Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

516 GEOBGIA AND GEORGIANS
fleeted. Only one round was fired, the surgeons agreeing that Mr.
McDuffie was too severely wounded to continue the hostile interview.
This wound eventually caused the great orator's death. As a reason
why the bullet did not penetrate deeper, the Augusta Chronicle, some
time afterwards, in giving a purported authentic account of the affair,
made this statement: "Cumming's bullet was loaded for the side, not for
the back; and for the resistance of common drapery, not for several
folds of strong silk." * On the authority of Judge John B. O'Neill, in
his "Bench and Bar of South Carolina," the wound received by Mr.
McDuffie in this duel changed his entire disposition, embittered his life,
and sent him a wreck to his tomb.
John Forsyth was one of the ablest men of his day in the arena of
national politics. While United States minister to Spain, he negotiated
with Ferdinand VII for the purchase of Florida. He represented Geor
gia in both wings of the Federal Congress and succeeded the dauntless
troup in the chair of governor. Mr. Forsyth rounded his career in
public life as secretary of war, holding his portfolio under two presi
dents : Jackson and Van Buren. As an orator, he was superior, in the
judgment of many, even to Judge Berrien, our American Cicero, with
whom, in the famous Tariff Convention of 1833, he engaged in a grapple
of argument lasting for three days. From this contest he bore off the
laurels.
But Mr. Forsyth, when a young man, came near losing his life in a
duel which he fought with a Mr. "Williams, an affair in which the weapons
used were small swords. Mr. Forsyth received a severe wound in the
neck. When Gen. John Clark invited William H. Crawford to mortal
combat, on the eve of the famous duel at High Shoals, it was Mr. Forsyth
who, as the former's second, bore the challenge to Mr. Crawford; but
the duties in the Federal Court prevented him from serving in this
role when the duel occurred. The father of Mr. Forsyth, while holding
the office of United States marshal for Georgia, was instantly killed in
a difficulty with the noted Beverly Alien, whom he sought to arrest.
His grave in the churchyard of old St. Paul's at Augusta, is marked
by a tombstone, on which an account of the affair is inscribed. Alien
succeeded in making his escape.
One of the most distinguished of Georgia's ante-bellum physicians
was Dr. Ambrose Baber; and there were few men in the state before the
war who possessed a wider circle of friends or left a profounder impress
upon public affairs. Doctor Baber was long a resident of Macon.
Though an active practitioner of medicine, the fascinations of public
life became a charm too powerful to be resisted, especially by one whose
intellect and information, fitted him to adorn any station, t He repre
sented this country at one time as minister to Sardinia. He also sat re
peatedly in the State Senate of Georgia, and for some time prior to his
death held the office of Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Georgia
*Sabine: "Notes on Duelling," p. 242. Dr. R. J. Massey: Article in the
"Sunny South."
t Judge E. H. Clark: "Memoirs."