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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 497
usually in the earlier stages of his career. If one refused to fight when
challenged by a gentleman he was at once posted; and such an open
disgrace meant social ostracism. Political honors were not awarded to
cowards nor to those who, weighed in the balances of an imperious ^ ;
custom, were found wanting in courage; and, for upwards of a hundred II
years, the public life of this state was ruled with a rod of iron by that
grim arbiter of destinies: the Code Duello. ...
For the paramount sway of the duelling pistol in a state like Georgia P
there were sound reasons. To begin with, the partisanship of the Revo
lution entailed upon us a host of feudal animosities. It also engen^
dered the military spirit, to which life on the frontier gave constant
exercise, through the ever-present dread of an Indian outbreak. Chil
dren at play revelled in the use of toy weapons, with which they stormed
imaginary forts and citadels. The long protracted warfare between
Clark and Crawford, at a later period, divided the state into two hostile '
camps, in consequence of which there were personal wrangles and dis
putes without number.
Scores of the best families of our state traced descent from the nobil- ||
ity of England; and there was ingrained in the very nature of the aver
age Georgian an inherent love of personal encounter, as old as the
tilt-yards of the Norman Conqueror. While the main body of our popu
lation was of English origin, there was an intermingling of two other
strains in which the duel found a congenial soil: the Scotch-Irish, grim
and silent, tenacious of personal opinion, untaught to yield an inch of
ground; and the French Huguenot, fiery and impulsive, full of the mili- . i
tary spirit, and prone, without thought of consequences, to seek the
bubble, Reputation, at the cannon's mouth. Nor is it strange that in a
state which knew little of the austere Puritan there should have flour
ished an institution reflecting the love of swordsmanship, the relish
for adventure, and the contempt of personal danger, which, from time
immemorial, have been peculiar to the English Cavalier.
The earliest duel of which there is any mention in the records of
Georgia was the fatal encounter which occurred, on May 15, 1777, be
tween Button Gwinnett and Lachlan Mclntosh.* It was just after the
adoption of our first State Constitution and when the state was in the
midst of preparations for an expected invasion by the British. Both
combatants were zealous Whigs and men of the highest distinction in
public affairs. Button Gwinnett had been one of the revered trio of
patriots to sign the immortal scroll of independence on behalf of Georgia
and had subsequently administered the affairs of the province as presi
dent of the Executive Council. Lachlan Mclntosh was at this time the
commanding officer of Georgia's first battalion of state troops and was
destined to attain high rank as a soldier under Washington. The mis
understanding between the two men grew out of a heated controversy
in which they were both rivals for the same office: that of commandant
* Jones: ' ' History of Georgia,'' Vol. II, p. 270; McCall: '' History of Georgia,''
Vol. II, pp. 331-335, reprint.