affair of honor

Hamilton’s distinction between personal and political criticism was designed to change the dispute with Burr from an affair of honor to a political difference of opinion.

As a result, politics almost continually involved attacks on one’s honor and reputation…If they got out of hand, it became an affair of honor… There was whole ritual where the offended party asks for an explanation… and then he issues a challenge, and if things don’t get resolved beforehand, which they usually did, it led to a duel.

After all, unlike feuds or plain murder for revenge, a traditional affair of honor always involves social equals — there is no glory in killing a peasant and considerable shame in being killed by one.

Ingushestia's head, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who himself survived an assassination attempt in 2009, said on his website it was an "affair of honor" to find who killed Kotiyev.

In the end, Hamilton decided that the only way to repair his reputation was to engage in an “affair of honor.”