In 1842, James Shields challenged Abraham Lincoln to a duel over defamatory anonymous letters that Lincoln had written to a local newspaper. Lincoln accepted the challenge, and as he had the choice of weapons, selected cavalry broadswords at arm's length. As Lincoln was extraordinarily tall and strong for the time and place, and Shields was a small man, he backed down. But Shields was feisty, and that same year he challenged a man named Butler. Butler chose rifles at a hundred yards, and Shields backed down again. As far as is known, Shields never challenged anyone else, and went on to fame as the only man to be senator from three states, and a Civil War general. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Shields