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Personal honor was taken very seriously in the first half of the 19th century and if you insulted someone you did so at the risk of your life
Personal honor was taken very seriously in the first half of the 19th century and if you insulted someone you did so at the risk of your life. Yet on the floor of Congress, members often insulted each other with impunity, protected by an understood “privilege” that covered Congressional debates. In 1826, Virginian John Randolph delivered a blistering speech in the Senate, aimed at Secretary of State Henry Clay, referring to the alleged “corrupt bargain” by which Clay received his appointment from John Quincy Adams as a “combination unheard of till then, of the puritan with the blackleg.” “Blackleg” was a particularly insulting epithet at that time, meaning something like “swindler” or “card cheat.” Upon learning of the speech, the hot-tempered Clay fired off a letter to Randolph, demanding “personal satisfaction” for “the unprovoked attack on my character.” Randolph considered Clay’s challenge improper, but he declined to invoke the privilege, concerned that doing so might make him ap...