DUELING
The fighting of two persons, one against the other, at an appointed time and place, due to an earlier
quarrel. If death results, the crime is murder. It differs from an affray in this, that the latter occurs
on a sudden quarrel, while the former is always the result of design.
In dueling, the use of guns, swords (rapiers),
or other harmful weapons resolves quarrels
through trial by combat. Duels used to occur
commonly between opposing individuals seek-
ing restitution or satisfaction outside the court
system. In early U.S. history, some members of
law enforcement attempted to treat dueling as a
crime, but the practice went mostly unpunished.
However, with the results of one duel espe-
cially—between AARON BURR and ALEXANDER
HAMILTON—the practice lost prestige in the
northern states. Along with growing public sen-
timent against dueling, new laws in the mid-
1800s finally treated the form of confrontation
as outright or attempted HOMICIDE. In states
that have not incorporated dueling into their
homicide statutes, dueling is now a crime pun-
ishable by a fine or imprisonment, or both. It is
also an offense in some states merely to give or
accept a challenge to engage in a duel.
Around the time of the Revolutionary War,
dueling occurred in every state of the nation—
in some areas, regularly—for even relatively
slight offenses, such as insults, or to resolve gam-
bling disputes. Few laws prohibited this tradi-
tion inherited from the Old World, which
continued to evolve, even in Europe. Although
no binding set of rules governed the proceedings
of a duel in the United States—largely, no doubt,
because dueling was outside the law—U.S. citi-
zens adopted the European rules from their
ancestors.
U.S. citizens based their dueling codes on the
Code Duello of Ireland. This Irish code of 1777
contained twenty-six commandments covering
all aspects of a duel. It included ways to avert a
duel, such as the manner in which to apologize
