e.
Barron then said: 'Would to God you had said that much yesterday.'"

Thus they parted in peace. Decatur knew he was to die, and his
only regret was that he had not died in the service of his country.

The last duel fought at Bladensburg was in 1838, between Jonathan Cilley
and William J. Graves. The former was at the time a Representative
in Congress from Maine, and the latter from Kentucky. In its main
features, this duel is without a parallel. It was fought upon a
pure technicality. The parties to it never exchanged an unkind
word, and were in fact, almost up to the day of the fatal meeting,
comparative strangers to each other.

Briefly related, the fatal meeting between Cilley and Graves
came about in this wise. In a speech in the House, Mr. Cilley
in replying to an editorial in _The New York Courier and Inquirer,_
criticised severely the conduct of its proprietor, James Watson
Webb, a noted Whig editor of that day. At this, the latter, being
deeply offended and failing to obtain a retraction by Cilley of
the offensive words, challenged him to mortal combat. The bearer of
this challenge was William J. Graves, a prominent Whig member of
the House. Mr. Cilley in his letter to Mr. Graves, in which he
declined to receive the challenge of Webb, said: "I decline to
receive it because I choose to be drawn into no controversy with
him. I neither affirm nor deny anything in regard to his character,
but I now repeat what I have said to you, that I intended by the
refusal no disrespect to you."

This letter was considered unsatisfactory by Graves, and he
immediately sent by his colleague Mr. Menifee, a note to Cilley
then in his seat in the House, saying: "In declining to receive
Colonel Webb's communication, you do not disclaim any exception to
him personally as a gentleman. I have, therefore, to inquire
whether you declined to receive his communication on the ground of
any personal exception to him as a gentleman or a man of honor."
Mr. Cilley declining to give the categorical answer demanded, was
immediately challenged by Graves. The challenge was borne by
Mr. Wise, a Representative from Virginia. On the same evening,
Mr. Jones--then a delegate and later a Senator from Iowa--as the
second of Cilley, handed the note of acceptance of the latter to
Graves. Bladensburg was designated as the place of meeting, rifles
the weapons, the distance eight yards, the rifles to be held
horizontally at arm's length