V. THE FRONTIER “FIRE-EATER”
The public taste and the public requirements of its individuals change, as all know, from generation to generation. The development of Lincoln’s life can be appreciated only as the community in which he lived is understood. The public custom is necessary to explain Lincoln’s part in this peculiar episode.
The truth in this clownish affair was that Lincoln had written the first letter, and two young ladies, one of them Mary Todd, were the authors of the second letter. Mary Todd was at that time estranged from Lincoln, and probably did not know that he was the writer of the first “Rebecca Letter.”
Shields sent his friend, General Whiteside, with a fiery demand to the editor of the paper to know the authors of the “Rebecca letters.” The editor at once consulted Lincoln, who told the editor to tell General Whitesides that Lincoln held himself responsible for the “Rebecca letters.”
Nothing suited Shields better. He began at once to make public the most insulting letters to Lincoln and to issue the most fiery challenges to a duel.
Though duelling was at that time forbidden by law, yet so strong was public opinion that the one who refused to fight a duel was branded as a coward and would not only lose his usefulness with the public, but his opponent would thus gain corresponding prestige.
Lincoln so far conceded to this demand as to accept the challenge, but on such terms as to make the battle ridiculous rather than heroic. He had the right to choose the weapons and the conditions, so he chose “cavalry broadswords of the largest size,” and the fight was to be “across a board platform six feet wide.”
Lincoln felt keenly the stupidity of the whole affair, but it would be degrading to his political standing to refuse. Fortunately, Lincoln had a friend in Doctor Merryman, who was not only a witty writer, but he loved a fight, and he used his wit with a fervor that overwhelmed even such men as Shields and Whitesides in the final roundup.
However, the duel progressed so far that the parties thereto went to Alton and crossed over to Missouri for the fight. But friends arrived and persuaded Shields to withdraw the challenge. The next week Shields wrote a bombastic article in the “Sangamo Journal” crowning himself as a hero and Lincoln as a coward. Then Dr. Merryman came to the rescue. The next week the “Sangamo Journal” had another version of the now ridiculous duel. It showed up the Shields’ side as so utterly absurd that the humor and tragic aspect of the affair among such prominent people became the sensation of the day. General Whitesides challenged Doctor Merryman and Merryman responded, with the declaration that his selection would be rifles at close range in the nearby fields. This would not do, because duelists could not hold office in Illinois and Whitesides was fund commissioner. His boasts proved that he was not afraid to lose his life but he did not want to give up his fat office.
The same thing happened to Shields. He challenged Mr. Butler, one of Lincoln’s close friends. Butler accepted at once, choosing “to fight next morning at sunrise in Bob Allen’s meadow, one hundred yards’ distance with rifles.”
Shields declined.
It was a burlesque and a comedy farce, and so it ingloriously ended.
But Shields had no less singular luck than he had singular friends. He was commissioned Brigadier-General in the Mexican War while still holding a state office and before he had ever seen a day’s service. At Cerro-gordo he was wounded and that wound was doubtless what made him United States Senator from Illinois. After serving one term in constant commotion with his associates, he removed to Minnesota and from there was returned to the Senate of the United States.
In the War of the Rebellion Lincoln appointed him Brigadier-General and he was again wounded in battle when his troops defeated Stonewall Jackson.
He moved into Missouri and from there was sent for the third time to the United States Senate. A few years later he became the subject of one of the bitterest and most disgraceful controversies in Congress over the question of voting him money and a pension.