In
the early nineteenth century, North Carolina men from all walks
of life often resorted to violence to settle quarrels and arguments.
For those near the lower end of the social scale this usually
meant fists and bad language. For those who considered themselves
gentlemen, it often meant a duel. Preceded by a formal exchange
of challenge and response, a duel with swords or pistols continued
until the offended party declared that honor had been satisfied
or until one of the combatants was wounded or killed. In September,
1802, North Carolinians were shocked by a fatal duel involving
two of the state's leading citizens.
Richard Dobbs Spaight, by the age of 44, had had a distinguished
career in North Carolina politics. Spaight had fought for the
patriot cause in the Revolution under General Caswell, served
several terms in the North Carolina House of Commons, represented
North Carolina in both the Continental Congress and the United
States Congress, and been elected the first native-born governor
of the state. Spaight's opponent in the duel, John Stanly, was
28 in 1802, but had already followed a Princeton education with
service in the North Carolina General Assembly. In 1802 he was
the United States Congressional Representative from the district
once served by Spaight. Both men lived in New Bern and were
members of the Jeffersonian Republican Party.
Trouble began when friends advised Spaight that Stanly had raised
questions about Spaight's allegiance to the Republican Party.
An angered Spaight demanded that Stanly "...give me that
satisfaction which one gentleman has a right to demand of another."
Several more letters were exchanged between the two men which
appeared to settle the matter, and Stanly gave Spaight permission
to clear the air by publishing their correspondence. In forwarding
their letters to the New Bern Gazette, however, Spaight added
several remarks which Stanly found offensive. This led to an
increasingly heated exchange in the newspaper and finished with
Stanly distributing a handbill in which he accused Spaight of
wishing to "strut the bravo" with remarks which showed
a "malicious, low and unmanly spirit." In reply, Spaight
published a flyer accusing Stanly of being "a liar and
scoundrel." Stanly challenged Spaight and the two men and
their seconds met at 5:30 on the afternoon of September 5th
behind the Masonic Hall in New Bern. Standing opposite each
other, armed with pistols, the two men exchanged fire three
times with no damage except a tear in Stanly's coat. On the
fourth exchange Spaight was hit in the side. He died the next
day.
There was general shock and outrage in the state over the loss
of so distinguished a leader as Richard Dobbs Spaight. Stanly
defended himself eloquently in a letter to Governor Benjamin
Williams who issued a pardon absolving him from legal guilt.
The General Assembly, however, passed on November 5, 1802, a
bill entitled "An Act to Prevent the Vile Practice of Dueling
Within This State." The new law provided that anyone who
participated in a duel would be heavily fined and barred from
any office of trust or profit in state service. If an individual
were the survivor of a duel to the death, he and any who assisted
him would hang "without benefit of clergy."
The act of 1802 put North Carolina on record as opposing dueling,
but it did not stop the practice completely. For one thing,
the act only applied to duels within the state. North Carolinians
could cross the border into either South Carolina or Virginia
where the practice was tolerated. The prohibition against dueling
itself was often ignored by those who respected the old custom
more than the new law. Gradually, however, dueling became less
common until it disappeared in the middle of the nineteenth
century.
Harry McKown
September 2005
Sources:
Wellman, Manly Wade, “The Vile Practice of Dueling: John
Stanly and Richard Dobbs Spaight. New Bern, 1802,” The
New East: the family magazine of North Carolina, 4:5 (October,
1976): 9-11, 45-46.
Johnson, Guion Griffis. Antebellum North Carolina: a social
history. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina
Press, 1937.
