Duel Tragedy
If politics seems murderous, at one time it was literally so. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, men in Washington settled disputes by shooting at each other. So many duels were fought in a field just over the DC line in Bladensburg, MD that the spot became known as "the dark and bloody ground." One such duel took place between cousins Armistead Mason and John McCarty, descendants of the founder George Mason, because of insults hurled during an election campaign. McCarty killed Mason, and by some accounts, regretted it for the rest of his life.
Legend has it that future President Andrew Jackson, veteran of many duels himself, urged his friend Mason to the fight after the matter had almost been dropped.
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