Abraham Lincoln once nearly dueled a rival with a broadsword

Abraham Lincoln was a human famous for using his words , but in one state of affairs he came very close to physical — and potentially deadly — C . When Lincoln was challenged to a affaire d’honneur with a political challenger in 1842 , the future prexy was purity - bound to take . But he thought his best luck for survival was to duel with broadsword — or at least pretend he would .

mental_flossreveals the floor of how young Mr. Lincoln come to be standing on an island in the Mississippi holding a broadsword . Then - Whig Lincoln and Democrat James Shields had been colleagues in the Illinois state legislature , but after Shields became State Auditor , he began to found policies with which Lincoln intensely disagreed , including a measure that veto Illinois from take its own paper money for the payment of taxes and other debts . Lincoln decided to combat Shields with a bit of ruthless sarcasm , penning pseudonymous letter to a Springfield paper , mock both Shields ’ policies and his pomposity . Even Lincoln ’s next wife Mary Todd and her protagonist Julia Jayne even got in on the act , bestow their own wicked quips .

Shields was n’t exactly proud of to be made a laughing - stock , and quickly chance on that Lincoln was behind the joke . Rather than get back at his rival with similarly tart prose , Shields challenged Lincoln to a duel . Lincoln accept , but , fear that a gun affaire d’honneur would quickly result in his death , opt for cavalry broadswords as the artillery of selection .

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Since dueling was illegal in Illinois , the two men forgather on an island across the Mississippi . Lincoln tried to intimidate Shields into disengage from the duel , create conditions that would favor Lincoln ’s superior summit and showing off his reach by slice up a offset off a nearby Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . luckily , some mutual friends intervene , and what could have been a deadly battle end in well-disposed laughter . Once they decided not to obliterate each other , Lincoln and Shields remain womb-to-tomb booster .

manoeuver over tomental_flossfor more detail on the affaire d’honneur , including the prank a reciprocal admirer a common friend play on the spectators back on the shoring and how Lincoln felt about his brush with duel .

The Time Abraham Lincoln and a Political Rival Almost Dueled on an Island[mental_floss ]

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