May 2, 1878

The front page of the Daily Arkansas Gazette featured a letter from John D. Adams, Gazette owner, accusing James Newton (J. N.) Smithee, Arkansas Democrat owner, of not supporting the nominees of the Democratic Party and also of firing from his newspaper an orphan accused of a crime that Smithee himself had committed. The letter went on to assault Smithee’s honor as a man, on the grounds that he had not responded to these charges when they had been published previously. The continued criticism eventually led to a duel between Adams and Smithee, which has been described as “the last duel fought in Arkansas.”