn a man' o Congress. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, al his ante gs. oa an dhr in the sm. The dispute was ud a por-opyl yor and the duel can hardly be called ever sim al cnounter, as it did not grow out of any net ot ether party cantote with politi-:

The next affair of honor in which a member congress was implicated, out el in 1797, and was strictly Congressional, as it was occasioned by a personal speech Kuhn das, The parts were Thomas Boaz, Koasntntie Aom Noath Gao. Iunt, ansie Jhl, Tiontah r, Gon Munl- st. The doctor was Ioa who took pne at a wood oesn al as enesin he ue, by Tteher, who, on receiving the myiin to hish, degined gaganaser hocn'wht) in d aad oiainlyconent, and tla themetr Iropial Seven wous afio. woi, i leotsnsadanksan afdhat sia, wes woonlel in a duel wih eo. Wakins ; the cane of the dte was go) litiol Int not a congrossional giarre.-

In the year 1804, John Hunter, a Senator from New Jersey, sent a challenge to DeWitt Clinton, then a Senator for New York, on account of an offensive remark made by the latter in a debate, for which he made an apology that was read in the Senate.

In 1807 an Man a Senator from Va sh, was killed in a duel by his relative McCarty, also a Virginian: but though the cause of the duel was political, it did not originate in Congress.

The next affair of honor in which a member of congress was a party, was the celebrated affair of McDuffie, of South Carolina, and Col Cummings, of Georgia which came off in the year 1822. The famous affair between Henry Clay and John Randolph occurred four years after the last, in 1826. The next year, Mr. Vance, an ex-member of Congress from North Carolina, was killed in a duel by Mr. Carson, a member from the same State, Ten years afterwards, in 1837. Mr. Dromgoole, a member of Congress from Virginia, was mortally wounded in a duel with Mr. Dejarnett, of the same State. In 1838 the still freshly remembered meeting took place between Jonathan Cilley, of Maine, and Wm J. Graves of Kentucky, both members of Congress, in which the former was killed. This tragical affair excited a feeling in the public mind so repugnant to the duello, that it was not until the year 1851 that another affair of honor grew out of a congressional quarrel, when Mr. Stanley, of North Carolina, and Mr. Inge, of Alabama met, and exchanged shots without doing each other any personal injury, and then explained and became friends. Two years afterwards, Mr. Inge was the second of Senator Gwin, of California, who fought with Mr. McCorkle, a representative of the same State. Though members of Congress, the duel grew out of expressions used by one of the parties at a race-course in California, where the meeting took place.

In 1854 the affair between Mr Cutting of this city, and Mr. Breckenridge, the present Vice President of the United States occurred, in which no meeting took place, from the difficulty of deciding which party had given the challenge.

The list of Congressional duels is by no means a formidable one; and, considering the virulence with which our partisan quarrels have been conducted, and the strong sectional feelings which have always existed among the members of our National Legislature, it is extremely meagre and favorable to the moral character of our people.