CHAPTER VI. The Southwest a Quarter of a Century ago-Hostile Meeting with Gen. FooteFrequency of Duels in Mississippi at that time-Lord Bacon's Opinion of this "Desperate Evil," its Causes and Cure-Letters Home-Rapid Increase of Business-Recollections of him when riding the Circuit-A Night's Imprisonment-Eulogy on Lafayette. ÆT. 24-26. 1833-1835. THE Southwest, twenty-five or thirty years ago, was a country very different from what it now is. The emigrant character of a large part of the population, the adventurous spirit of the new-comers, most of whom were young men in quest of fortune, the absence of many of those restraining influences and domestic habits which mark an old established community, the sharp competitions of business and professional rivalries, almost wholly unchecked by previous acquaintance or familiar ties of friendship and kindred-these, with similar causes, naturally engendered a peculiar and anomalous state of society. Every man stood on the arena of life, alone and unpropped; his sole armor was his own native strength of will, courage and intellectual prowess. If he lacked either mental or physical nerve, the gate of fortune seemed barred against him. This was, no doubt, a severe school both for the trial and development of individual character; but it was a school which few could pass through, even successfully, without learning much of evil as well as of good. The vices which usually infest such a condition of society, were not wanting here; intemperance,* skepticism, profaneness, gambling, and fashionable dissipation-not to speak * In reference to the drinking habits of society in Mississippi, at this time, a few pas sages may be cited to advantage, from a highly interesting article, communicated to the Boston Medical Journal, of 1853, by Dr. Cartwright, a veteran physician of the Southwest. Nothing could be more instructive, or impressive, than such statistics. "The writer is one of three physicians, who located in Natchez thirty years ago. The new-comers found only one practitioner in the city belonging to the same temperance school with themselves. The country and villages, within fifteen miles around, afforded only three more. All the rest believed in the hygienic virtues of alcoholic drinks, and taught that doctrine by precept and example. Besides the practising physicians, there were ten others in the city and adjacent country, who had retired from the profession. They were all temperate. Thus, including the new-comers, the total number of temperance physicians, in and near Natchez, thirty years ago, consisted of seventeen. Of these, five have died: Dr. Henry Tooley, aged about seventy-five years; Dr. Andrew M'Creary, aged seventy; Dr. J. Kerr, sixty; Dr. Wm. Dunbar, sixty; Dr. James A. McPheeters, forty-nine. In 1823, the average ages of the seventeen was about thirty-four years. According to the Carlisle Tables of Mortality, and those of the Equitable Insurance Company of London, seven, instead of five, would have been the ratio of mortality in England. Those at present living are, Drs. D. Lattimore, W. Wren, Stephen Duncan, James Metcalf, W. N. Mercer, G. W. Grant, J. Sanderson, Benjamin F. Young, T. G. Elliott, Phoenix, Professor A. P. Merrill, and the writer. "On the other hand, every physician of Natchez and its vicinity, thirty years ago, whether practising or retired, who was in the habit of tippling, as the practice of drinking alcoholic beverages is called, has long since been numbered with the dead! Only two of them, who were comparatively temperate, lived to be grey. Their average term of life did not exceed thirty-five years; and the average term of life of those who were in the habit of taking alcoholic drinks frequently between meals and in an empty stomach, did not reach thirty years. In less than ten years after they commenced practice, the most of them died, and the whole of them have subsequently fallen, leaving not one behind in city, country, or village, within twenty miles around. "To fill the places of those who died or retired from the profession, sixty-two medical men settled in Natchez and its vicinity, between the years 1824 and 1835, embracing a period of ten years; not counting those of 1823, already mentioned. Of the sixty-two new-comers, thirty-seven were temperate, and twenty-five used alcoholic beverages between meals, though not often to the extent of producing intoxication. Of the thirty-seven who trusted to the hygienic virtues of Nature's beverage-plain, unadulterated water-nine have died, and twenty-eight are living. Of the twenty-five who trusted to the supposed hygienic virtues of ardent spirits, all are dead, except three! and they have removed to distant parts of the country. Peace be to their ashes! Though mostly noble fellows, misled by the deceitful syren, singing the praises of alcoholic drinks, to live too fast, and to be cut off in the outset of useful manhood, it is to be hoped they have not lived in vain; as by their sacrifice science has gained additional and important proof of the fallacy of the theory which attributes health-preserving properties, m a Southern climate, to alcoholic beverages in any shape or form." : now of duelling-were sadly prevalent. It would be a great volume, written within and without with lamentation, which should record all the melancholy and tragical ends to which young men of finest promise-the pride and hope of some of the best families in the country-were brought by reason of these enemies and such a story, if faithfully and candidly told, would, perhaps, often call forth our pity and charity quite as strongly as our moral censure. In truth, the temptations which beset a young man of talents, wit and companionable temper, in Mississippi, twenty-five or thirty years ago-especially if he came from the North, and was unprotected by high religious principle-were like a burning fiery furnace; one can only marvel that anybody escaped. The free and habitual use of intoxicating drinks was at that time, to be sure, pretty general throughout the country; but gambling, and a profane disregard of the sabbath,* public worship, and other institutions of Christian society, were, unquestionably, much more common in the Southwest than among the same class at the North. It was rather a fashion, and the mark of high spirit for young men of education to be skeptical, and to shoot the keen—alas ! "When Mr. PRENTISS was a member of the legislature, a proposition was introduced to grant, on the part of the State, a lot of land at Jackson-the newly located seat of Government-to each denomination of Christians, for the erection thereon of a house of worship. The proposal encountered opposition; whereupon Mr. PRENTISS rose to speak on it-no one knowing which side he was going to take-and poured forth one of his most eloquent speeches in behalf of the law. He described the happy effect of the observance of the Christian Sabbath upon a community, and the vices which spring out of its violation; drawing, in the course of his remarks, a vivid picture of a New England youth, ingenuous, free from moral stain, straying from his native hills to the far South, and there, on some bright Sabbath morn-no church-going bell warning him of his danger-seduced by one grown grey in sin into a ruinous game of cards, when he should-and, perhaps, had there been a house of God near by-would have been very differently engaged. "The law passed in due form; and now each of the denominations have a place wherein they can worship God according to the d states of their own consciences." Letter from W. C. S. too often poisoned-arrows of their wit at the sacred truths, records, and venerable observances of religion. The tone of much of the popular literature, the Byronic rage and misanthropy, the influence of a flippant and shallow Biblical criticism echoing from across the water; and, let the truth be told, the revulsion from not a little cant, morbid feeling, and narrow prejudice, which were mixed up with the genuine piety of the country; these all conspired to make many a young man talk and act like an infidel, whose education and real principles were far above such conduct. But there were others whose early associations, and whole training alike fitted them to be scoffers; young men of talent and liberal culture, perhaps, but who had never known a religious home, and whose conception of Christianity was derived, not from the NEW TESTAMENT, but from the writings of Thomas Paine, Mr. Jefferson, and the French infidels. It was a favorite custom with this class to deride what they called " conventionalism," in which they included, not merely the factitious rules and empty formalism of society, but much of its substantial morality; that morality which separates between virtue and vice, and stamps the latter with public dishonor. It would be hardly possible to appreciate the following narrative without some knowledge of this darker phasefor it was but one of the phases—of the social life of Mississippi, a quarter of a century ago. On the 5th of October, 1833, a duel occurred between Mr. Prentiss and Gen. Henry S. Foote, late Governor of Mississippi. They met at sunrise, on the Louisiana side of the river, opposite Vicksburg, and fought with pistols at ten steps. The former writes, a few days later—"I threw up my pistol as I fired, not intending to hit him at all, but so near had I been to killing him that my ball, even as I threw up my pistol, hit him on the shoulder, slightly wounding him in the flesh." His correspondence with his elder brother, describing its cause and circumstances, together with the reasons, which, in his view, justified his conduct, lies before me; but no good end would be secured by its publication. Not long after, a second meeting took place, in which Gen. Foote was wounded. These were the only duels which he ever fought. In later years, he and Gen. Foote became warm personal friends. During his last visit North, allusion was made, in his presence, to certain unhandsome reports touching that gentleman then Senator in Congress—and which grew out of the above duels. I shall not soon forget his mingled expression of mortification and regret, or the energy of tone, with which he affirmed their entire falsity.* It is not to be supposed that he could so far depart from the principles in which he had been trained, as to fight a duel without some inward struggle and misgiving. He well knew that such an act would not only be regarded with severe disapprobation throughout New England, but would pierce with anguish the hearts of those, who were dearer to him than life. The latter consideration, in particular deeply affected him. After the first meeting with Gen. Foote, an old friend, R. T. Archer, Esq., of Port Gibson, congratulated him on his escape from the necessity of taking the life of a fellow-man. He instantly burst into tears, and alluding to his mother, replied with deep pathos, that no one could imagine his relief.† But he was young, high-spirited, reckless of consequences, * In a letter, dated "SENATE CHAMBER-August 21, 1850," Gen. Foote writes. "Your brother's lamented demise shocked my sensibilities, I assure you, most profoundly, and I believe that few of his surviving friends, numerous as I know them to be, have been more distressed than myself, at his unexpected decease." He expressed the utmost solicitude lest his mother should know of the affair, and it is a singular fact, that she never did until after his death. In a letter to hi elder brother, dated October 16, 1883, he writes:-"For the last three or four weeks, |