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i8 FACTS ABOUT GEORGIA
Code Duello was considered the Court of Honor, and hardly a
day passed but gentlemen of Georgia adjusted their differences
by mortal combat. The code was punctiliously adhered to, and
the custom long prevailed, even when prohibited by laws that
were more honored in the breach than in the observance. In this
present day and generation it is hard to conceive the conditions
that cost the country so many noble lives; among the earliest, that
of Button Gwinnett, one of the signers of the Declaration of
Independence.
In his Georgia Landmarks, Memorials and Legends, Historian
L. L. Knight throws light on this subject. "For the paramount
sway of the duelling pistol in a State like Georgia," he says, "there
were sound reasons. To begin with, the partisanship of the
Revolution entailed upon us a host of feudal animosities. It also
engendered the military spirit, to which life on the frontier gave
constant exercise, through the ever-present dread of an Indian
outbreak. Children at play revelled in the use of toy weapons,
with which they stormed imaginary forts and citadels. The long
protracted feud between Clark and Crawford, at a later period,
divided the State into two hostile camps, in consequence of which
there were personal wrangles and disputes without number."
CASCADE ON TOCCOA CREEK. STEPHENS COUNTY