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CHAPTER IX
BUT THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE DUEL WAS PEOM 1800 TO 1830 WHEN Two
POWERFUL PERSONALITIES DIVIDED THE STATE INTO HOSTILE CAMPS:
JOHN CLAEK AND WILLIAM 11. CRAWFORD—THESE STRONG PERSONALI
TIES PORTRAYED—PETER VAN ALLEN, A CHAMPION OF THE CLARK FAC
TION, FALLS BEFORE MR. CRAWFORD'S PISTOL—GENERAL CLARK AND
MR. CRAWFORD EXCHANGE CARDS—DIFFERENCES ARE TEMPORARILY
ADJUSTED—BUT THE FIRES BREAK OUT AGAIN—JUDGE TAIT'S CON
NECTION WITH THE AFFAIR—GENERAL CLARK PRESENTS A MEMORIAL.
TO THE LEGISLATURE ASKING FOR JUDGE TAIT'S IMPEACHMENT—THIS
BRINGS MR. CRAWFORD TO THE FRONT ONCE MORE—DUEL AT HIGH
SHOALS BETWEEN CLARK AND CRAWFORD—RULES UNDER WHICH THE
DUEL WAS FOUGHT—MR. CRAWFORD Is WOUNDED—How JUDGE
DOOLY, THE NOTED WIT, DECLINED A CHALLENGE, WITH HONOR—THE
BEE GUM EPISODE—ON DECEMBER 12, 1809, DUELLING Is FORBIDDEN
BY STATUTE BUT THE LAW REMAINS A DEAD LETTER—GENERAL
FLOYD 's DUEL WITH THREE WEAPONS—DUEL BETWEEN GUMMING AND
McDuppiE—JOHN FORSYTE WOUNDED BY A SWORD THRUST—DR. AM
BROSE BABER—SURGEON IN THE BEALL-MITCHELL AFFAIR, HE AFTER
WARDS FIGHTS A FATAL DUEL WITH THOMAS D. MITCHELL—DIES
SUDDENLY AT THE BEDSIDE OF A PATIENT—DUEL BETWEEN GEORGE
W. CRAWFORD AND THOMAS E. BURNSIDE—LAST DUEL FOUGHT IN THE
SOUTH—SOME OF THE REDEEMING FEATURES OF THE CODE DUELLO.
But the golden age of the Code Duello in Georgia was the period
extending from 1800 to 1830, when the public life of this state was
dominated by two powerful personalities: Gen. John Clark and Hon.
William H. Crawford. Party spirit has never been more rancorous
than during this period; and, indeed, to the feudal animosity between
these two noted Georgians, making them the most inveterate personal
and political enemies, some writers have even traced the; origin of par
ties in Georgia. But this is not entirely accurate. During Ithe Revolu
tionary period, our state was divided between the Whigs and Tories.
For a score of years after the Federal Constitution was adopted, the
republicans and the federalists were rival political parties in Georgia j
and while the latter was never numerically very strong in this state,,
due to the fact that some of its leaders were actively involved in the
Yazoo transaction, it was nevertheless at one time sufficiently entrenched
in the citadel of wealth to force Josiah Meigs from the presidency of
Franklin College, on the ground that he was an extreme Jeffersonian.*
At the close of the War for Independence, John Clark, with the
; W. H. Meigs: ' ' Life of Josiah Meigs,'' p. 92.
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