The Reality of Gun Worship in America. The Career of a Louisianna Dueller.

Excerpt from General Butler in New Orleans by James Parton, pages 259-263
Mason Brothers, New York, 1864

Let me relate one of Dr. McCormick's duel anecdotes; he having witnessed the scenes he described, and assisted at them as attending surgeon. The events occurred near New Orleans - the parties well known there, all of them being men of wealth and great note in the cotton kingdom. Time, 1841.
The principals were Colonel Augustus Alston, a graduate of West Point, and Colonel Lee Reed; planters, both; chief men of their county; politicians, of course. Long-standing, bitter feud between the families, aggravated by political aspirations and disappointments; the whole county sympathizing with one or the other - eagerly, wildly sympathizing. The quarrel relieved the tedium of idleness; served instead of morning paper to the men, supplied the want of new novels to the women. At length, one of the Alston party, on slight pretext, challenged Reed, which challenge Reed refused to accept; no man but Alston for his pistol. Another Alstonian challenge, and yet another, he declined. Then Alston himself sent a challenge - Alston, the best shot in a state whose citizens cultivated the deadly art with the zeal of saints toiling after perfection. This challenge Lee instantly accepted. Weapon, the rifle, hair-trigger, ounce ball. Men to stand at twenty paces, back to back; to wheel at the word One; to fire as soon as they pleased after the word; the second to continue counting as far as five; after which, no firing.
Lee was a slow, portly man - a good shot if he could fire in his own way without this preliminary wheeling. He regarded himself as a dead man; he felt that he had no chance whatever of his life on such terms, not one in a thousand. He bought a coffin and a shroud, and arranged all his affairs for immediate death. The day before the duel, his second, a captain in the army, took him out of town and gave him a long drill in the wheel-and-fire exercise. The pupil was inapt - could not get the knack of wheeling. If he wheeled quickly, his aim was bad; if he wheeled slowly, there was no need of his aiming at all, for his antagonist was as ready with heel as with trigger, from old training at West Point. "Lee," said the captain, "you must wheel quicker or you've no chance." Stimulated with this remark, Lee wheeled with velocity, and fired with such success as to bring down a neighbor riding along the road.
Lee sent his coffin and shroud to the field. Mrs. Alston accompanied her husband. "I have come," she said, "to see Lee Reed shot."
The men were placed, and the second counted one. In swiftly wheeling, the light cape of Alston's coat touched the hair-trigger, and his ball whistled over Reed's head, who stood amazed, with rifle half presented. The word two, recalled him to himself; he fired; and Alston fell pierced through the heart. Mrs. Alston flew to her fallen husband, and found the ball which had slain him. In the sight and hearing of the witnesses of the duel, her dead husband bleeding at her feet, she lifted up the ball, and with loud voice and fierce dramatic gesture, swore that that ball should kill Lee Reed.
Now, observe the conduct of the "chivalry" upon this occassion. Note the Public Opinion of that community. Were they touched by Lee's magnificent courage? Were they moved to gentler thoughts by Alston's just but lamentable end? The Montagues and Capulets were reconciled over dead Juliet and Romeo:
"O brother Montague, give me thy hand;
This is my daughter's jointure; for no more
Can I demand." Not so, the chivalry of the South. In the afternoon, ten of the Alston party, headed by Willis Alston, brother of the deceased, drew themselves up, rifle in hand, bowie-knife and pistol in belt, before the hotel in which the adherents of Reed were assembled congratulating their chief. They sent in a messenger challenging ten of the Lee party to come forth and fight them in the public square. Much parleying ensued, which ended in the refusal of the Lees to accept the invitation. A few days after, Lee was seated at the table of the hotel, in the public dining-room, at which also sat men, ladies and children - a large number - Dr. McCormick among them. Willis Alston entered, took his stand opposite Lee, drew a pistol, and shot him through the liver. The wound was not mortal. After some months of confinement, Lee was well again, and went about as usual, the bloody-minded Alston still loose among the people. They met at length in the streets of the town, and Alston shot him again, inflicting this time a mortal wound.
Then, there was a hideous farce of a trial. Every man in the court-room, except two, was armed to the teeth. Those two were the judge, and the principal witness, Doctor McCormick. The jurymen all had a rifle at their side in the jury-box - twelve men, twelve rifles. The prisoner had two enormous horse-pistols protruding from his vest. The spectators were all armed; the Lees to prevent a rescue in case of conviction, the Alstons to protect their man in case of acquital. The counsel for the accused admitted that their client had shot the deceased, but contended that the would then inflicted was not the cause of his death. Doctor McCormick was called, and took the stand amid the deepest silence, the prisoner glaring at him like the wild beast he was.
"Is it your belief that the deceased came to his death from the wound inflicted by the prisoner at the bar?"
"I have no belief on the subject," replied the witness. "It is not a matter of belief, but of fact. I know he did."
That night, the trial not yet concluded, the prisoner deemed it best to escape from prison. He went to Texas; met on a road there an old enemy, whom he shot dead in his saddle; and on reaching the next town, boasted of his exploit to the murdered man's friends and neighbors. Thirty of them seized him, tied him to a tree, and shot him, all the thirty firing at once, to divide the responsibility among them. And so the brute's career was fitly ended.
Nor can we pity the murdered Reed, brave as he was; for he, too, was a man of blood. They tell of an early duel of his so incredibly savage, that, in comparison with it, General Jackson's little affair with Charles Dickinson seems the play of boys. Picture it. Two men standing sixty feet apart, back to back, each armed with two revolvers and a bowie knife. They are to wheel at the word, approach one another firing, fire as fast as they choose, advance as rapidly as they choose. Pistols failing, then the grapple and the knife. As it was arranged, so it was done. Lee fired his last charge, but his antagonist was still erect. The men were within six feet of one another, when Lee, bleeding fast from several wounds, collected his remaining strength, and threw his pistol, with desparate force in his antagonist's face, and felled him with the blow. Lee staggered forward, and fell upon him. Drawing his knife, he was seen feeling for the heart of his enemy, and having found it, he placed the point of the knife over it and tried to drive it home. He could not. Then holding the knife with one hand he tried to raise himself with the other, so as to fall upon the knife, and kill his adversary by mere gravitation. This amazing spectacle was too much even for the seconds in a southern duel, one of whom seized the man by the feet and drew him off. It was found that his antagonist was dead where he lay; but Lee recovered to figure in another of these savage conflicts, and to die by violence in the streets.

Slavery & Secession Then, Slavery & Secession Now

Even today, a hundred and fifty years after the defeat of the Rebellion of the Slavers, that treasonous uprising is glorified by many who lie about the causes of the rebellion and the events that occurred. The traitors, fools, ne'er-do wells, and the rabid racists who supported the rebellion are recast as heroes. The biggest lie told though is that the Rebellion had nothing to do with slavery, that it was about freedom from oppression by an authoritarian Federal Government. Well, here is a speech from Representative Garnett of Virginia given in 1859 that speaks to the lie perpetuated by modern apologists for the insurrection that caused the deaths of over a million Americans, but freed six million from bondage by a self-appointed aristocracy of slavers willing to fight to the last Southerner to defend their "property."

For perspective please remember a few things. The "liberty" that Southerners were want to defend was their right to force slavery into every corner of the USA, to force "Free" states in the North to become slaver states. When reading Garnett's cynical speech it is necessary to remember the REAL PAST. The slavers were angry because the North opposed their expansion of that vile institution into the North. The racist Taney Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott decision that blacks had zero rights, were not even human, and that any slaver could take any and all slaves to the free North and their "property" had to be respected! The Fugitive Slave Act forced Northern Free States to return humans who had escaped bondage, bound all state and local authorities to do so under threat of Federal prosecution! New lands in the West were being opened for white settlement and the North wished to assure that they NOT be slaver lands, while the slavers wished to extend their "rights" into the farthest corner of the USA. Finally many Southern aristocrats wanted to fight wars in the Caribbean and South America to EXTEND the boundaries of their slaver economy while Northerners resisted. So with this in mind, please read Mr Garnett's defense of slavery and secession written BEFORE the Rebellion.

No Interference With Slavery In The States
Muscoe R. H. Garnett of Virginia
United States House of Representatives, December 7 1859

The gentleman from New York [Mr. CLARK] told us yesterday that he never knew an Abolitionist in New York; he in whose district the church of Doctor Cheever reverberates, Sunday after Sunday, with sentiments of treason and bloodshed; he in whose State a Senator was chosen, to represent the people in this Congress, marked above all others by his bold, imperturbable calculations, by his deep-laid plans, by his acting upon a calculated system, where you can mark out his course, step by step, from year to year - all connected parts of one whole - who, as my friend from South Carolina [Mr. KEITT] showed yesterday, before he ever entered the Senate, uttered sentiments the same in substance though not in form as Helper's - a Senator who preaches up to the country that there is an irrepressible conflict between the two sections of the country, which must result in the overthrow of one or the other - a Senator who is a representative man of his party, whom they intend to nominate for the presidency, and if they do not do it, it will be only because they are scared out of it! No Abolitionists in New York or in the North! when at Albany one hundred minute guns were fired there in mourning for the death of John Brown! No Abolitionists in Natick! when a large public meeting of sympathy was held for Brown, of which a Senator from the State of Massachusetts was present! No Abolitionists in Massachusetts! when, in the Senate of Massachusetts, they found nearly a majority in favor of adjourning on the day of the execution of Brown! No Abolitionists at Cleveland! when, as a friend from Indiana tells me, that city was draped in mourning, and five thousand men were attending a public meeting, to express their sentiments upon that event, upon the day of the execution of Brown! You do not mean to interfere with slavery in the States! So the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. SHERMAN] told us yesterday, though his remarks are somewhat diluted in the report of them which appears in the Globe to-day. He and his party do not mean to interfere with slavery in the States; but they mean to hold southern people to the yoke, and to organize Territory after Territory, into which no southern man shall be permitted to go with his property. They mean to hem us in, as with a wall of fire, as I think Mr. SEWARD said, until the institution is so cribbed and confined that it will perish for want of sustenance. They do not mean to interfere with slavery in the States, and yet when a band of assassins violate the sacred soil of my native State, we hear not one word of denunciation from you. You do not mean to interfere with slavery in the States, and yet you find societies at the North planning deliberately to render the institution valueless upon the borders, by running off the slaves, until the owners are compelled to sell them to the South, or to emancipate and give them up to you. You do not mean to interfere with slavery in the States, and yet, though the Constitution guarantees the right of reclaiming fugitives from labor, laws are passed refusing to allow us the use of northern jails; you turn your judges out of office if they assist in enforcing the law for the reclamation of fugitives from labor, and you attack and use violence against our citizens when they appear there to reclaim their property. Call you this no interference with slavery in the States? Call you the incessant war against it waged from your press, your pulpit, and your hustings, no interference with slavery in the States? Why do you not carry on this crusade against monarchy in Europe, or against aristocracy in England, if it is a mere desire to correct public evils all over the world? Why not organize a society against slavery in Cuba and Brazil? Why not inaugurate political crusades against every system of government that we disapprove in every part of the world? No, sir; these benefits, those kind offices are reserved for us - for your brethren, your fellows of the southern States.
Years ago, as far back as 1836, Governor Marcy then Governor of the State of New York, advised the Legislature of that State to pass laws preventing and suppressing incendiary appeals of abolition societies - few in number at that time - inciting the slaves to insurrection. These few societies have become numerous. Their principles are the shibboleth of the great political party of the North. Yet what Governor of any of the northern States dare now make such a recommendation as Mr. Marcy made twenty-three years ago! When Walker organizes a company of filibusters and descends on Nicaragua, a country with which we are at peace, you appeal to the neutrality laws that are properly on your statute books - you say we have no right to allow our territory to be used for organizing piratical expeditions against a friendly foreign Power; and you call on the President of the United States to use the Army and Navy to suppress such expeditions, and to protect this foreign Power from them. And you do so properly. Nay, when Commodore Paulding exceeds his legal power in order to execute this law; when he does what he has no right to do in making a descent on this foreign country, you pass resolutions of approval. But here we are - no foreign State - we are confederated States; here we are, no half-barbarian Nicaragua, but your brethren of the Anglo-Saxon race; your fellow-citizens under a common flag, under the pretended protection of a common Constitution - and which one of your States will pass laws suppressing these expeditions against the South? Which one of your States will pass neutrality laws to punish the men who advise and the men who take part in these piratical expeditions against the peace and safety of the southern States? So far from it, when you discover men actually concerned in them, you allow them, with impunity, to publish statements declaring that they take themselves to Canada to evade United States process. With impunity your Senators rise in the other end of the Capitol and denounce the Federal judiciary, because of its process to summon them as witnesses. With impunity, men high in your society, men at the head of your literary circles, men like Dr. Howe, acknowledge their complicity by supplying money and arms to expeditions aimed against the South, and then they flee from the jurisdiction of the Federal court

The Congressional Globe, The Official Proceedings of Congress, Published by John C. Rives, Washington, D. C.
Thirty-Sixth Congress, 1st Session, New Series...No. 1, Wednesday, December 8, 1859, page 44.