An Act to Suppress Duelling, ILL. TERRITORY COMP. STAT. (Matthew Duncan 1815) (Law Passed 1810).

“AN ACT

To suppress duelling. Adopted from the Virginia Code.

Passed April 7, 1810,

    Whereas experience has evinced, That the existing remedy for the suppression of the barbarous custom of duelling is inadequate to the purpose,  and the progress and consequences of the evil have become so destructive as to require an effort on the part of the Legislature to arrest a vice, the result neither by the precepts of morality, nor by the dictates of reason. For remedy whereof:

    Be it enacted by the acting Governor and Judges of the Illinois Territory and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That any person who shall hereafter willfully and maliciously, or by agreement fight a duel or single combat with any engine instrument or weapon, the probable consequence of which might be the death of either party, and in so doing shall kill his antagonist or any other person or persons, or inflict such wound as that the person injured shall die thereof within three months thereafter, such offender, his aiders, abettors and counselors^[1] being thereof duly convicted shall be guilty of murder and suffer death by being hanged by the neck any law custom or usage of this territory to the contrary not withstanding.”