Antebellum America: Preston Brooks and Charles Sumner
Polarization over the issue of slavery was perhaps no better personified than in comparing Preston Brook and Charles Sumner. Both were members of Congress, but that was where the similarity ended. Brooks was from the south, and he was a Democrat and a rabid supporter of slavery. Sumner was a Republican from the north and he was a fervent abolitionist. In what was a portent of things to come, their disagreement went from being philosophical to being violent, leading to one of the most shocking events to ever occur on the senate floor in history.
Preston Smith Brooks, who was born on August 5, 1819, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina. He was first elected in 1852 and would serve in the House until his death, with one brief interruption. Brooks was a strong advocate of slavery and of states' rights. Brooks took an extreme pro-slavery position. He said that the enslavement of black people by whites was "right and proper" and he considered any attack or restriction on slavery to be an attack on the rights and the social structure of the South. When the great controversy arose over slavery in Kansas Territory and whether Kansas would be admitted as a free or slave state, Brooks supported the actions by pro-slavery men from Missouri to make Kansas a slave territory. In March 1856, Brooks wrote: "The fate of the South is to be decided with the Kansas issue. If Kansas becomes a hireling State, slave property will decline to half its present value in Missouri and abolitionism will become the prevailing sentiment. So with Arkansas; so with upper Texas."
Charles Sumner was eight years older than Brooks. He was born on January 6, 1811 and served as a United States Senator from Massachusetts. His background was as an academic lawyer and he became a powerful orator. Sumner was the leader of the anti-slavery forces and of the Radical Republicans in the U.S. Senate. Before the Republican party had been formed, Sumner changed his political party several times depending on who the anti-slavery coalition was supporting. He showed a tremendous devotion to the destruction of what Republicans called the Slave Power, and he wanted to end the influence over the federal government held by Southern slave owners who sought to continue slavery and to expand it into the territories.
In 1856, during the "Bleeding Kansas" crisis, Sumner gave a famous and emotionally charged speech on the floor of the Senate that became known as the "Crime Against Kansas" speech. In the speech, delivered over two days, May 19 and 20, he denounced the Kansas–Nebraska Act and argued for the immediate admission of Kansas as a free state. He also went on to denounce the "Slave Power" which was his name for the political arm of the slave owners. In the speech he compared southern efforts to take over Kansas to the rape of a virgin. He said:
Not in any common lust for power did this uncommon tragedy have its origin. It is the rape of a virgin Territory, compelling it to the hateful embrace of slavery; and it may be clearly traced to a depraved desire for a new Slave State, hideous offspring of such a crime, in the hope of adding to the power of slavery in the National Government.
Sumner then levelled his attack on the authors of the Act, Senators Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois and Andrew Butler of South Carolina. His attack on Butler, a southerner from Brooks' home state, was particularly scathing. Sumner said:
The senator from South Carolina has read many books of chivalry, and believes himself a chivalrous knight with sentiments of honor and courage. Of course he has chosen a mistress to whom he has made his vows, and who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight—I mean the harlot, Slavery. For her, his tongue is always profuse in words. Let her be impeached in character, or any proposition made to shut her out from the extension of her wantonness, and no extravagance of manner or hardihood of assertion is then too great for this senator. The frenzy of Don Quixote, in behalf of his wench, Dulcinea del Toboso, is all surpassed.
Sumner was making a reference to the famouse Cervantes' work, and was comparing Butler to Don Quixote and slavery as his Dulcinea. Sumner may also have mocked Butler's speaking ability. Butler had been recently suffered a stroke, and some felt this was what Summer was referring to when he said that Butler "touches nothing which he does not disfigure with error, sometimes of principle, sometimes of fact. He cannot open his mouth, but out there flies a blunder."
The personal attacks went both ways. Earlier in the debate, Sumner had been ridiculed both by Douglas and Butler, with Butler making crude allegations that Sumner was intimate with black women. Although Sumner was a bachelor, it was rumored that he was intimate with his African-American housekeeper. Sumner, like many other abolitionists, routinely accused slaveholders of wanting to maintain the institution of slavery so that they could engage in forcible sexual relations with their slaves.
Douglas became concerned that Sumner had gone too far in his remarks. He is quoted as later saying, "this damn fool is going to get himself killed by some other damn fool".
Brooks was not only from the same state as Butler, he was Butler's first cousin once removed. When he learned of Sumner's remarks he became infuriated. He later said that he considered challenging Sumner to a duel, but was told by fellow South Carolina Representative Laurence M. Keitt that dueling was for gentlemen of equal social standing, and that Sumner was beneath Brooks' station. Brooks said that since Sumner was no gentleman, he did not deserve honorable treatment.
Two days later, on the afternoon of May 22, 1856, Brooks entered the Senate chamber with Keitt and another pro-slavery supporter, Representative Henry A. Edmundson of Virginia. They waited for the galleries to clear, and when he felt the moment was right, Brooks confronted Sumner, who was seated at his desk, writing. The Senate chamber was almost empty. Brooks told the Massachusetts Senator, "Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech twice over carefully. It is a libel on South Carolina, and Mr. Butler, who is a relative of mine." As Sumner began to stand up, Brooks began beating Sumner severely on the head with a solid wooden walking stick, before Sumner could reach his feet. He used a thick gutta-percha cane with a gold head. The force of the blows were so violent that Sumner would end up losing his sight. Sumner recalled, "I no longer saw my assailant, nor any other person or object in the room. What I did afterwards was done almost unconsciously, acting under the instincts of self-defense."
Sumner was knocked down and trapped under the heavy desk that was bolted to the floor. His chair, which was pulled up to his desk, moved back and forth on a track. Sumner was pinned him under his desk as Brooks continued to strike Sumner. Sumner somehow managed to get to his feet and rip the desk from the floor in an effort to get away from Brooks. By this time, Sumner was covered in blood. He staggered up the aisle. Brooks continued to beat him across the head, face, and shoulders and did not stop when his cane snapped. He continued striking Sumner with the piece that held the gold head. Sumner stumbled and reeled convulsively before collapsing unconsciously. Brooks grabbed the fallen Sumner and held him up by the lapel with one hand, continuing to lash out at him with the cane in the other.
Another of other Senators and Representatives tried to help Sumner, but they were blocked by Edmundson, while Keitt brandished a pistol. Senator John J. Crittenden, a slaveholder from Kentucky, also attempted to intervene, and begged Brooks not to kill Sumner. Representatives Ambrose S. Murray and Edwin B. Morgan were finally able to intervene and restrain Brooks. Brooks then quietly left the chamber. Murray obtained the aid of a Senate page and the Sergeant at Arms, Dunning R. McNair. As Sumner regained consciousness they were able to help him to walk to a cloakroom where he received first aid and medical attention. With the aid of Nathaniel P. Banks, the Speaker of the House, and Senator Henry Wilson, Sumner was taken home by carriage, where he received further medical treatment. Brooks also required minor medical attention as he he had hit himself above his right eye with one of his backswings.
The cane Brooks used was broken into several pieces and these were collected by Edmundson, who gave the portion with the head to the House Sergeant at Arms. This portion of the cane eventually ended up at the Old State House Museum in Boston. Southern lawmakers made rings out of the other pieces Edmundson recovered from the Senate floor, which they wore on neck chains to show their solidarity with Brooks.
Sumner and Brooks soon became symbolic to their polarized political factions. Sumner became a martyr in the North and Brooks was considered to be a hero in the South. Thousands attended rallies in support of Sumner in Boston, Albany, Cleveland, Detroit, New Haven, New York, and Providence. More than a million copies of Sumner's speech were distributed. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote of the incident, "I do not see how a barbarous community and a civilized community can constitute one state. I think we must get rid of slavery, or we must get rid of freedom."
Brooks was praised by Southern newspapers. Southerners sent Brooks hundreds of new canes in endorsement of his assault.
Massachusetts Representative Anson Burlingame was later challenged to a duel by Brooks, but Brooks backed down upon learning that Burlingame was a crack shot and had the choice of weapons and dueling ground. He selected rifles on the Canada side of Niagara Falls, where U.S. anti-dueling laws would not apply. Brooks refused to duel, claiming that he did not want to expose himself to the risk of violence by traveling through Northern states to get to Niagara Falls.
Southerners mocked Sumner, claiming he was faking his injuries. In fact, Sumner suffered head trauma that caused him chronic, debilitating pain for the rest of his life. He spent three years convalescing before returning to his Senate seat. Massachusetts chose not to replace him, instead leaving his empty desk in the Senate as a visible reminder of the incident. The state legislature reelected him in 1857, even though he was unable to take his seat until 1859.
In a speech to the House defending his actions, Brooks stated that he "meant no disrespect to the Senate of the United States" or the House by his attack on Sumner. Brooks was arrested for the assault. He was tried in a District of Columbia court, convicted, and fined $300 (equivalent to $9,050 in today's dollars), but he did not receive a prison sentence. A motion for Brooks' expulsion from the House failed, but he resigned on July 15 in order to permit his constituents to ratify or condemn his conduct via a special election. They re-elected him to office on August 1 and then re-elected to a new term of office later in 1856. But Brooks died unexpectedly from a violent attack of croup on January 27, 1857, just weeks before the March 4 start of the new congressional term.
Keitt was censured by the House and resigned in protest. His constituents reelected him to his seat within a month. In 1858, he attempted to choke Representative Galusha Grow of Pennsylvania, a Republican, during an argument on the House floor. An effort to censure Edmundson failed to obtain a majority of votes in the House.
In the 1856 elections, the new Republican Party made gains in Congress by campaigning on the theme of "Bleeding Kansas" and "Bleeding Sumner." Both events cost Democrats heavily in the north. Republican Presidential candidate John C. Fremont made a strong showing in the election. Though Democrat James Buchanan won the presidential election, Republicans made major gains in elections for the state legislatures, which enabled them to make gains in the U.S. Senate elections, because senators were chosen by the state legislatures. The violence in Kansas and the beating of Sumner helped the Republicans unite as a party, which would set the stage for their victory in the 1860 presidential election.
Preston Smith Brooks, who was born on August 5, 1819, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina. He was first elected in 1852 and would serve in the House until his death, with one brief interruption. Brooks was a strong advocate of slavery and of states' rights. Brooks took an extreme pro-slavery position. He said that the enslavement of black people by whites was "right and proper" and he considered any attack or restriction on slavery to be an attack on the rights and the social structure of the South. When the great controversy arose over slavery in Kansas Territory and whether Kansas would be admitted as a free or slave state, Brooks supported the actions by pro-slavery men from Missouri to make Kansas a slave territory. In March 1856, Brooks wrote: "The fate of the South is to be decided with the Kansas issue. If Kansas becomes a hireling State, slave property will decline to half its present value in Missouri and abolitionism will become the prevailing sentiment. So with Arkansas; so with upper Texas."
Charles Sumner was eight years older than Brooks. He was born on January 6, 1811 and served as a United States Senator from Massachusetts. His background was as an academic lawyer and he became a powerful orator. Sumner was the leader of the anti-slavery forces and of the Radical Republicans in the U.S. Senate. Before the Republican party had been formed, Sumner changed his political party several times depending on who the anti-slavery coalition was supporting. He showed a tremendous devotion to the destruction of what Republicans called the Slave Power, and he wanted to end the influence over the federal government held by Southern slave owners who sought to continue slavery and to expand it into the territories.
In 1856, during the "Bleeding Kansas" crisis, Sumner gave a famous and emotionally charged speech on the floor of the Senate that became known as the "Crime Against Kansas" speech. In the speech, delivered over two days, May 19 and 20, he denounced the Kansas–Nebraska Act and argued for the immediate admission of Kansas as a free state. He also went on to denounce the "Slave Power" which was his name for the political arm of the slave owners. In the speech he compared southern efforts to take over Kansas to the rape of a virgin. He said:
Not in any common lust for power did this uncommon tragedy have its origin. It is the rape of a virgin Territory, compelling it to the hateful embrace of slavery; and it may be clearly traced to a depraved desire for a new Slave State, hideous offspring of such a crime, in the hope of adding to the power of slavery in the National Government.
Sumner then levelled his attack on the authors of the Act, Senators Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois and Andrew Butler of South Carolina. His attack on Butler, a southerner from Brooks' home state, was particularly scathing. Sumner said:
The senator from South Carolina has read many books of chivalry, and believes himself a chivalrous knight with sentiments of honor and courage. Of course he has chosen a mistress to whom he has made his vows, and who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight—I mean the harlot, Slavery. For her, his tongue is always profuse in words. Let her be impeached in character, or any proposition made to shut her out from the extension of her wantonness, and no extravagance of manner or hardihood of assertion is then too great for this senator. The frenzy of Don Quixote, in behalf of his wench, Dulcinea del Toboso, is all surpassed.
Sumner was making a reference to the famouse Cervantes' work, and was comparing Butler to Don Quixote and slavery as his Dulcinea. Sumner may also have mocked Butler's speaking ability. Butler had been recently suffered a stroke, and some felt this was what Summer was referring to when he said that Butler "touches nothing which he does not disfigure with error, sometimes of principle, sometimes of fact. He cannot open his mouth, but out there flies a blunder."
The personal attacks went both ways. Earlier in the debate, Sumner had been ridiculed both by Douglas and Butler, with Butler making crude allegations that Sumner was intimate with black women. Although Sumner was a bachelor, it was rumored that he was intimate with his African-American housekeeper. Sumner, like many other abolitionists, routinely accused slaveholders of wanting to maintain the institution of slavery so that they could engage in forcible sexual relations with their slaves.
Douglas became concerned that Sumner had gone too far in his remarks. He is quoted as later saying, "this damn fool is going to get himself killed by some other damn fool".
Brooks was not only from the same state as Butler, he was Butler's first cousin once removed. When he learned of Sumner's remarks he became infuriated. He later said that he considered challenging Sumner to a duel, but was told by fellow South Carolina Representative Laurence M. Keitt that dueling was for gentlemen of equal social standing, and that Sumner was beneath Brooks' station. Brooks said that since Sumner was no gentleman, he did not deserve honorable treatment.
Two days later, on the afternoon of May 22, 1856, Brooks entered the Senate chamber with Keitt and another pro-slavery supporter, Representative Henry A. Edmundson of Virginia. They waited for the galleries to clear, and when he felt the moment was right, Brooks confronted Sumner, who was seated at his desk, writing. The Senate chamber was almost empty. Brooks told the Massachusetts Senator, "Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech twice over carefully. It is a libel on South Carolina, and Mr. Butler, who is a relative of mine." As Sumner began to stand up, Brooks began beating Sumner severely on the head with a solid wooden walking stick, before Sumner could reach his feet. He used a thick gutta-percha cane with a gold head. The force of the blows were so violent that Sumner would end up losing his sight. Sumner recalled, "I no longer saw my assailant, nor any other person or object in the room. What I did afterwards was done almost unconsciously, acting under the instincts of self-defense."
Sumner was knocked down and trapped under the heavy desk that was bolted to the floor. His chair, which was pulled up to his desk, moved back and forth on a track. Sumner was pinned him under his desk as Brooks continued to strike Sumner. Sumner somehow managed to get to his feet and rip the desk from the floor in an effort to get away from Brooks. By this time, Sumner was covered in blood. He staggered up the aisle. Brooks continued to beat him across the head, face, and shoulders and did not stop when his cane snapped. He continued striking Sumner with the piece that held the gold head. Sumner stumbled and reeled convulsively before collapsing unconsciously. Brooks grabbed the fallen Sumner and held him up by the lapel with one hand, continuing to lash out at him with the cane in the other.
Another of other Senators and Representatives tried to help Sumner, but they were blocked by Edmundson, while Keitt brandished a pistol. Senator John J. Crittenden, a slaveholder from Kentucky, also attempted to intervene, and begged Brooks not to kill Sumner. Representatives Ambrose S. Murray and Edwin B. Morgan were finally able to intervene and restrain Brooks. Brooks then quietly left the chamber. Murray obtained the aid of a Senate page and the Sergeant at Arms, Dunning R. McNair. As Sumner regained consciousness they were able to help him to walk to a cloakroom where he received first aid and medical attention. With the aid of Nathaniel P. Banks, the Speaker of the House, and Senator Henry Wilson, Sumner was taken home by carriage, where he received further medical treatment. Brooks also required minor medical attention as he he had hit himself above his right eye with one of his backswings.
The cane Brooks used was broken into several pieces and these were collected by Edmundson, who gave the portion with the head to the House Sergeant at Arms. This portion of the cane eventually ended up at the Old State House Museum in Boston. Southern lawmakers made rings out of the other pieces Edmundson recovered from the Senate floor, which they wore on neck chains to show their solidarity with Brooks.
Sumner and Brooks soon became symbolic to their polarized political factions. Sumner became a martyr in the North and Brooks was considered to be a hero in the South. Thousands attended rallies in support of Sumner in Boston, Albany, Cleveland, Detroit, New Haven, New York, and Providence. More than a million copies of Sumner's speech were distributed. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote of the incident, "I do not see how a barbarous community and a civilized community can constitute one state. I think we must get rid of slavery, or we must get rid of freedom."
Brooks was praised by Southern newspapers. Southerners sent Brooks hundreds of new canes in endorsement of his assault.
Massachusetts Representative Anson Burlingame was later challenged to a duel by Brooks, but Brooks backed down upon learning that Burlingame was a crack shot and had the choice of weapons and dueling ground. He selected rifles on the Canada side of Niagara Falls, where U.S. anti-dueling laws would not apply. Brooks refused to duel, claiming that he did not want to expose himself to the risk of violence by traveling through Northern states to get to Niagara Falls.
Southerners mocked Sumner, claiming he was faking his injuries. In fact, Sumner suffered head trauma that caused him chronic, debilitating pain for the rest of his life. He spent three years convalescing before returning to his Senate seat. Massachusetts chose not to replace him, instead leaving his empty desk in the Senate as a visible reminder of the incident. The state legislature reelected him in 1857, even though he was unable to take his seat until 1859.
In a speech to the House defending his actions, Brooks stated that he "meant no disrespect to the Senate of the United States" or the House by his attack on Sumner. Brooks was arrested for the assault. He was tried in a District of Columbia court, convicted, and fined $300 (equivalent to $9,050 in today's dollars), but he did not receive a prison sentence. A motion for Brooks' expulsion from the House failed, but he resigned on July 15 in order to permit his constituents to ratify or condemn his conduct via a special election. They re-elected him to office on August 1 and then re-elected to a new term of office later in 1856. But Brooks died unexpectedly from a violent attack of croup on January 27, 1857, just weeks before the March 4 start of the new congressional term.
Keitt was censured by the House and resigned in protest. His constituents reelected him to his seat within a month. In 1858, he attempted to choke Representative Galusha Grow of Pennsylvania, a Republican, during an argument on the House floor. An effort to censure Edmundson failed to obtain a majority of votes in the House.
In the 1856 elections, the new Republican Party made gains in Congress by campaigning on the theme of "Bleeding Kansas" and "Bleeding Sumner." Both events cost Democrats heavily in the north. Republican Presidential candidate John C. Fremont made a strong showing in the election. Though Democrat James Buchanan won the presidential election, Republicans made major gains in elections for the state legislatures, which enabled them to make gains in the U.S. Senate elections, because senators were chosen by the state legislatures. The violence in Kansas and the beating of Sumner helped the Republicans unite as a party, which would set the stage for their victory in the 1860 presidential election.