Editing Duel (section)

===Modern history===
[[File:Mühlberg - Säbelmensur.jpg|thumb|300px|German students of a [[Burschenschaft]] fighting a sabre duel, around 1900, painting by [[Georg Mühlberg]] (1863–1925)]]

The former [[United States Secretary of the Treasury]] [[Alexander Hamilton]] was killed in a duel against the sitting [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]] [[Aaron Burr]] in 1804. Between 1798 and the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]] lost two-thirds as many officers to dueling as it did in combat at sea, including naval hero [[Stephen Decatur]]. Many of those killed or wounded were [[Midshipman|midshipmen]] or junior officers. Despite prominent deaths, dueling persisted because of contemporary ideals of [[chivalry]], particularly in the [[Dueling in the United States South|South]], and because of the threat of ridicule if a challenge was rejected.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/duel/sfeature/dueling.html |title=The American Experience &#124; Dueling, American Style |publisher=PBS |access-date=2012-10-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121111235400/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/duel/sfeature/dueling.html |archive-date=2012-11-11 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |author=Drake, Ross |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/duel.html |title=Duel! Defenders of honor or shoot-on-sight vigilantes? Even in 19th-century America, it was hard to tell |magazine=Smithsonian Magazine |date=March 2004 |access-date=2012-10-22 |archive-date=2014-01-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107225246/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/duel.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

By about 1770, the duel underwent a number of important changes in [[England]]. Firstly, unlike their counterparts in many [[Continental Europe|continental nations]], English duelists enthusiastically adopted the pistol, and sword duels dwindled.<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/techniques/pup_wd.html] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060422021753/http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/techniques/pup_wd.html|date=April 22, 2006}}</ref> Special sets of [[Duelling pistol|dueling pistols]] were crafted for the wealthiest of noblemen for this purpose. Also, the office of 'second' developed into 'seconds' or 'friends' being chosen by the aggrieved parties to conduct their honor dispute. These friends would attempt to resolve a dispute upon terms acceptable to both parties and, should this fail, they would arrange and oversee the mechanics of the encounter.<ref name="KEG">{{cite web |url=http://keepenglefieldgreen.org/page12.htm |title=The common is steeped in history, at Keep Englefield Green – The Heritage |publisher=Keepenglefieldgreen.org |access-date=2010-05-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726214658/http://keepenglefieldgreen.org/page12.htm |archive-date=2011-07-26}}</ref>

In England, to kill in the course of a duel was formally judged as [[murder]], but generally the courts were very lax in applying the law, as they were sympathetic to the culture of honor.<ref>Banks, S. "Very little law in the case: Contests of Honour and the Subversion of the English Criminal Courts, 1780-1845"</ref> Despite being a criminal act, military officers in many countries could be punished if they failed to fight a duel when the occasion called for it. In 1814, a British officer was court-martialed, [[cashiering|cashiered]], and dismissed from the army for failing to issue a challenge after he was publicly insulted.<ref>Hoptin (2011), pp.26-27</ref> This attitude lingered on – [[Queen Victoria]] even expressed a hope that [[James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan|Lord Cardigan]], prosecuted for wounding another in a duel, "would get off easily". The [[Anglican Church]] was generally hostile to dueling, but [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|non-conformist]] sects in particular began to actively campaign against it.

By 1840, dueling had declined dramatically; when the [[James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan|7th Earl of Cardigan]] was acquitted on a legal technicality for homicide in connection with a duel with one of his former officers,<ref>{{cite book |title=The Trial of James Thomas Earl of Cardigan before the Right Honourable the House of Peers, etc. |publisher=Published by order of the House of Peers |year=1841 |location=London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QdYKAAAAYAAJ}}</ref> outrage was expressed in the media, with ''[[The Times]]'' alleging that there was deliberate, high-level complicity to leave the loophole in the prosecution and reporting the view that "in England there is one law for the rich and another for the poor," and ''[[The Examiner (1808–86)|The Examiner]]'' describing the verdict as "a defeat of justice."<ref name="examiner18040221">{{cite news |last=Staff |date=21 February 1841 |title=Defeat of Justice |newspaper=The Examiner |publisher=Albany Fonblanque |location=London |issue=1725}}</ref><ref>''[[The Times]]'' 17 February and 18 February 1841, quoted in Woodham-Smith (1953)</ref>

The last-known fatal duel between Englishmen in England occurred in 1845, when [[James Alexander Seton]] had an altercation with Henry Hawkey over the affections of his wife, leading to a duel at Browndown, near [[Gosport]]. However, [[Englefield Green#The last duel in England|the last-known fatal duel]] to occur in [[England]] was between two French political refugees, Frederic Cournet and [[Emmanuel Barthélemy]] near [[Englefield Green]] in 1852; the former was killed.<ref name="KEG" /> In both cases, the winners of the duels, Hawkey<ref>{{cite news |title=Trial of Lieutenant Hawkey for the Wilful Murder of Lieutenant Seton in a Duel |work=Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle |date=July 18, 1846 |location=Portsmouth, England |issue=2441}}</ref> and Barthélemy,<ref name="executedtoday" /> were tried for murder. But Hawkey was acquitted and Barthélemy was convicted only of manslaughter; he served seven months in prison.<ref name="executedtoday">{{cite web |url=http://www.executedtoday.com/2014/01/22/1855-emmanuel-barthelemy-duelist/ |title=1855: Emmanuel Barthelemy, duelist |work=Executed Today |date=22 January 2014 |access-date=25 October 2014}}</ref>

[[File:AntiDuelingPamphletEliphaletNott1804.jpg|thumb|left|An anti-dueling sermon written by an acquaintance of [[Alexander Hamilton]].]]
Dueling also began to be criticized in America in the late 18th century; [[Benjamin Franklin]] denounced the practice as uselessly violent, and [[George Washington]] encouraged his officers to refuse challenges during the [[American Revolutionary War]] because he believed that the death by dueling of officers would have threatened the success of the war effort.

In the early nineteenth century, American writer and activist [[John Neal]] took up dueling as his earliest reform issue,<ref>{{cite book |last=Kayorie |first=James Stephen Merritt |editor-last=Baumgartner |editor-first=Jody C. |chapter=John Neal (1793–1876) |page=87 |title=American Political Humor: Masters of Satire and Their Impact on U.S. Policy and Culture |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, California |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-4408-5486-6}}</ref> attacking the institution in his first novel, ''Keep Cool'' (1817) and referring to it in an essay that same year as "the unqualified evidence of manhood".<ref>{{cite magazine |date=February 1817 |title=Essay on Duelling |last=Neal |first=John |author-link=John Neal |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008696293 |magazine=The Portico |location=Baltimore, Maryland |publisher=Neale Willis & Cole |volume=3 (January–June 1817) |pages=132–133 |issue=2}}</ref> Ironically, Neal was challenged to a duel by a fellow [[Baltimore]] lawyer for insults published in his 1823 novel ''Randolph''. He refused and mocked the challenge in his next novel, ''Errata'', published the same year.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sears |first=Donald A. |title=John Neal |publisher=Twayne Publishers |location=Boston, Massachusetts |year=1978 |isbn=0-8057-7230-8 |page=55}}</ref>

Reports of dueling gained in popularity in the first half of the 19th century especially in the [[Southern United States|South]] and the states of the [[Old Southwest]]. However, in this regional context, the term ''dueling'' had severely degenerated from its original 18th-century definition as a formal social custom among the wealthy classes, using fixed rules of conduct. Instead, 'dueling' was used by the contemporary press of the day to refer to any [[melee]] knife or gun fight between two contestants, where the clear object was simply to kill one's opponent.<ref name="CAS">Cassidy, William L., ''The Complete Book Of Knife Fighting'', {{ISBN|0-87364-029-2}}, {{ISBN|978-0-87364-029-9}} (1997), pp. 9–18, 27–36: In some states the popularity of certain knives such as the ''Bowie'' and ''Arkansas Toothpick'' was such that schools were established to teach their use in knife fighting 'duels', further popularizing such knives and compelling authorities to pass legislation severely restricting such schools.</ref>

Dueling began an irreversible decline in the aftermath of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. Even in the South, [[public opinion]] increasingly came to regard the practice as little more than bloodshed.

====Prominent 19th-century duels====
{{Main|List of duels}}
[[File:Hamilton-burr-duel.jpg|thumb|A 1902 illustration showing [[Alexander Hamilton]] fighting his fatal duel with Vice President [[Aaron Burr]], July 1804]]

====United States====
The most notorious American duel is the [[Burr–Hamilton duel]], in which notable [[Federalist Party|Federalist]] and former [[United States Secretary of the Treasury|Secretary of the Treasury]] [[Alexander Hamilton]] was fatally wounded by his political rival, the sitting [[Vice President of the United States]] [[Aaron Burr]].

Another American politician, [[Andrew Jackson]], later to serve as a [[General Officer]] in the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] and to become the [[List of Presidents of the United States|seventh president]], fought two duels, though some legends claim he fought many more. On May 30, 1806, he killed prominent duellist [[Charles Dickinson (historical figure)|Charles Dickinson]], suffering himself from a chest wound that caused him a lifetime of pain. Jackson also reportedly engaged in a bloodless duel with a lawyer and in 1803 came very near dueling with [[John Sevier]]. Jackson also engaged in a frontier brawl (not a duel) with [[Thomas Hart Benton (politician)|Thomas Hart Benton]] in 1813.

In 1827, during the [[Sandbar Fight]], [[James Bowie]] was involved in an arranged pistol duel that quickly escalated into a knife-fighting [[melee]], not atypical of American practices at the time.<ref>Edmondson, J. R. (2000), ''The Alamo Story-From History to Current Conflicts'', Plano, Texas: Republic of Texas Press (2000), ISBN 1-55622-678-0</ref>

On September 22, 1842, future [[President of the United States|President]] [[Abraham Lincoln]], at the time an [[Illinois]] state [[legislator]], met to duel with state auditor [[James Shields (politician, born 1810)|James Shields]], but friends intervened and persuaded them against it.<ref>[http://www.historynet.com/abraham-lincoln-prepares-to-fight-a-saber-duel.htm "Abraham Lincoln Prepares to Fight a Saber Duel"], originally published by ''Civil War Times'' magazine</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Carnegie |first=Dale |author-link=Dale Carnegie |title=How to Win Friends & Influence People |publisher=Pocket Books |year=1982 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/howtowinfriendsi00carn/page/9 9] |isbn=978-0-671-72365-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/howtowinfriendsi00carn |url-access=registration}}</ref>

In 1864, American writer [[Mark Twain]], then a contributor to the ''[[Sunday Mercury (New York)|New York Sunday Mercury]]'', narrowly avoided fighting a duel with a rival newspaper editor, apparently through the intervention of his second, who exaggerated Twain's prowess with a pistol.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.classicauthors.net/Paine/twainbio/twainbio46.html |title=Mark Twain, A Biography by Albert Bigelow Paine: Part I A Comstock Duel |publisher=Classicauthors.net |access-date=2010-05-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100611095708/http://classicauthors.net/Paine/twainbio/twainbio46.html |archive-date=2010-06-11}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://twain.classicauthors.net/autobiography/autobiography8.html |title=Chapters from my Autobiography by Mark Twain: Chapter VIII |publisher=Twain.classicauthors.net |access-date=2010-05-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100704042345/http://twain.classicauthors.net/autobiography/autobiography8.html |archive-date=2010-07-04}}</ref><ref>[http://www.twaintimes.net/page4.htm] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080202005156/http://www.twaintimes.net/page4.htm|date=February 2, 2008}}</ref>

====France====
In 1808, two Frenchmen are said to have fought in balloons over Paris, each attempting to shoot and puncture the other's balloon. One duellist is said to have been shot down and killed with his second.<ref name="smithsonian">{{cite web |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/duel.html |title=Smithsonian Magazine |publisher=Smithsonianmag.com |access-date=2010-05-30 |archive-date=2014-01-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107225246/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/duel.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

On 30 May 1832, [[France|French]] mathematician [[Évariste Galois]] was mortally wounded in a duel at the age of twenty, cutting short his promising mathematical career. He spent the night before the duel writing mathematics; the inclusion of a note claiming that he did not have time to finish a proof spawned the [[urban legend]] that he wrote his most important results on that night.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Galois/ |title=Évariste Galois, MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive}}</ref>

In 1843, two Frenchmen are said to have fought a duel by means of throwing billiard balls at each other.<ref name="smithsonian" />

====Ireland====
Irish political leader [[Daniel O'Connell]] killed John D'Esterre in a duel in February 1815. O'Connel offered D'Esterre's widow a pension equal to the amount her husband had been earning at the time, but the Corporation of Dublin, of which D'Esterre had been a member, rejected O'Connell's offer and voted the promised sum to D'Esterre's wife themselves.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QqlxAAAAMAAJ&q=city+fathers+rejected+the+offer+and+voted+the+promised+sum+themselves |title=The Duel: A History of Duelling |first=Robert |last=Baldick |publisher=Chapman & Hall |year=1965 |access-date=19 April 2011}}</ref> D'Esterre's wife consented to accept an allowance for her daughter, which O'Connell regularly paid for more than thirty years until his death. The memory of the duel haunted him for the remainder of his life.<ref>Dennis Gywnn, ''Daniel O'Connell: The Irish Liberator'', Hutchinson & Co. Ltd pp 138–145</ref>

====Russia====
The works of Russian poet [[Alexander Pushkin]] contained a number of duels, notably Onegin's duel with Lensky in ''[[Eugene Onegin]]''. These turned out to be prophetic, as Pushkin himself was mortally wounded in a controversial duel with [[Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthès|Georges d'Anthès]], a French officer rumored to be his wife's lover. D'Anthès, who was accused of cheating in this duel, married Pushkin's sister-in-law and went on to become a French minister and senator.

====Germany====
In the 1860s, [[Otto von Bismarck]] was reported to have challenged [[Rudolf Virchow]] to a duel. Virchow, being entitled to choose the weapons, chose two pork sausages, one infected with the roundworm ''[[Trichinella]]''; the two would each choose and eat a sausage. Bismarck reportedly declined.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Rudolf Virchow |journal=Emerging Infectious Diseases |volume=14 |issue=9 |pages=1480–1481 |date=2012-05-24 |pmc=2603088 |last1=Schultz |first1=M. |doi=10.3201/eid1409.086672}}</ref> The story could be apocryphal, however.<ref name="StrozierFlynn1996">{{cite book |last1=Strozier |first1=Charles B. |last2=Flynn |first2=Michael |title=Genocide, War, and Human Survival |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6QuMS4hOB0cC&pg=PA195 |access-date=27 February 2014 |date=1996-01-01 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-8476-8227-0 |page=195}}</ref>

====Scotland====
In Scotland, [[James Stuart (1775–1849)|James Stuart of Dunearn]], was tried and acquitted after a duel that fatally wounded Sir [[Sir Alexander Boswell, 1st Baronet|Alexander Boswell]]. [[George Buchan of Kelloe|George Buchan]] published his own examination of arguments in favour of duelling alongside an account of the trial, taken in shorthand.<ref name="Buchan">{{cite book |last1=Buchan |first1=George |author1-link=George Buchan of Kelloe |title=Remarks on duelling; comprising observations on the arguments in defence of that practice |date=1823 |publisher=Waugh & Innes |location=Edinburgh |pages=[https://archive.org/details/remarksonduellin00buch/page/n219/mode/2up 1]-161 |url=https://archive.org/details/remarksonduellin00buch/page/n7/mode/2up}}</ref> Other duels have been fought in Scotland mostly between soldiers or the gentry with several subsequently brought to the law courts.<ref name="Anderson">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/scottishnationor03ande |chapter=The Stuarts of Dunearn |title=The Scottish nation: or, The surnames, families, literature, honours, and biographical history of the people of Scotland |volume=3 |first=William |last=Anderson |author-link=William Anderson (Scottish writer) |publisher=A. Fullarton & co. |year=1877|page=[https://archive.org/details/scottishnationor03ande/page/376/mode/1up?q=duel 537], et passim}}{{PD-notice}}</ref>

====Canada====
The last known fatal duel in [[Ontario]] was in Perth, in 1833, when [[Robert Lyon (duel)|Robert Lyon]] challenged [[John Wilson (Ontario politician)|John Wilson]] to a pistol duel after a quarrel over remarks made about a local school teacher, whom Wilson married after Lyon was killed in the duel. [[Victoria, British Columbia]] was known to have been the centre of at least two duels near the time of the gold rush.  One involved a British arrival by the name of George Sloane, and an American, John Liverpool, both arriving via San Francisco in 1858. In a duel by pistols, Sloane was fatally injured and Liverpool shortly returned to the US. The fight originally started on board the ship over a young woman, Miss Bradford, and then carried on later in Victoria's tent city.<ref>''The Old Cemeteries Society'' (Pioneer Square) pp. 7–9.</ref> Another duel, involving a Mr. Muir, took place around 1861, but was moved to a US island near Victoria.