yeoldenews:topless-towers-of-ilium:bantarleton:yeoldenews:I feel like we need to stop Twitter call o
yeoldenews:topless-towers-of-ilium:bantarleton:yeoldenews:I feel like we need to stop Twitter call outs and go back to publishing them in the newspaper like gentlemen.(source: The Frederick Hornet, September 27, 1803.)The Finger of ContemptThis sort of thing was too often resolved in duels such as the one that killed Alexander Hamilton. Also if I remember correctly the great Stephen Decatur was likewise uselessly cut down in a duel with the inexecrable James Barron - a great loss to the nation as Decatur would have been a far better President than Jackson, Van Buren, Tyler, Polk etc. Fortunately for Otho Luckett, he didn’t take the bait, and survived until 1854, when he passed away in Chillcothe, Ohio at the ripe old age of 72. Otho Luckett was the grandson of a Thomas Hussey Luckett, a Major in the Revolutionary War. I can find nothing out about Chapman, who I imagine was (like James Barron) entirely worthy of the insult launched at him. From what I can find this was indeed related to a duel (as most “call out” posts of the era are), but was actually the fallout of a failed duel rather than the cause of one.Luckett was not actually a direct participant in the argument but was acting as the “second” for the man who originally issued the challenge, William L. Brent.The original cause of the conflict is unclear, but it appears that something said or done by Chapman caused Brent to attack him with a whip in public. Soon after (March 12, 1803) Brent asked Luckett to issue a duel challenge to Chapman on his behalf.Luckett and Chapman’s “second”, William Campbell Jr., made the arrangements for the duel but there was a misunderstanding as to the specifics and Chapman and Campbell didn’t show up. Rumors and stories swirled on both sides, one that Brent and Luckett had failed to name a time and place and the challenge still stood, another that Chapman had outright refused to fight which caused Brent to publicly brand Chapman a “base and dastardly coward”.In June (three months after the original challenge) Brent published a three column call out post in the newspaper containing Luckett’s version of events, as well as some choice poetic epithets for Chapman, and concluding with a threat to whip him again.(My favorite excerpt from said call out post is “Mr. Chapman has plunged himself into an ocean of disgrace and infamy, and he must fall a sacrifice to its boisterous and tempestuous waves”.)Luckett and Campbell, for their parts, both published very polite letters to one another a few days later, mutually agreeing that the entire situation had been the result of a misunderstanding and that there were no hard feelings between the two of them.I have no idea what happened between July and September to cause Chapman to call Luckett out (my original post), but I’m guessing there’s a good chance it had to do with Luckett failing to apologize for his published statement stating that Chapman had refused to fight.I’ve also failed to find anything conclusive about William Chapman, but given that Brent called him a “coxcomical upstart” I’m guessing he may have been of a lower social class than Brent.(While cleaning up some unused files on my computer yesterday, I found a whole folder of call out posts and particularly nasty “bed and board” ads I’ve collected over the years. So you may be seeing more of these in the coming days.) -- source link
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