It was a different matter when the churches and ministers of Christ took up the affair in the light of the law of God, and, dealing not with the circumstances but with the essence of it, pressed it inexorably on the conscience of the people.

Some of the most memorable words in American literature were uttered on this occasion, notwithstanding that there were few congregations in which there were not sore consciences to be irritated or political anxieties to be set quaking by them.

The names of Eliphalet Nott and John M.Mason were honorably conspicuous in this work.

But one unknown young man of thirty, in a corner of Long Island, uttered words in his little country meeting-house that pricked the conscience of the nation.

The words of Lyman Beecher on this theme may well be quoted as being a part of history, for the consequences that followed them.
"Dueling is a great national sin.