On Christmas Day, 1805, the article appeared in _The Commonwealth_, which was the direct cause of the death of Tarleton Bates in a duel. In the course of the incendiary diatribe, Pentland declared that Bates and Baldwin were “two of the most abandoned political miscreants that ever disgraced a State.” He demanded savagely: “To what party do they belong?” and answered the question himself. “To no party, to all parties. They have been Whigs and Tories, High or Low Republicans, Democrats or Anti-Democrats, Jacobins or Anti-Jacobins, Constitutionalists or Republicans, according to existing circumstances.” Pentland’s punishment was to be publicly cowhided by Bates on Market Street on January 2, 1806. He is said to have fled precipitately when attacked. Pentland gave a darkly colored account of the occurrence: “On Thursday evening last, a considerable time after dark, the editor of this paper was waylaid, and attacked in a most outrageous manner, by Tarleton Bates, the prothonotary of this county, and co-proprietor and editor of the _Tree of Liberty_. Bates was in company with some persons who were no doubt to act as aids, should their assistance be wanted, but owing to the mistiness of the evening, and their quick disappearance, all of them could not be recognized. Baldwin, Bates’s colleague in infamy, and the brave and redoubtable Steele Semple, who never feels afraid but when he is in danger, were in the gang,--both limbs of the law, students of morality!”[239] Dueling had been forbidden in Pennsylvania since 1794, under penalty of fine and imprisonment, and loss of citizenship for seven years.[240] An unconverted public sentiment, however, still approved of the code of honor, and Pentland, who had at first threatened legal proceedings against Bates, challenged him instead. The challenge was carried by Thomas Stewart, a young Irishman who was a merchant in the town. Bates declined to accept, on the ground that Pentland’s conduct since his chastisement, had rendered him unworthy of such notice. Pentland then posted Bates as a coward, upon which on January 7, 1806, Bates published a letter in the _Tree of Liberty_ giving his reason for refusing the challenge, in which he reflected on Stewart. Stewart demanded a retraction, which was refused, whereupon he challenged Bates. This challenge was accepted.